sinking of
the nine great caissons supporting the central portion of the building,
extending to rock at a depth of 120 feet below the ground level, and for
the construction of the basement structure, were successively awarded in
December, 1920 and August, 1921. In August, 1930, in spite of the
prevailing economic crisis, and during a period of unemployment
unparalleled in American history, another contract, with twenty-four
additional sub-contracts, for the erection of the superstructure was
placed, and the work completed by May 1, 1931, on which day the first
devotional service in the new structure was celebrated, coinciding with
the 19th anniversary of the dedication of the grounds by 'Abdu'l-Baha. The
ornamentation of the dome was started in June, 1932 and finished in
January, 1934. The ornamentation of the clerestory was completed in July,
1935, and that of the gallery unit below it in November, 1938. The
mainstory ornamentation was, despite the outbreak of the present war,
undertaken in April, 1940, and completed in July, 1942; whilst the
eighteen circular steps were placed in position by December, 1942,
seventeen months in advance of the centenary celebration of the Faith, by
which time the exterior of the Temple was scheduled to be finished, and
forty years after the petition of the Chicago believers had been submitted
to and granted by 'Abdu'l-Baha.

This unique edifice, the first fruit of a slowly maturing Administrative
Order, the noblest structure reared in the first Baha'i century, and the
symbol and precursor of a future world civilization, is situated in the
heart of the North American continent, on the western shore of Lake
Michigan, and is surrounded by its own grounds comprising a little less
than seven acres. It has been financed, at cost of over a million dollars,
by the American Baha'i community, assisted at times by voluntary
contributions of recognized believers in East and West, of Christian, of
Muslim, of Jewish, of Zoroastrian, of Hindu and Buddhist extraction. It
has been associated, in its initial phase, with 'Abdu'l-Baha, and in the
concluding stages of its construction with the memory of the Greatest Holy
Leaf, the Purest Branch, and their mother. The structure itself is a pure
white nonagonal building, of original and unique design, rising from a
flight of white stairs encircling its base; and surmounted by a majestic
and beautifully proportioned dome, bearing nine tapering symmetrically
pl