had moved into the mill house, they rented out the houseboat to film stars, movie-industry people, and on occasion to unnamed royalty. At some point, a Chinese Junk had been brought to the site and moored on the eastern shore. In 1948, McElroy and his wife sold the property to Rene Williams and Joseph M. Gross (an oil company executive) for a reported price exceeding $250,000. Gross and his wife moved into the windmill and made plans to redevelop the site into a resort that included a rambling $2.3 million, 150-room hotel to be constructed around the contour of Lake Santa Ynez. However, one evening Mr. Gross purportedly had a dream reoccur three times, where in the middle of the lake there was a platform adorned with a podium. Here ministers from the "churches of all religions" addressed thousands of attendees with inspirational speeches. When Mr. Gross awoke, he looked up the name "Church of All Religions" in the telephone directory and found the listing for the Self-Realization Fellowship Church of All Religions located in Hollywood. Inspired by this extraordinary coincidence, Gross immediately composed a letter to go out in the next day's mail, which described his dream and included an offer to sell his property. Rather than await a response, on the following day, Gross telephoned the church headquarters and was transferred to Paramahansa Yogananda who mysteriously initiated the conversation before the caller could even introduce himself or state his business: “You have some property for sale, don’t you? When can I see it?”, enquired Sri Yogananda. “But you haven’t received my letter,” replied Mr. Gross. “The letter will come tomorrow morning. Can we meet tomorrow afternoon?”, responded Sri Yogananda. The next day, he visited the site and immediately planned for the establishment of an open-air shrine of all religions. With the support of several benefactors, Paramahansa Yogananda acquired the property in 1949 and constructed a temple, meditation garden, and the Mahatma Gandhi peace memorial. During the months of improvement, Sri Yogananda commuted from the Mount Washington hermitage (whilst spending at least several nights in the houseboat) to supervise the project with a vision to create an environment that would reflect all aspects of God with peace, beauty, and harmony; and also invoked a blessing upon all of the future visitors to the Lake Shrine. A public dedication of the Lake Shrine took place on August 20, 1950. The