Letters of a Traveling Architect

He was one of the first to take an international flight. He had dinner with a Count and Countess who fled the Russian Revolution. He had an audience with Pope Pius XI and saw Benito Mussolini just days later. Despite all of this, he remained unknown...until now.

Levi Alphonse Geniesse was an architect with a dream to design his own cathedral. In 1925, he recorded his travels through Europe and Northern Africa in his letters to loved ones and a pocket-sized travel journal.

October 24, 1925

＂This begins a series of notes of a great adventure. To plan for years a study tour of Europe and at last to find myself miles from shore bound for the ＂Old Country＂ of my grandfather’s stories seems too true for me to realize at present.

I am hoping this trip is more than educational. I hope it results in my having two life long friends. I hope it helps me to find myself, to definitely decide in what manner the rest of my life is to be spent. To study church architecture is my main objective but to appreciate the spirit which resulted in noble monuments to God is my desire.＂

One hurdle impacted his plans: Chloe Wells, whose Presbyterian upbringing countered Levi’s Catholic beliefs. What will become of their relationship as he makes this once-in-a-lifetime journey in the years between the World Wars?