Aimee Semple McPherson's Little Home in LA

It was New Year's Day, 1923. Since first light, throngs of Angelenos had been streaming into the once sleepy neighborhood of Echo Park. By noon they were several thousand strong, singing spontaneous hymns as they took over the intersection of Park Avenue and Glendale Boulevard. They spilled into the green expanse of Echo Park Lake. At 2:30, an excited hush fell over the crowd as a woman in white fell to her knees and read the prayer of Solomon. Behind her was a new, massive domed building that looked like a theater but was in fact a temple. Her temple. The temple that would completely change its neighborhood. As the glass doors were flung open to the public for the first time, a reporter managed to ask the woman how she was feeling. She replied, "Today is the happiest day of my entire life. I can hardly believe that this great temple has been built for me!"

That woman was Aimee Semple McPherson. Born in Ontario, Canada in 1890, the only daughter of James, a successful farmer, and Minnie, a Salvation Army officer, Aimee was steeped in religion from birth. She converted to the Pentecostal faith when she fell in love with her first husband, Robert, an itinerant Irish preacher. They went to China as missionaries, but he soon died, and after a second marriage to a conventional businessman, Aimee had a nervous breakdown. In 1915, she took her two young children and left the marriage, determined to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. For the next few years, Aimee, called "Sister" by her followers, traveled around the eastern United States by car, holding tent revival meetings. She quickly became known for her theatrical sermons, for her raucous services full of dancing and speaking in tongues, and, most importantly, for her alleged healing powers.