The earliest intentional wave of Muslim immigration into the United States happened in the 1870s, but the first mosques would not be established for many decades. Today’s mosques number in the thousands (2,769 mosques reported in the 2020 U.S. Mosque Survey), the majority of which were built in only the last thirty years.

Because there is no definitive consensus on what defines the earliest mosque, there is no definitive consensus on when and where the first American mosque was built. Nevertheless, these are five important placeholders in the relatively short history of today’s American mosque.

America’s First Mosque

Unnamed
Dates of Service: 1915–unknown
Location: Biddeford, Maine

This unnamed mosque was established by Albanian Muslims in Biddeford, Maine. Although Bosnian Muslims in Chicago were likely the first to establish a Muslim society in the United States, they congregated and met for prayers mainly in their homes. Maine’s Albanian community is therefore credited with establishing the first mosque, which existed in the Pepperell Counting House factory and to which they added a Muslim cemetery that is still in existence today. The Albanian community continued to grow and establish mosques elsewhere, but their first mosque has since been lost to time.

America’s First Purpose-Built Mosque

Highland Park Mosque
Dates of Service: 1921–1926
Location: Highland Park, Michigan

The Highland Park Mosque was built meters from Henry Ford’s famous Model T manufacturing plant in Highland Park, just outside of Detroit. It is said that three Syrian brothers who immigrated to the United States in 1912 moved to Detroit after learning about job opportunities with higher wages at the Ford plant. One of the brothers was drawn to real estate development after recognizing Detroit’s potential to grow into a commercial hub and with his own funds built this Highland Park mosque. It was initially celebrated as a centerpoint for Detroit’s growing Sunni, Shia, and Ahmadi communities. However, internal divisions and environmental challenges, such as noise and “garish” advertisements and incessant traffic, led to turmoil and the mosque was sold to the city of Highland Park in 1926, just five years after it was built. The structure now serves as office space for a mechanical contractor.

See:
Detroit Free Press newspaper article from January 11, 1921, on the new mosque in Highland Park (source)
Mosque advertisement from 1921 (source)
Detroit Free Press newspaper article from April 20, 1924, describing internal divisions, “melancholy” (source)

America’s Oldest Existing Mosque

Al-Sadiq Mosque
Dates of Service: 1922–present
Location: Chicago, Illinois

The Al-Sadiq Mosque was established by Ahmadi missionary Muhammad Sadiq and funded by African American converts in the historic Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. It was initially converted into a mosque from an existing building. The mosque served as the official headquarters for the country’s Ahmadiyyah Muslim Community until 1950, and it remains today as a vital institution among the city’s diverse Ahmadi population. Little is documented about the mosque’s history and it remains unclear when the mosque underwent renovation. It is necessary to mention that Ahmadiyyah institutions are frequently excluded from mainstream surveys of American mosques which might explain why this mosque is not popularly credited as the oldest American mosque still in existence.

America’s Popular First Mosque

Ross Mosque
Dates of Service: 1929–1979, rebuilt 2005
Location: Ross, North Dakota

It is widely, though incorrectly, believed that the mosque in Ross, North Dakota, is the oldest mosque in the country. Nevertheless, it is included in this short list because of its popularity and unique story. Syrian Muslim homesteaders arrived to North Dakota in the very late 1800s and are credited with hosting the first ever documented congregational prayer in the country in 1900. The small community funded and built the mosque by hand in 1929 where it stood until it was demolished in 1979. It is unclear why it was demolished: some sources point to a dwindling Muslim population, others point to it falling into a state of disrepair, and still others suggest it was a consequence of souring race relations. Founding families teamed up with a local Christian community to collect funds and rebuild the mosque in 2005. Today, it is a simple stone room, built almost entirely with cinderblocks, alongside a Muslim cemetery with headstones displaying the names and birthdates of the mosque’s founders. It is featured, albeit inaccurately, in Atlas Obscura as the country’s first mosque.

America’s Oldest Existing Purpose-Built Mosque

Islamic Cultural and Heritage Center (The “Mother Mosque of America”)
Dates of Service: 1934–present
Location: Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Construction of the “Mother Mosque of America” was completed in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in early 1934. A decade earlier, in 1925, a small group of men calling themselves “The Rose of Fraternity Lodge” rented a space and spent years drafting plans for a future mosque that would also serve as a site for social gatherings. The planners hosted fundraisers in nearby cities and later recruited community members to build the mosque. The mosque successfully drew in Muslims in the following years, but by 1971, the community was so large that it was forced to sell the mosque and build a larger one. The original mosque fell into a state of disrepair but was repurchased and renovated in 1991 by the Islamic Council of Iowa which recognized its legacy in the history of Muslim America. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1996 as “Moslem Temple”, and the National Park Service (NPS) describes it as the first building “designed and constructed as a house of worship for Muslims in America”. The NPS, however, misidentifies it as “the oldest surviving place of worship”, a description that is more apt for the 1922-built Al-Sadiq Mosque. It now serves as a museum and community gathering site.

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This is not a list of the five oldest mosques in the United States; many other mosques were built during this span of time. Additionally, much of the confusion surrounding the country’s first mosques can be attributed to the special attention focused on Arab Muslim immigrants who were popularly seen as ambassadors for the growing Muslim community. This meant that European and Southeast Asian immigrants and African American converts were frequently ignored, and so were their accomplishments and legacies. It is with the greatest of hope that this list will do these diverse groups of early Muslims justice by properly recording their contributions to Islam in America and to mosques as a religious and cultural icon.

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