Salt Lake Temple
The Salt Lake Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. At, it is the largest LDS temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the sixth temple completed by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846. On April 19, 2019 the LDS Church announced that the temple would close on December 29, 2019 for renovations that are anticipated to take approximately four years.
Details
The Salt Lake Temple is the centerpiece of the Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. Like other LDS temples, the church and its members consider it sacred and a temple recommend is required to enter, so there are no public tours inside the temple as there are for other adjacent buildings on Temple Square. In 1912, the first public photographs of the interior were published in the book The House of the Lord, by James E. Talmage. Since then, various photographs have been published, including by Life magazine in 1938. The temple grounds are open to the public and are a popular tourist attraction. Due to its location at LDS Church headquarters and its historical significance, Latter-day Saints from around the world patronize the temple.The Salt Lake Temple is also the location of the weekly meetings of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As such, there are special meeting rooms in the building for these purposes, including the Holy of Holies, which are not part of other temples.
The temple includes some elements thought to evoke Solomon's Temple at Jerusalem. It is oriented towards Jerusalem and the large basin used as a baptismal font is mounted on the backs of twelve oxen, as was the Molten Sea in Solomon's Temple. At the east end of the building, the height of the center pinnacle to the base of the angel Moroni is 210 feet, or 120 cubits, making this Temple 20 cubits taller than the Temple of Solomon.
Name
The Salt Lake Temple's official name is also unique. In 1999, as the building of LDS temples accelerated, the church announced a formal naming convention for all existing and future temples. For temples in the United States and Canada, the temple's name is generally the city or town in which the temple is located, followed by the name of the applicable state or province. For temples outside of the U.S. and Canada, the temple's name is generally the city name followed by the country name. However, for reasons on which the church did not elaborate, the Salt Lake Temple was not renamed the "Salt Lake City Utah Temple".Location
The temple is in downtown Salt Lake City, with several mountain peaks close by. Nearby, a shallow stream, City Creek, splits and flows both to the west and to the south, flowing into the Jordan River. There is a wall around the temple site. The surrounding wall became the first permanent structure on what has become known as Temple Square. The wall is a uniform 15 feet high but varies in appearance because of the site's southwest slope.Uses
The temple is considered the house of God and is reserved for special ceremonies for practicing Latter-Day Saints. The main ordinance rooms are used during the endowment ceremony—namely the creation, garden, telestial, terrestrial, and celestial rooms in that order of use. A washing and anointing ceremony is also administered, and until 1921, the rooms were also used for healing rituals of washing and anointing for the sick or pregnant and were administered by women and men. The temple also serves as a place for marriage sealing ceremonies for live and deceased persons. Additional uses include functioning as a location for baptisms for the dead, baptisms for health, and, briefly, for re-baptism for the renewal of covenants. Other rituals performed in the temple include the second anointing ordinance for live and deceased persons, and meeting rooms for church leaders.Temple construction and dedication
The temple's location was first marked by LDS prophet Brigham Young, the second president of the church, on July 28, 1847, just four days after he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. In 1901 the apostle Anthon H. Lund recorded in his journal that "it is said" that Oliver Cowdery's divining rod was used to locate the temple site. The temple site was dedicated on February 14, 1853 by Heber C. Kimball. Groundbreaking ceremonies were presided over by Young, who laid the cornerstone on April 6 of that year. The architect was Truman O. Angell, and the temple features both Gothic and Romanesque elements.Sandstone was originally used for the foundation. During the Utah War, the foundation was buried and the lot made to look like a plowed field to prevent unwanted attention from federal troops. After tensions eased in 1858 and work on the temple resumed, it was discovered that many of the foundation stones had cracked, making them unsuitable for use. Although not all of the sandstone was replaced, the inadequate sandstone was replaced. The walls are quartz monzonite from Little Cottonwood Canyon, twenty miles southeast of the temple site. Oxen transported the quarried rock initially, but as the Transcontinental Railroad neared completion in 1869 the remaining stones were carried by rail at a much faster rate.
The capstone—the granite sphere that holds the statue of the Angel Moroni—was laid on April 6, 1892, by means of an electric motor and switch operated by Wilford Woodruff, the church's fourth president, thus completing work on the temple's exterior. The Angel Moroni statue, standing tall, was placed on top of the capstone later the same day. At the capstone ceremony, Woodruff proposed the building's interior be finished within one year, which would allow the temple to be dedicated forty years to the day of its commencement. John R. Winder was instrumental in overseeing the interior's completion on schedule; he would serve as a member of the temple presidency until his death in 1910. Woodruff dedicated the temple on April 6, 1893, exactly forty years after the cornerstone was laid.
Symbolism
The Salt Lake Temple incorporates many symbolic adornments including Masonic symbols. Symbolism is an important subject in the LDS faith. These symbols include the following:- All-Seeing Eye – The center tower on each side has a depiction of the All-Seeing Eye of God representing how God sees all things.
- Angel Statue – The golden Angel Moroni statue, by sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin, tops the capstone of the temple. It symbolizes the angel mentioned in that will come to welcome in the Second Coming of Christ. Early architectural plans showed two horizontally flying angels and the earliest references to the Salt Lake Temple's angel were always Gabriel. The original blueprint drawings intended the angel to be wearing temple ceremonial clothing like the angel on the Nauvoo temple, but Paris-trained sculptor Dallin's 12.5-foot statue wears a crown instead of a temple cap that included a bright light which created a halo effect at night. As a result of an earthquake on March 18, 2020, the statue's trumpet broke.
