San Diego, California

San Diego
City in the United States
San Diego Bahá’í Center
Location of San Diego
History: Firsts
-	Local Assembly	1920
How to contact:
-	Phone	858 268 3999
-	Email	Contact form
-	Address	6545 Alcala Knolls Drive San Diego, California 92111
-	State	California
-	Country	United States
Official Website		https://www.sandiegobahai.org/
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San Diego is a city in the U.S. state of California. It is the second largest city in the state and the eighth largest in the country.

History

As of March 1910 there were no known Bahá’ís in San Diego. That year Lua Getsinger and Dr. Ameen Fareed visited the city with three other Bahá’ís during a teaching tour of California undertaken on the instructions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. They were able to hold meetings in the homes of some prominent citizens, at some men's clubs, and at a public hall, and upon their departure there was a group of Bahá’ís in the La Jolla neighborhood.

As of 1917 Helen Goodall was living in San Diego and that year she was elected as a delegate to represent the city at the Bahá’í National Convention. In 1920 Louise Waite spent time in San Diego and helped the community establish a Board, which was the term used for the body responsible for administrating the community as the term Local Spiritual Assembly was not yet the standard, and she received a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá while in the city.

In October 1935 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles sponsored a Bahá’í Day which was held at the California International Exposition held in San Diego which was attended by approximately 1,500 people, and as of 1936 a Bahá’í study class was being held in San Diego. In 1937 Corinne True spent the winter in La Jolla with her daughters Edna and Katherine and Lillian Fenn where they facilitated study classes in La Jolla and San Diego proper. In 1938 Catherine Hall of San Diego had pictures of the Wilmette Temple published with accompanying articles about the Faith in seven newspapers in San Diego and Ocean Beach. As of 1939 San Diego had an organized Bahá’í Group rather than an Assembly with only five Bahá’ís living in the city.

In 1941 four people became Bahá’ís in San Diego, and there was another declaration in January 1942. In 1943 there were two declarations in San Diego, and as of 1943 a Local Spiritual Assembly of San Diego had been re-established.

In 1952 a Bahá’í teaching event was attended by eighty people, and in 1953 the Local Spiritual Assembly was incorporated and the city of Chula Vista, which the San Diego community had been given responsibility for teaching in, established a Local Spiritual Assembly. In 1954 an Area Teaching Conference was held in the city, and in 1957 the Bahá’í community held a World Religion Day event at a Unitarian Church at which representatives of various religions spoke.

In 1963 a Councilman of San Diego presented Bahá’í Dwight Allen with a key to the city, and during the year the Bahá’ís of San Diego sponsored booths at the Southern California Exposition and San Diego County Fair. In 1964 Hand of the Cause William Sears held a meeting in San Diego to stimulate the community to pursue the goals of the Nine Year Plan, and in 1966 the San Diego Bahá’ís held an inter-religious conference on the moral power for peace, the first of its kind held in the city.