History of the Bahá’í Faith in Los Angeles

We know the date and place when the word, Bahá’í, was first mentioned on the North American continent.

It was September 1893 at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago. We also know the date and place the first American joined the Bahá’í Faith.

It was two years later in 1895, also in Chicago. But we don’t really know when the first Bahá’ís arrived in Los Angeles.

There were already around 30 Bahá’ís in the L.A. area when Thornton Chase, the first American Bahá’í, moved here in 1909.

Before he died in 1912, Thornton Chase helped form the first Bahá’í consultative body in Los Angeles.

From his home in Palestine, `Abdu’l-Bahá, the son of the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, travelled to the West and visited California in October 1912.

When He heard the news of the passing of Mr. Chase, He took the night train from San Francisco to L.A. especially to visit his grave site.

Every year around the anniversary date of his death, the Bahá’ís gather to say prayers at the grave site of Thornton Chase in Inglewood.

In 1979, the Spiritual Assembly signed a mortgage to buy the current property at 5755 Rodeo Road in Baldwin Hills.

This center was a make-over from a bowling alley, to this day known to old-timers in the neighborhood as Rodeo Bowl.

After the official dedication of the L.A. Bahá’í Center attended by then Mayor Tom Bradley, we opened the Unity Center next door, marking a significant step in efforts to outreach to the local neighborhood, including a series of charter schools that have operated there.

In 1992, riots erupted in South-Central L.A. following the acquittal of four police officers charged in the beating of Rodney King.

Fires spread west to Baldwin Hills and the 7-Eleven next door to the Bahá’í Center was burned to the ground.

The Bahá’í Center was saved thanks to our African-American neighbors who protected the building.

In the wake of the riots, the Bahá’ís volunteered hundreds of hours in the clean-up process.

Other Bahá’ís in the mental health field volunteered their service to counsel young people in the neighborhood traumatized by the experience.

Out of that service, a free afterschool program for neighborhood children was created called The Children’s Enrichment Program (later named LEAP for Learning, Education and Arts Program).

The afterschool program ran continuously for 21 years.

Like smaller Bahá’í communities around the world, the believers in Los Angeles gathered together in one another’s homes for devotions and religious meetings.

At some point in the 1920s, the Bahá’ís began leasing space at the Halliburton Building at 1709 West 8th Street in downtown L.A.

They rented Room 207 (at the rate of 50 dollars a month) for meetings and Bahá’í classes.

For larger programs and holy days, they rented a much larger room in the same building called “West Hall.” ¹

Compared to surrounding communities of the day, the L.A. Bahá’í community had many believers.

Mrs. Beulah Lewis, who was close friends with Carol Lombard, taught the film star all about the new religion.

Carole Lombard became a Bahá’í in April 1938. Mrs. Lewis even held Bahá’í classes in Lombard’s home.

Sadly, Carole Lombard passed away in a plane crash in 1942.

Her mother, Elizabeth Knight Peters, who had become a Bahá’í through Mrs. Orol Platt, also died in the accident with her daughter.¹

In August 1944, the landlord at the Halliburton Building raised the rent to 65 dollars a month and the Spiritual Assembly began to think about making a change.

Two years later they purchased a large residential property at 331 So. New Hampshire Avenue, near 3rd and Vermont.

The property was a large house built in 1923.

The large garage in the rear was converted into a youth center and Bahá’í young people would hold their meetings there.

The New Hampshire center was used for around 22 years until it was sold to a developer for a good price.

At almost exactly the same time a man named Carlin joined the Bahá’í Faith and donated his interest in a commercial building located at 9701 West Pico Blvd.

The community moved into this new property in February of 1968.

By this time, the Bahá’ís in Los Angeles numbered around 468 members.

Prominent Bahá’ís would visit the center on their way to other parts of the world, stopping by to give a talk on some aspect of the Bahá’í Faith.

Under the tutelage of Oscar and Freddie DeGruy, the Bahá’í Youth Workshop formed in the 1970s.

This activity became so successful that other youth workshops sprang up in other parts of California, eventually spreading across the country and even around the world.

In 1999, the Bahá’ís of Los Angeles took possession of a new property located in Encino which serves as a Bahá’í Community Center.

From New Hampshire Avenue, to Pico Boulevard, to Rodeo Road, the Los Angeles Bahá’í Community has continued to grow in size and material resources as we try our best to manifest the spiritual principles of our religion.

Today, the Los Angeles Bahá’í community numbers around 3,000 members, a hundred times what it was when Thornton Chase moved here in 1909.