St. George’s United Methodist Church was built in 1763 as a Dutch Reformed Churchq2. A few years later, Captain Thomas Webb bought it for the local Methodist Society. In its early days, St. George’s was a key site for the development of the American Methodist community. An on-site museum tells of the church’s history and some artifacts dating to the 1790s are still used in services today.

Until it was purchased by the U.S. in 1867, Alaska was a Russian territory. The Russian Orthodox religion was introduced to the territory at St. Michael’s Russian Orthodox Cathedral in 1848. After the Alaska Purchase, St. Michael’s in Sitka came under the control of the Diocese of Alaska. The original building was destroyed by fire in 1966 and a replica now stands in its place.

Built in 1681, the Old Ship Church in Hingham, Massachusetts, is the nation’s only surviving example of a Puritan meeting house. Historians are unsure how the building acquired its name, but some have suggested that the unusual roof looks like the hull of a ship. The building is a National Historic Landmark and now home to a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

The Crystal Cathedral was one of the country’s first megachurches. The all-glass church was designed by Philip Johnson in the 1970s as a place of worship for the Garden Grove Community Church, founded by televangelism pioneer Robert Schuller. In 2012, after filing for bankruptcy, the church sold the building to the local Catholic Diocese.

There are eight Baha’i temples around the world, and the only one in North America is the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, a suburb north of Chicago. It was designed by Canadian architect Louis Bourgeois in the 1920s and finally opened its doors in 1953. Like all Baha’i temples, the building is nine-sided, as the number nine is believed to have mystical qualities. Nine gardens also surround the temple.

The Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming is one of the largest surviving medicine wheels in North America. It is part of the Medicine Mountain National Historical Landmark, which covers more than 4,000 acres. Although historians do not know the exact age of the Bighorn Medicine Wheel, locally found artifacts suggest that the site has been used for almost 7,000 years. It remains a sacred site for Native American ceremonies.

The Cadet Chapel at the United States Air Force Academy opened in 1963 in Colorado Springs. Inside it are three separate chapels for members of the Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths. Built entirely from aluminum, glass, and steel, its 17 spires are said to resemble the wings of fighter jets. Although originally controversial, the chapel is now a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

A mandir is a Hindu temple, and the largest mandir outside India is in Robbinsville, New Jersey. Construction of the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir began in 2010 and is still ongoing today. The main building is made of Italian marble, carved by hand in Rajasthan before being shipped to the U.S. The temple features 98 pillars representing key Hindu leaders; other ornate carvings include 236 peacocks and 91 elephants.

A pipe organ can provide a sound like no other during a church service. The world’s largest church organ is housed at the Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. The chapel organ was first installed in 1911; since then it has grown from 2,400 pipes to approximately 23,500 today.

The Palace of Gold in rural West Virginia was originally planned as a home for Srila Prabhupada, a leader of the Hare Krishna religion. When he died before its completion, his followers decided to make it a memorial, which opened in 1979. The building, covered in 22-karat gold, contains marble floors and stained glass windows.

Businessman and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller first conceived the idea of the Riverside Church in the 1920s, and the church held its first service in 1930. Its 392-foot tower (equivalent to 20 stories) is the tallest church tower in the U.S. and one of the tallest in the world. As well as housing the bells, the tower also has a number of offices and meeting rooms.

Noted American architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed more than 1,000 buildings in his career, including many houses of worship. The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, opened in 1961, two years after Wright passed away. He nicknamed the design his “little jewel” and based it on Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. The church features a 104-foot-wide dome and Byzantine-influenced interiors.

Sikhism was founded in the Punjab region of India in the 15th century, and its members worship at a temple called a gurdwara. The largest such temple in the United States is the Sikh Gurdwara Sahib, which was founded in 1984 in San Jose, California, and measures 90,000 square feet. It is the second-largest in the world, after the Golden Temple in India.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joined his father, Rev. Martin Luther King Sr., as co-pastor of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1960, and it was here that he delivered his first sermon on his way to becoming a civil rights leader. The church was founded in 1886 with 13 congregants. As of 2023, Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock leads the congregation of more than 6,000.

The Islamic Center of America was founded in 1963 to support the country’s growing Muslim community. The Center’s current mosque in Dearborn, Michigan, opened in 2005 and is the largest in the country. The building — which takes its inspiration from mosques in Turkey and the Middle East — covers 65,000 square feet and includes a carved stone exterior and fiberglass dome.

The nation’s oldest Jewish congregation is based in New York City, but its oldest synagogue is located in Newport, Rhode Island. In the 17th century, a small group of Jewish immigrants arrived in Newport from Barbados and formed a congregation, opening the Touro Synagogue in 1763. The synagogue is a National Historic Site and is still in use today.

The Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France, more familiarly known as the St. Louis Cathedral, is one of New Orleans’ most famous landmarks. The first church opened at this site in 1727 but was destroyed by fire in 1788. The current structure was dedicated on Christmas Eve in 1794, making it the oldest continually operating Catholic cathedral in the nation.

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, simply known as the National Shrine, is the largest Catholic place of worship in the United States. Plans for such a shrine first began to form in the mid-19th century, but it wasn’t until 1920 that the foundation was laid. Four years later, the first public mass was held on Easter Sunday.

Salt Lake City is the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints, more familiarly known as the Mormon Church. Brigham Young broke ground on the Salt Lake Temple in 1853, and it opened to worshippers in 1893. Today the Salt Lake Temple is an imposing structure, covering 253,015 square feet, and stands in the heart of Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City.

While the oldest church in the United States is the Cathedral of San Juan Bautista, in Puerto Rico, the oldest within the 50 states is the San Miguel Chapel in New Mexico. Historical documents indicate that the chapel was built in Santa Fe 1628; however, there are claims that construction began as early as 1610. Mass is still held in the church once a month.