One incident was the establishment of the Day of Thornton Chase as a memorial anniversary. Chase is the first American Bahai to be canonized. Abdul Baha visited his grave at Los Angeles, and ordained a saint's day in the Bahai calendar, October 19th. He said:[625] "This revered personage was the first Bahai believer in America. He served the cause faithfully and his services will be ever remembered throughout ages and cycles."[626] "He was of the blessed souls.... He witnessed the light of the kingdom of Abha and wrote proofs and evidences of the Manifestation." Thornton Chase certainly had a surprising faith in Abdul Baha. A special event was the dedication of the grounds of the Bahai Temple, the Mashrak-ul-Azkar (the Dawning-place of Praises). This took place in the midst of the Rizwan Feast, on May 1, 1912, in the presence of the Bahai Temple Unity composed of delegates from all the "spiritual assemblies" in America, convened in its fourth annual convention. A site of five acres has been purchased in the village of Willmette, a suburb of Chicago. Abdul Baha, using a golden trowel, broke ground and others of the different races, who were present, used picks and shovels and prepared a place into which Abdul Baha put a stone. He said: "The mystery of this building is great. It cannot be unveiled yet, but its erection is the most important undertaking of this day. This Temple of God in Chicago will be to the spiritual body of the world what the inrush of the spirit is to the physical body of man, quickening it to its utmost parts and infusing a new light and power.... Its results and fruits are endless." Of the structure he said: "The Mashrak-ul-Azkar will be like a beautiful bouquet. The central lofty edifice will have nine sides, surrounded by nine avenues interlacing nine gardens where nine fountains will play. There will be nine gateways and columns, with nine arches and nine arched windows and nine caissons nine feet in diameter. Nine will also be carried out in the galleries and dome. Further, its meetings are to be held on the ninth of each month."[627] Thus the Bahai sacred number will be exhibited everywhere. "Behold!" exclaims the Bahai reporter. "What a priceless piece of ground is this site, dedicated by the hands of the Orb of the Covenant and blessed by his holy feet."[628] But in another place Abdul Baha urges them to hasten the completion of the building, complaining[629] "America has not been working enough for it." "Money comes slowly," says the treasurer; "pledges were tremendous--as big as our eyes saw at the time and afterwards we could collect[630] only a small proportion." After six years of strenuous pleading and effort, they have paid for the ground. The ladies evidently preferred to spend their money in jaunts to Acca, with Paris and Cairo en route, rather than to put up an extravagant temple in Chicago for 200 people who are scattered in that city--a temple in which the believers in New York and Los Angeles may never