On December 27, 1832 — two years after the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ — the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, Jr., reported receiving a revelation that called upon church members to restore the practice of temple worship. The Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio were commanded to:
"Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God." (Doctrine and Covenants 1835 VII:36, LDS 88:119, RLDS 85:36b)
More importantly, Latter-day Saints see temples as the fulfillment of a prophecy found in Malachi 3:1 (KJV).
The Kirtland Temple was the first temple of the Latter Day Saint movement and the only temple completed in the lifetime of Joseph Smith, Jr. Its unique design was replicated on a larger scale with the Nauvoo Temple and in subsequent temples built by the church. As the needs of the church have changed, so has Temple architecture from large castellic structures adorned with celestial symbols, to smaller, simpler designs, often derived from a standard set of plans.
Kirtland Temple
The Kirtland Temple was built in Kirtland, Ohio. It was not designed as a church or even as a cathedral. The structure has two unique sets of pulpits, representing the Aaronic Priesthood and the Melchizedek Priesthood . It was a house of learning, where the School of the Prophets could meet. This temple was not built to accommodate the endowment ceremony, which was taught later. It has no baptistery, as the revelation regarding baptism for the dead had not yet been received.
Truman O. Angell recorded in his journal that about this time Frederick G. Williams, one of President Smith's counselors, came into the temple one day during construction and related the following:
"Joseph received the word of the Lord for him to take his two counselors, Frederick G. Williams and Sidney Rigdon, and come before the Lord and He would show them the plan or model of the house to be built. We went upon our knees, called on the Lord, and the building appeared within viewing distance, I being the first to discover it. Then all of us viewed it together. After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us, and the makeup of this hall seemed to coincide with what I there saw to a minutia."[1]
Angell would continue as church architect, designing the Salt Lake Temple, the Lion House, the Beehive House, the Utah Territorial Statehouse, the St. George Utah Temple, and many other public buildings.
The sandstone used to build the temple was quarried from south of the Temple. Native timbers were cut from the surrounding forests.[2]
The Temple, begun in 1833 and dedicated in 1836, was one of the largest buildings in Northern Ohio. It is a combination of Greek, Georgian, Gothic, and Federalist architectural styles. The building has been designated a National Historical Landmark and has been recognized by the Architects Society of Ohio and the Ohio Historical Society.[2]
The pulpits and the pews are among the distinctive features of the interior. Two sets of pulpits grace the main floor with another two sets on the second floor. The seats in the pew boxes are benches that can be shifted from the back to the front, thus making it possible for the congregation to face either the front or the rear pulpits.[2]
The main floor of the Kirtland Temple was used for various services of worship, and the second floor was a school for the ministry. The third floor contained rooms for the "Kirtland High School" during the day and Church quorum meetings in the evening. The west third floor room was Joseph Smith, Jr.'s office.[2]
Nauvoo Temple
Construction of the original Nauvoo Temple commenced April 6, 1841 and its final dedication was in May of 1846. The temple was designed in the Greek Revival style by Mormon architect William Weeks, under the direction of Joseph Smith, Jr. Weeks' design made use of distinctively Latter-day Saint motifs, including Sunstones, Moonstones, and Starstones, representing the Three Degrees of Glory in the Mormon conception of the afterlife.
At its base the building was 128 feet (39.0m) long and 88 feet (26.8m) wide with a clock tower and weather vane reaching to 165 feet—a 60% increase over the dimensions of the Kirtland Temple. Like Kirtland, the Nauvoo Temple contained two assembly halls, one on the first floor and one on the second, called the lower and upper courts. Both had classrooms and offices in the attic. Unlike Kirtland, the Nauvoo Temple had a full basement which housed a baptismal font.
Even before its completion, the church knew it would have to abandon the temple. The work continued regardless, and despite the members' diligence, the temple was officially dedicated by Orson Hyde after the Mormon Pioneers left for the Salt Lake Valley. Unlike other temples, individual portions of the temple were dedicated and put to use as soon as they were completed. The baptismal font in the basement and the attic both facilitated ordinance work. The first floor assembly hall was used for worship services, but the rest of the temple went unused.[3]
After the church moved on to Utah, the temple was sold, but an arson fire gutted the structure in 1848. Later a tornado toppled one of the exterior walls in 1850. Two other walls were torn down for safety reasons leaving only its western facade standing. The citizens who occupied Nauvoo after the Mormons left finally razed the Temple's remaining wall in 1865. Local builders reused temple stones; many of these stones can still be seen throughout Nauvoo today. The LDS Church eventually reacquired the site where the temple stood, erecting a monument to the temple, including a scale model and examples of some of its architectural features. The Church authorized a number of archaeological digs of the Temple's foundation, which uncovered significant information about the building.[3]
Symbolic placement of the rooms
The location of the rooms is not by accident. Each room represents progression, and is therefore located in a different elevation based on that progression. This symbolic progression began with the Nauvoo temple and continues with temples built today. The baptistry is always the lowest room of the temple, often in the basement. The ordinance rooms are elevated above that, leading to the Celestial room which is even higher. In the case of the Nauvoo temple, this would have been in the attic. The sealing rooms are the loftiest rooms of the temple.
