Mirza Asadu'llah was the first to undertake the organization of a local House of Justice in Iran. He took the initiative to invite eight other prominent believers to form a body, responding to the laws of the Kitáb-i Aqdas , which they referred to as bayt al-'adl (House of Justice) or bayt al-a'zam (the Most Great House).

The organization of this first House of Justice was kept a secret, even from the believers. However, it met sporadically in the home of Mirza Asadu'llah for a couple of years. After consulting with this body, the prominent Bahá'í men who had been invited to attend its meetings would seek to take action as individual Bahá'í teachers that would implement its decisions.

Around 1881, the Tehran House of Justice was reorganized and more members were added. The House adopted a written constitution and pursued its activities with more organization and vigour than before. The constitution mandated, however, that the meetings remain strictly confidential, hidden from the body of the believers. [The Service of Women on the Institutions of the Baha'i Faith]

Only days after the election of the Chicago House of Justice, a Ladies' Auxilliary Board was organized at the suggestion of Mrs. Ella Nash and Mrs. Corinne True. This Board was later to be known as the Women's Assembly of Teaching. It appears that the Ladies' Auxilliary was able to maintain control of the funds of the Chicago Bahá'í community despite the election of the House of Justice.[The Service of Women on the Institutions of the Baha'i Faith]

The first local spiritual assembly in Brazil was established in Bahia, with the assistance of Leonora Holsapple Armstrong.
• The second Local Spiritual Assembly was formed in Rio de Janeiro and, in 1946 the third, in São Paulo. [Biographical Profile]

The first local spiritual assembly in Cuba was established in Havana. [One Country Issue 1 Vol 17 Apr-Jun 2008]
• A loose organization had been formed in 1940.

Pioneers began to arrive in Libya;
• Mustapha Salem arrived in July and settled in Tripoli, [BN No 272 October 1953 p9}
• Asia and Feridon Zein and their two children settled in Benghazi, [BN No 272 October 1953 p9}
• Rizvaniyyih Iqrari pioneered to Benghazi, Libya on 10 September,
• Mohsen Enayat pioneered within Libya from Tripoli to Feezan on the 26th of September,
  • SeeSETPE2 p63-66 for an account of Moshen's stay during which he was able to reach two provincial ministers including the Minister of Finance. He was forced to leave by the government after 10 months but was able to recruit Foad Rushdy from Egypt to replace him.
• Mr. and Mrs. Ne'mat 'Abdu'l Wahid and Mr. Wahid's sister-in-law arrived in Tripoli, Libya in late September. [BN No 273 November 1953 p12-13]
• Mrs. Laura Kelsey Allen arrived in Tripoli, September 3, 1953. [BN No 280 June 1954 p9]
• As a result a Local Spiritual Assembly was formed in Benghazi in 1953 and in November of the same year in Tripoli. . [BN No 274 December 1953 p2; BN No 280 June 1954 p10]

The first local spiritual assembly in Vietnam was formed at Saigon-Cholon (Cholon is the Chinese section of Saigon). [BN No 293 July 1955 p5; Bahá'í Religion in Community Education in Vietnam by Vu Van Chung]
• This body was also the first local assembly to be formed in Indochina.

The first local spiritual assembly in Iceland was formed in Reykjavik. Its members were Asgeir Einarsson, Kirsten Bonnevie, Florence Grindlay, Jessie Echevarria, Carl John Spencer, Charles Grindlay, Liesel Becker, Barbel Thinat and Nicholas Echevarria. [Bahá'í News No 417 10 December 1965 p10]
• See Bahá'í Historical Facts for a photo.

For a picture of this first Local Spiritual Assembly see the for the National Community.

The first local spiritual assembly since the second world war in Eastern Europe was elected on 21 March 1990 in Cluj, Romania. [100 Years of the Bahá'í Faith in Europe by Seena Fazel and Graham Hassall]
• Counsellor Don Rogers represented the International Teaching Centre.

