Mashrak-el-Azkar: Descriptive of the Bahai Temple and Illustrative of an Exhibition of Preliminary Designs for the First Mashrak-el-Azkar to be Built in America

Charles Mason Remey (1874-1974) was the son of Admiral George Collier Remey and grew up in Washington DC, at 1527 New Hampshire Ave NW, which is now the home of Westphalia Press, the Policy Studies Organization, and of the American Political Science Association. He drew detailed plans and did a survey of the house, which are deposited in the Library of Congress. He studied to be an architect at Cornell (1893-1896) and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris (1896-1903), where he learned about the Baha'i faith, and quickly adopted it. In 1903, Remey returned to Washington, DC, and wrote numerous works on Baha'i theology and practices. He spent much of his time traveling to teach and discuss the Baha'i faith, and at the same time developing architectural plans, with the occasional class taught at George Washington University. Remey wrote extensively, and his papers are held at the National Baha'i Archives, the New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, Princeton University, Yale University, and the Iowa Historical Society.