- Beehive – The beehive symbol appears on external doors and doorknobs and symbolizes the thrift, industry, perseverance, and order of the Mormon people.
- Big Dipper – On the west side of the temple the Big Dipper appears, which represents how the priesthood can help people find their way to heaven as the constellation helped travelers find the North Star. The uppermost stars on the temple's constellation align with the actual North Star.
- Compass and Square – Early plan drawings of the temple show the Masonic arrangements of a compass and square placed around the second and fourth floor windows, but the plans were changed during construction. These symbols had appeared on the Nauvoo Temple weathervane.
- Clasped Hands – Above each external door and doorknob appears the "hand clasp," which is a representation of covenants that are made within temples or brotherly love.
- Clouds – On the east side of the temple are "clouds raining down" representing the way God has continued revelation and still speaks to man "like the rains out of Heaven" or alternatively a veil of ignorance or sin.
- Earths – The Earth Stones in the lower buttresses have been interpreted as the gospel of Christ spreading over the whole Earth.
- Saturns – Early drawings and a written description by Angell showed Saturnstones along the top tier of the temple, though the design was changed years later.
- Spires – The six spires of the temple represent the power of the priesthood. The three spires on the east side are a little higher than those on the west: they represent the Melchizedek, or "higher priesthood", and the Aaronic, or "preparatory priesthood" respectively. The three spires on the east side represent the church's First Presidency and the twelve smaller spires on those three represent the Twelve Apostles.
- Sun, Moon, and Stars – Around the temple there are several carved stones depicting the Sun, Moon, and stars which correspond respectively to the celestial, terrestrial, and telestial kingdoms of glory in the afterlife. The sunstones have also been interpreted to represent God, the moonstones in different phases as representing different phases of life, and the starstones representing Jesus Christ. These symbols were drawn from the three lesser lights symbols in the Freemasonry practiced by many early church leaders in Nauvoo. Additionally, five-pointed stars have traditionally represented the five wounds of Christ and the five-pointed star with an elongated downward ray found on several LDS temples has been interpreted to represent Christ coming to Earth.
Incidents
Bombings
Two bombing incidents have damaged the temple. On April 10, 1910, a bomb at the nearby Hotel Utah damaged the trumpet of the Moroni statue atop the temple. On November 14, 1962, the southeast door of the Salt Lake Temple was bombed. FBI agents state that the explosive had been wrapped around the door handles on the temple's southeast entrance. The large wooden entrance doors were damaged by flying fragments of metal and glass. Damage to interior walls occurred 25 feet inside the temple, but damage to the interior was minor. Eleven exterior windows were shattered.1999 Salt Lake City tornado
The temple suffered light to moderate damage in 1999 when a tornado rated F2 on the Fujita Scale struck Salt Lake City. A wedding ceremony taking place at the time allowed a photographer taking photographs of the new couple to record video of the tornado as it passed near the temple, forcing the bride and groom and everyone with them to shelter against the temple doors and pillars for protection from the wind and debris. They were unable to be allowed inside to take shelter as the temple doors were locked. Despite being pelted with rain and hail, everyone survived, and were able to then come out to look at the damage to many of the trees around the temple grounds and surrounding buildings before resuming the ceremony.2020 Salt Lake City earthquake
On the morning of March 18, 2020, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck just outside Salt Lake City. Though most of the damages were outside the city, minor damages were inflicted on the temple. The trumpet of the Angel Moroni on top of the temple's tallest spire was lodged out of the statue, and some stones from the smaller spires were displaced. No other damages to the temple have been reported.Interior images
Below are several photographs from the interior of the temple. In response to a member obtaining unauthorized images of the interior of the temple, church leaders decided to release the book The House of the Lord in 1912, which contained authorized black-and-white photographs of the interior, some of which are shown below. The unauthorized photographs had been taken over several months the year before by a man who was repeatedly allowed to enter with his camera while the temple was closed by a temple gardener friend.Temple presidents
- Lorenzo Snow, 1893–98
- Joseph F. Smith, 1898–1911
- Anthon H. Lund, 1911–21
- George F. Richards, 1921–38
- Stephen L. Chipman, 1938–45
- Joseph Fielding Smith, 1945–49
- Robert D. Young, 1949–53
- ElRay L. Christiansen, 1953–61
- Willard E. Smith, 1961–64
- Howard S. McDonald, 1964–68
- O. Leslie Stone, 1968–72
- John K. Edmunds, 1972–77
- A. Ray Curtis, 1977–82
- Marion D. Hanks, 1982–85
- Victor L. Brown, 1985–87
- Edgar M. Denny, 1987–90
- Spencer H. Osborn, 1990–93
- George I. Cannon, 1993–96
- Carlos E. Asay, 1996–99
- Derrill H. Richards, 1999
- W. Eugene Hansen, 1999–2002
- L. Aldin Porter, 2002–05
- M. Richard Walker, 2005–08
- Sheldon F. Child, 2008–11
- Oren Claron Alldredge Jr., 2011–14
- Cecil O. Samuelson, 2014–17
- B. Jackson Wixom, 2017–2019