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Marilyn J. Chiat has taught at the University of Minnesota and has lectured extensively on religious art and architecture in America and abroad. Her previous books include America's Religious Architecture: Sacred Places for Every Community and Handbook of Synagogue Architecture. She has also authored encyclopedia entries on churches and synagogues, and written numerous journal articles. She has been a consultant on a number of television and radio programs, including the Emmy-nominated public television series Country Spires.

The Monthly Aspectarian: Marilyn, your book, The Spiritual Traveler, Chicago and Illinois, is fascinating. Tell us about it.

Marilyn Chiat: The book actually grew out of a previous book that was published in 1997 that I wrote at the request of the National Trust for Historic Preservation titled America’s Religious Architecture—Sacred Places for Every Community. Each chapter in the book focused on one of the regions of the U.S. I gave a brief history of the area and then looked at some of the significant and not so significant architecture. Some of the interesting houses of worship in the area told the story of the settlement within the particular state or region. That book was of interest to Paulus Press. One of their editors, who edits an imprint called “Hidden Springs,” contacted me and we talked about doing a series of books. I suggested one on the Great Lakes region. I started my research in Chicago and then in Illinois. I wanted to expand my explorations beyond just buildings. I wanted to include other areas where people can have a spiritual experience outside of the confines of the four walls of a synagogue, church, mosque or temple. That was what ultimately resulted in this book.

TMA: Tell us about some of the outstanding places that you found.

MC: When people think of Illinois, they think of Chicago, they think Abraham Lincoln. They don’t realize how diverse Illinois is, or the city of Chicago. Chicago is a microcosm of the larger macrocosm of Illinois. I found it to be incredibly diverse, with sites that I was astonished that more people weren’t visiting, Native American sites like Dixon Mounds and Cahokia, which I hope your readers know. Cahokia is one of the major sites of the world, and I don’t think people realize it’s in Illinois, right on your western border by St. Louis. Have you ever been there?

TMA: I haven’t.

MC: Oh, my gosh. It’s one of the world’s monuments. When I went to visit that site, there were six other people there. It amazed me. I truly felt a spiritual experience there when I recognized and read the events that occurred in that area. I went to a site in Alton, Illinois, a confederate war memorial that moved me greatly. Again, it was in an out of the way area, a neighborhood, and you had to do a little searching to find it. You come upon this military cemetery, but there are no tombs except for one monument in the center. When I looked at it and read what it said, I recognized that surrounding this beautiful, placid, spiritual green area, were the graves of Confederate and Union soldiers, but primarily Confederate soldiers, who had died in the prisoner of war camp that was there in Alton. Many of these young men, whose names were listed with their home towns, came from Missouri, right across the river. It broke my heart. That, for me, was an amazing spiritual experience.

TMA: In the Chicago area ... anyone who has not been to the Bahai Temple needs to go.

MC: Oh, the Ba’hai Temple. I would assume that anyone who was at all interested in anything in the spiritual area would have made a pilgrimage ...

TMA: Anyone who hasn’t been there has to see it. But what else is there that people may not know about?

MC: How about your amazing cemeteries? Have you been to Graceland?

TMA: Just to go by it.

MC: Don’t just go by it. These are garden cemeteries that came into being in the mid 19th century. It’s a Victorian thing. Up until then, cemeteries were places to be feared, places you only went when you died. But then, in the 19th century, the whole attitude towards death changed and you began to get these gorgeous, beautiful garden cemeteries that are done by some of your finest horticulturists. They manipulate the environment to make it a spiritual space where you want to go and commune with the dead.

TMA: That would coincide with the Spiritualist movement in the last half of the 19th century. That changed a lot of people’s ideas about death.

MC: The Graceland Cemetery is one of the most remarkable examples of that in the U.S. Some of the finest monuments by Louis Sullivan are there. Another one is the Rosehill Cemetery, another amazing garden cemetery established in the mid 19th century. I went to these on more than one occasion, not because I needed to continue doing research, but because I needed some peace and quiet, just sitting at some of these amazing tombs. The environment is so full of a spiritual quality of quietude and beauty. I highly recommend it. Another one, the Bohemian Cemetery—which is not quite a garden cemetery, it’s laid out in nice regular lines—they have a mausoleum that dates back at least one hundred years, with areas where the ashes are stored and that are decorated by the families. You can read the whole history of Chicago there and see the changing styles in art from Victorian to Art Deco to Modern. It is amazing.

TMA: What did you find interesting in the Chicago area that is more contemporary?

