Midwest Buddhist Temple, Chicago, Visitor Guide & Things to Do Nearby

The Midwest Buddhist Temple is a Japanese American Buddhist temple on West Menomonee Street in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago. Its congregation began in 1944, when people leaving wartime incarceration camps resettled in the city, and it has stood on this site since 1971. Its bell, rung on Sunday mornings, is part of the sound of the neighborhood.

The story behind it

The temple's first service took place in 1944 on Chicago's South Side. Its founder, Reverend Gyodo Kono, and many of its first members had just spent years in the camps where Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from the West Coast in 1942. When people were allowed to leave the camps, many resettled in Chicago, often in neighborhoods between white and Black communities. Some later returned to the West Coast, while others made the city their permanent home.

The congregation grew out of that resettlement and moved to Old Town in 1971. Since then the temple's ritual bell, tolled on Sunday mornings, has become a familiar background sound for neighbors, much as the bells of nearby St. Michael's Church have.

What to look for

• Look at how the temple sits among the brick rowhouses and churches of Old Town, a quiet reminder that this community was built block by block.
• Notice the entrance and exterior, which set the temple apart from the Victorian and Chicago-style buildings around it.
• On a Sunday morning, listen for the temple bell, which has become part of the neighborhood's soundscape.
• Glance up the street toward the tall spire of St. Michael's Church, which shows how many traditions share these few blocks.

Tips for your visit

• Plan on 10 to 15 minutes to see the exterior and read about its history, longer if you pair it with the surrounding streets.
• This is an active place of worship, so keep your voice low, be respectful of services, and check current opening hours and visitor policies before trying to go inside.
• Sunday morning is when the bell rings, but it is also when the community gathers, so the street may be busier then.
• Old Town's tree-lined streets, St. Michael's Church and the edge of Lincoln Park are all within an easy walk.

See it on a quest

Rats. A Cat's Quest Through Lincoln Park, Chicago is a good way to see the temple as part of the wider area. You reach it on foot as one stop on a longer route, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle based on what is in front of you. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever you like, with no guide and no set departure time.