They said that this process had been approved and adopted over the two previous years. [Paragraph 32]

The second local spiritual assembly in Canada was elected in Vancouver. [OBCC125]
• Those elected were: George Monroe (chair), Stanley Kemp (tres.), Evelyn Kemp (sec'y), Rhoda Harvey, Thursa Murwood-Clark, Christina Monroe, Isobel Seifert, Florence Sherborne, and Katherine Warnicker. [OBCC130]

The first Spiritual Assembly was formed in Winnipeg, the eighth in Canada. Members were: Beth Brooks, Ernest Court, Rowland Estall, Sylvia King, Sigrun Lindal, Ernest Marsh, Stella Pollexfen, Helen Poissant, and Lillian Tomlinson (later Prosser). [OBCC227]
• Lillian Tomlinson (later Prosser) had been the first Winnipeg resident to become a Bahá'í. [Bloodworth, Grains of Wheat p10]

As of this date the Edmonton Bahá'í Community had formed a Spiritual Assembly, the ninth Local Spiritual Assembly in Canada. It was composed entirely of women. [OBCC217; Edmonton Bahá'í History]
• "Their two goals were to gain male Bahá'ís, and increase membership from ethnic communities, longing to be "a truly international group"

Ted and Joan Anderson arrived in Whitehorse, Canada, and were named Knights of Bahá'u'lláh for the Yukon. The first local spiritual assembly was elected in 1959. When they left in 1972 there were some 400 Bahá'ís in the area. [BW13:457; KoB255263; LynnEchvarria2008p57; CBN No46 Nov 1953 p3]
• The Andersons established an organization called the Indian Advancement Association for Indigenous people, which later was changed to the Native Brotherhood and Yukon Association of Non-status Indians. Many of the early Bahá'ís in the Yukon were Indigenous elders. In addition to contributing to the growth and development of the Bahá'í community in the Yukon, these Bahá'ís also significantly contributed to the revitalization of the Indigenous cultures and language of the Yukon. [NSA website]

• Twenty-two local Spiritual assemblies were formed in Canada. [CBN No 76 May 1956 p6]

The formation of the first Local Spiritual Assembly in the Yukon in Whitehorse. [CBN No 113 June 1959 p10]
• For a photo see CBN No 117 October 1959 p1. Those elected were: Lorne Murphy, Mrs Georgie Hughes, Jerry Brda, Joan Anderson, Erna Henckel, Margaret Brda, Ted Anderson, Ruth Cunliffe, and Glen Hughes.
• At the Jackson Lake Summer School it was resolved to double their numbers by the 3rd annual summer school to be held in September 1960. New Tlingit Bahá'í Sally Jackson proposed that every Bahá'í in the Yukon recite three special prayers each day, the The Tablet of Ahmad the Long Obligatory Prayer and the prayer for Canada. By the time of the summer school they had enrolled eleven new believers and four days later, the twelfth new member, Joseph Smith, the first Tutchone Bahá'í also enrolled. [Native Conversion, Native Identity: An Oral History of the Bahá'í Faith among First Nations People in the Southern Central Yukon Territory, Canada by Carolyn Patterson Sawin p91-92]
• In January 1961 a travel teacher from Alaska, newly declared believer Tlingit Jim Walton, himself a fluent Tlingit speaker was able to introduce a number of First Nations people to the Faith. By the 21st of the month there were 36 new believers for a total of 55 in at least eight localities, Whitehorse, Camp Takhini, Carcross, Marsh Lake, Teslin, Aishihik, Carmacks and Whitehorse Flats, a Native village near Whitehorse. [ibid p94]

Clifford and Catherine Huxtable arrived in the Gulf Islands and were named Knights of Bahá'u'lláh (albeit in 1957 see LNW93). [BW13:457]
• The Gulf Islands were not on the Guardians original list of pioneering goals but in January 1956, after several years of futile efforts to fill the goal of the Anticosti Island the Guardian gat the Canadian National Assembly permission to choose another goal. Mary Zabolotny did manage to fill the Anticosti goal but the Gulf Island goal remained.
• They arrived with personal care worker Bernice Boulding who became a Bahá'í the following year, the first in the Gulf Islands. The first local assembly was formed on the 21st of April, 1964. The couple pioneered to St Helena arriving on the 9th of April, 1964. [KoB273-276]

The first local spiritual assembly in Iceland was formed in Reykjavik. Its members were Asgeir Einarsson, Kirsten Bonnevie, Florence Grindlay, Jessie Echevarria, Carl John Spencer, Charles Grindlay, Liesel Becker, Barbel Thinat and Nicholas Echevarria. [Bahá'í News No 417 10 December 1965 p10]
• See Bahá'í Historical Facts for a photo.