MC: Grant Park, Lincoln Park, and the new Millennium Park, which I didn’t get to see completed, unfortunately. When I was writing the book it was still being built. But Grant Park is astonishing if you explore all of the various gardens there. I’m not sure how many people are aware of how much more there is than what they think when they see Grant Park. Right next to the Art Institute, there’s a garden with the fountain of the Great Lakes.

TMA: Those of us who live here take all of this for granted. It’s funny ... I’ve been to Stonehenge, but I haven’t been to Cahokia.

MC: It’s a national historic landmark. In 1982, UNESCO designated Cahokia Mounds a world heritage site for its importance in understanding the prehistory of North America. It’s the largest prehistoric city north of Mexico, and joins an elite group of cultural and natural landmarks that include the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids and the Taj Mahal. If you go there, it will absolutely blow you away. The Dixon Mounds are an interesting story, as well. That was a series of mounds that were discovered by a family and is the greatest collection of prehistoric Indian sites in the country. They’ve made a wonderful interpretive center there as well.

TMA: Aside from the cemeteries, were there any other particular gardens that were spiritually oriented?

MC: Have you ever heard of Dickieville? It’s in Wisconsin, but it’s so easy to get to from Chicago I included it.

TMA: No.

MC: Dickieville is the southwestern corner of Wisconsin, about ten miles north of the Illinois border and it’s a little town of 250 people. This priest built a grotto there. You don’t have to have any faith, but to see what this man did all by hand is absolutely astonishing. He was obsessed with building this grotto. He built it out of native stone, out of glass, out of broken china. He’s got a grotto dedicated to the holy Eucharist, a grotto to the birth of Jesus, a patriotic grotto all done in red, white and blue. If you want to have an experience, that’s the place to go.

Do you know what Coolie-Country is? That’s the area of Illinois and Wisconsin that was never covered by the glacier. It’s very hilly and very interesting. You do know about Blackhawk, the Indian Chief? There’s a lot of incredible sites that tear you apart when you think about what was done to these Native Americans. Illinois was notorious for what it did to its Indian population, chased them all west over the Mississippi River and really cleansed the state of any Native Americans. The Native Americans you have now in Illinois are returnees and not native to the area. You go to places like the Apple River Fort, which is up in Coolie-Country, this was one of the forts that were built for the Blackhawk wars. That was one of the last great uprisings of Native Americans in Illinois and it happened right outside Chicago.

Another is Stillman Valley. This is, again, a little village. There is a granite column that stands in the park area with the figure of an Illinois militiaman. It commemorates the battle that occurred there, the Illinois militiamen against Blackhawk and his warriors. The monument reads: "Here, on May 14, 1832, the first engagement of the Black Hawk War took place, when 275 Illinois militiamen under Maj. Isaiah Stillman were put to flight by Black Hawk and his warriors." Blackhawk defeated them and the militiamen ran for their lives. One of the militiamen who had to come back and pick up the dead bodies was Abraham Lincoln. That’s an incredible site to visit.

Have you ever gone to Nauvoo where the Mormons were? It’s interesting to see how they have reconstructed the city; they’ve even reconstructed the temple there that was destroyed. But outside of the city is a windswept pioneer burial ground that is absolutely awesome. This is not a garden cemetery, it’s just a plain old cemetery. When you start reading the tombstones you realize there was a cholera epidemic there, probably the 1840s or 50s. You have whole families, mothers, fathers, children. One of the stones says “Here sleeps a mother and her child in friendship’s sweetest ties.” There’s a beautiful sculpture that’s recently been put there of a mother, father and children gazing out on the graves.

TMA: Well, this is a labor of love you have here.

MC: I always tell people my vocation is my avocation, it’s my hobby, it’s something I truly enjoy doing and sharing with other people. I found that it awakens people to look around them a little more, to experience their environment, whether built or landscape, venturing off the path well-trodden, opening your eyes for new experiences. I always tell people, you don’t have to be a person of any particular faith to walk into a cemetery, temple, or mosque to experience the spiritual that others have experienced. You don’t have to be a follower of a particular faith to have that experience. You just have to open, to allow yourself to breathe it in. That’s what I’ve done for the last thirty years, opened my mind, my eyes, and allowed myself to venture forth into places where maybe fifty years ago I would have been fearful of going.

TMA: I think your book is a valuable resource.

MC: It is, and if nothing else, I hope that part of what I’m doing is to erase some of the misconceptions and stereotypes that people may have of someone of a different faith. This will allow them to experience it, if they’ve been frightened or turned off. Maybe this will allow them to go once more and be open.

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