Meher Baba visited the United States capitol 3 times.

The first visit was on 30th July 1956.

The second occassion was on the 17th May 1958 & again on the 30th May 1958.

Washington National Airport DC.

1956  TOUR

In Mid July 1956 Meher Baba and four of his men mandali ( close ones ) departed on a months circumnavigation  of the globe. They departed Bombay ( Mumbai ) by plane landing briefly at Damascus and Beirut Airports then onto Zurich and London. They then flew to New York NY, Richmond V.,Wilmington NC, Myrtle Beach SC, Washington DC., Dallas/Ft. Worth TX, Los Angeles-Meher Mount-Ojai-San Francisco CA., then to Honolulu, (Hawaii Is ), Kroton Is, Suva,( Fiji ), Sydney, Melbourne & Darwin, Australia, then onto Singapore and back to Bombay in mid August.

On July 30, 1956, Meher Baba and his men mandali who were accompanying him flew to Washington, DC, to visit the then home of Murshida Ivy Duce the confirmed head of Sufism Reoriented by Meher Baba.

The visiting party only stayed a few hours and continued their flight journey to California, staying a while and then onto Australia, the first visit to that continent in recorded history by the Avatar.

Whilst at the Duce's home, a series of photos were taken by Harold “Buddy” Chase Davis ( Chase Studios ) a professional photographer from Washington, DC.

Click on maps to enlarge

Murshida Ivy Duce's home :

3201 Woodland Drive, NW. Washington

Built in 1928

This house was demolished in the mid-2010s

Photos by Chase Studios. Harold “Buddy” Chase Davis took them at the Duce home.

Lawrence "Hermes" Reiter bought the negatives and David Fenster now owns these photos.

ASSORTED ARTISTS

1958  TOUR

Please note that there isn't any evidence that this is the type of plane that Baba flew on. It's purely speculation that he flew either the plane above or a much earlier version - the Douglas DC4

ROUTE TIMETABLE

17th May 1958

Arrived    :   New York City      9:30 am ( from Gander, Canada )

Departed :   New York City     10:50 am  on National Airlines flight 325   

1st stop   :   Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

2nd stop  :   Washington D.C.

3rd stop   :   Richmond, Virginia   

4th stop   :   New Bern, North Carolina

5th stop   :   Wilmington, North Carolina     Arrived  : 3:30pm  - then motored to Myrtle Beach

                                                                                                          along Highway 17.

Arrived    :    Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

ROUTE TIMETABLE

30th May 1958

Departed :   Myrtle Beach     5:30 am  - then motored to Wilmington along Highway 17.

Arrived    :   Wilmington, N.C.  7:30 am

Departed :   Wilmington, N.C.   8:30 am   on National Airlines Flight 326 

1st stop   :   New Bern, N.C.

2nd stop  :   Norfolk, Virginia

3rd stop   :  

Arrived    :   Washington D.C. 11:00 am

Meher Baba stayed at the D.C. airport and changed plane at 1:00 pm to fly TWA Flight 47 to Los Angeles, California - arriving at 6:30 pm.

Again, he changed planes to TWA 77 at 6:60 pm. flying to San Francisco arr. 8:40 pm.

Baba and his men Mandali were then driven an hour out to Kentfield, arr. 10 pm. They stayed the night and flew out to Australia the next morning 31st May.