The formation of the first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Hull. In announcing the formation, Mr M. E. Muttart, General Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly stated:
"We feel that it is of particular interest because the majority of the members are French speaking. Following 'Abdu'l-Bahá's exhortation to teach the French-speaking people of Canada our great hope has been to arrive at a more equitable representation from the two main language groups of this country."
• The members were: Marjorie Merrick, Paul Hanbury, Winnifred Harvey, Lucille Leboeuf, Daniel Caillaud, Danielle Coinon, Paule Médori, Michel Larin and Janet Braithwaite. [CBN Issue 242? July 1970 p 9; [from an email 4 November 2022 from National Archivist Ailsa Hedly Leftwich]

The election of the first spiritual assembly in Prince Rupert, BC.
• Elected were: Fletcher Bennett, Robert Lee, Lynn Whitehouse, Elinor Bennett, Joan Kauth, Justine Stenset, Elsie Dryer and Irene Harris. [CBN257April1972p12]
• 92 year old Irene Harris liked to be called "Grandma" because she is" a grandmother to all people, Chinese, Japanese, white people, to everyone". She was the first believer from the Kitwancool Nation. [CBN253Aug-Sep1971p6]

"The first new Spiritual Assembly since Ridván this year was formed in Hull-Ouest, Québec, on July 9. The National Spiritual Assembly warmly commended them on this victory of "establishing a new pillar of the Cause in so important a region of the country." The inaugural members were: Denys Laurin, Yves Charbonneau, Pierre Dagenais, Martel L.F. Piché, Jean-Guy Galipeau, Bill Lemmon, Phoebe Anne Lemmon, Robert Chaffers, Kaye Chaffers. [CBN Issue 306 July 1977 p11; from an email 4 November 2022 from National Archivist Ailsa Hedly Leftwich]
• The assembly area is now known as Chelsea. Chelsea was named after the Vermont town of its first settler, Thomas Brigham, who was a partner and son-in-law of Philemon Wright and arrived there in 1819. The name has been in use since the early 19th century: Old Chelsea (1819), Parish Saint-Stephen-of-Chelsea (1835), Chelsea (circa 1870). In 1875, the municipality was established as Hull-Partie-Ouest, or commonly referred to as West Hull. The municipality was renamed to its current name in 1990. [Wikipedia]

The Universal House of Justice has decided that during the last year of the Five Year Plan, i.e. from April 21, 1978 until April 20, 1979 inclusive, Local Spiritual Assemblies being established for the first time, as well as lapsed Assemblies which achieve adequate strength to regain their Assembly status, may be formed at any time during that year. This means that Local Assemblie: formed at Ridvan 1979 will not be counted towards the fulfilment of the goals of the Five Year Plan. [CBN No 314 May 1978 p 4]

As of the 26th of June, 1978, the total number of local spiritual assemblies in Canada were 229. Indications were that the formation of an Assembly in Stratford, ON was imminent. [CBN No 315 June/July 1978 p5]

The formation of the Spiritual Assembly of LaPêche, QC by joint declaration. Members were: Stephen and Leslie Hanks: Roxanne Lalonde; Sandra Briand; Mike and Jen (Litzgus) Sianchuk; Marilee and David Rhody, and Lillian Chaffers. Because Lillian was in the senior's residence in Masham the other members went there and formed the Assembly in her presence. [from an email from David Rhody dated 28 May 2022]
• Note: At Ridván 1993 the Assembly reformed. The members were: Roxanne Lalonde, Marilee Rhody, Mike Sianchuk, Leslie Laskarin-Hanks, Stephen Hanks, Jennifer Litzgus-Sianchuk, Sandra Briand, David Rhody, Daniel O'Connell. [from an email 4 November 2022 from National Archivist Ailsa Hedly Leftwich]