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. Dedicated in 1893, it was constructed over a period of 40 years. It is the sixth temple completed by the church and the fourth built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois to Utah in the 1840s. The temple was closed in 2019 for remodeling, which includes a seismic retrofit of the structure. In 2027, the church will hold public open house tours of the newly renovated building, after which it will be dedicated for worship services.
At , it is the largest Latter-day Saint temple by floor area.
Details The Salt Lake Temple is the centerpiece of the Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. Like other Latter-day Saint 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.Talmage, James. The House of the Lord. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 1912 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 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 (see 2 Chronicles 4:2–4). (However, the literal interpretation of the Biblical verses has been disputed.) At the east end of the building, the height of the center pinnacle to the base of the angel Moroni is .
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 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 (until being discontinued in 1921), 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 Brigham Young, the church's second president, on July 28, 1847, just four days after he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. He marked a location between two forks of City Creek saying "Here will be the Temple of our God". In 1901, church 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.Anthon H. Lund Journal, July 5, 1901, cited by BYU Prof. D. Michael Quinn https://byustudies.byu.edu/content/latter-day-saint-prayer-circles The temple site was dedicated on February 14, 1853, by Heber C. Kimball. The groundbreaking ceremony was presided over by Young, who laid the cornerstone on April 6, 1853, the twenty-third anniversary of the church being organized. The architect was Truman O. Angell, and the temple features both Gothic and Romanesque elements.
An annex, designed by Joseph Don Carlos Young, is built 100 feet north of the temple. The construction of the annex started in 1892, and it was opened in 1893, at the same time as the temple itself. This building included a large entrance area and an assembly hall. In August of 1962, the main temple was closed. A new annex was opened at the north end of the temple square in March of 1966, which largely expanded the temple's capacity with a 400 seat chapel, underground dressing rooms, 4,000 lockers and large waiting rooms for marriage ceremonies. Both the annex and the addition were built using the same granite from the original quarry and designed to match the temple's architecture.
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. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, the troops were called away by December. In the spring, when the foundation was uncovered to continue work, it was discovered that many of the foundation stones had cracked, making them unsuitable to hold the weight of the massive temple. Although not all of the sandstone was replaced, the inadequate sandstone was replaced. The walls are quartz monzonite (which has the appearance of granite) from Little Cottonwood Canyon, 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.
During the construction, the temple grounds were seized by the US Marshal as a result of the Edmunds–Tucker Act of 1886. It was later returned to the church.
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, after 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.
2019 to 2027 renovation
At the end of 2019, the temple was closed for a seismic retrofitting designed to allow it to withstand a magnitude 7.3 earthquake, the strongest expected magnitude in the Salt Lake Valley. Other facilities on Temple Square (and certain parts of the temple) were demolished, reconstructed, and modernized in line with seismic code. Mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems were replaced, Initially the interior and its historical artifacts were planned to be preserved (although plans were later changed and many historic elements were removed) and plazas and landscaping modified. Temple Square visitor access and tourism would remain during the entire renovation process, but in regulated and coordinated fashion.
Prior to 2019, the building had never been decommissioned for renovation and only minor updating of finishes and systems had occurred within the temple proper (although multiple "annex" additions had been added and removed in the past). This meant the temple's core historic architecture, layout, and workmanship had been preserved for 126 years.
Before reconstruction started, church leaders indicated that the temple's unique historicity would be preserved. Church employees stated that special efforts would be made to highlight and honor the pioneer craftsmanship and indicated the interiors would essentially remain the same. Various renderings were released showing the instruction rooms used for the endowment ceremony would remain intact, with the original layout, woodwork and murals being preserved.
In March 2021, the church announced significant changes to the renovation plan that affected many elements in the temple's historic interior. The progressive room-to-room live endowment ceremony would be removed and the layout of the temple would change, with the baptistry being moved to the annex and new instruction rooms constructed in its place. Other rooms and walls would be reconfigured, requiring the removal of the temple's murals. The murals and many other historic features of the building were photographed and otherwise documented before being permanently removed or destroyed. These changes will allow for greater patron capacity, but the removal of many historic elements was met with criticism, especially the destruction of the temple's murals. One prominent historian described the changes as a "huge and unnecessary loss" and another noted them as a loss of "priceless cultural artifacts".
The renovations were initially expected to take approximately four years, however the completion date was pushed out first to 2025 and again to 2026. In 2025, church president Russell M. Nelson announced that an open house would be held in 2027; these public tours will occur April 5 through October 1, 2027.
Symbolism
The Salt Lake Temple incorporates many symbolic adornments including Masonic symbols. Symbolism is important to LDS Church members. 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 Page 33 archived here. 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 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. The statue was reinstalled April 2, 2024. Beehive – The beehive symbol (which appears on the Utah state seal) 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, which symbolizes the direction of the heavens. 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.