Basement
The basement of the Nauvoo Temple was used as the baptistery, containing a large baptismal font in the center of the main room.
The basement was reached from the spiral staircases at the Northwest and Southwest corners of the temple. The staircase landing was made of wood and opened to a short hallway heading east, leading to the basement proper. Between the two hallways was an unfinished room sealed off from the rest of the temple, containing an old well that had been dug but never used. The room was discovered by an anti-Mormon mob who broke through the floor of the vestibule above.[3]
The basement proper was one hundred feet (30.5m)long and forty feet (12.2m) wide with six rooms of varying sizes on either side. The sides of the rooms were stone and abutted the massive stone piers that supported the floors above. With the exception of the two rooms at the west end of the basement, reportedly used for clerical purposes, each side room rose two steps in height from the basement floor. The rooms were dressing rooms for those using the font. The floor was made of red brick laid in a herringbone pattern. The walls were painted white. The floor sloped down to the center of the room to allow water to run toward a drain beneath the font.[3]
Archaeological investigation of the temple site discovered two highly polished limestone blocks.
Approximately twelve feet (3.7m) east of the entrance to the baptistery and ten feet (3.0m) from either the side of the support piers rested the blocks, roughly fourteen inches (36cm) square, which projected seven inches (18cm) above the brick floor. These objects are not mentioned in any account of the basement, and their purpose is unknown. They may have held some type of support columns, dividing the font from the entrance to the basement or they may have simply been a decorative element with a vase or something similar resting on them. They may have been part of a feature planned, but not used, in the final construction.[3]
The baptismal font
Every visitor who wrote about the temple mentioned the baptismal font. It was clearly the most impressive feature of the temple. There were actually two fonts built during the lifetime of the temple, a temporary wooden one, and a permanent limestone one.[3]
The first font was built out of tongue and grooved white pine and painted white. It was sixteen feet long, twelve feet wide and four feet deep. The lip of the font was seven feet from the floor. The font's cap and base were carved molding in an "antique style" and the sides were finished with panel work. Two railed stairways led to the font from the north and south sides.[3]
The font was held up by twelve oxen, as are all Latter-day Saint temple fonts. They were carved from pine planking that was glued together. They were patterned from the most beautiful five-year old steer that could be found in the region. The head, shoulders and legs protruded beyond the base of the font, and they appeared to have sunk to their knees into the pavement. The most perfect horn that could be found was used to model the animals' horns.[3]
A decision was made to replace the wooden font in 1845, apparently because the water caused a mildew odor, and possibly because the wood began to rot. The new limestone font followed the pattern of the wooden one. Twelve oxen held up the basin, four on each side and two at each end. The oxen were solid stone and similarly were placed and appeared sunken into the floor. Where the oxen met the basin, the stone was carved to suggest drapery. The ears of the oxen were made of tin. The stairs were moved to an East/West orientation making access to the font easier.[3]
A well on the east side of the font provided the water supply. There may have been some kind of tank at the east end of the baptistery to store and heat water.[3]
The vestibule
A flight of eight broad steps led to a landing where two more steps entered three archways. These archways led to the vestibule, the formal entrance to the temple. The archways were approximately nine feet (2.7m) wide and twenty-one feet (6.4m) high.
The vestibule itself was forty-three feet (13.1m) by seventeen feet (5.2m) in dimension. It was composed of limestone on all four of its walls. The floor has been speculated to be made of wood, because when the mob occupied the temple briefly in late 1847, they broke through the floor to reach a sealed off room in the basement. Had the floor been limestone, it seems unlikely that they would have dug it up.
Two large double doors on the east wall opened to the first floor assembly hall of the lower court, known as the "Great Hall". Two doors, one on the north wall, and another on the south opened to the landing of two spiral staircases, one in the northwest corner, and the other in the southwest corner which led all the way to the attic. These were the only access points to the rest of the building.
One report stated that on the east wall of the vestibule was an entablature, similar to the one in the facade, which read in bright gilded letters, "THE HOUSE OF THE LORD - Built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints - Commenced April 6th, 1841 - HOLINESS TO THE LORD."[3]
The stairwells
The two stairwells were constructed of dressed limestone walls. One rose from the northwest corner and the other at the southwest corner of the temple. They were not true circles but were flatted on four sides. Nor were they symmetrical, being sixteen feet in diameter from east to west and seventeen feet in diameter from north to south. This was done to support landings and other support structures.[3]
The staircases, made of wood, provided access to all of the temple from the basement to the attic with a landing at each floor. They had lamps for illumination at night, and had windows for daytime illumination. William Weeks' elevation of the front facade does not show windows at the basement level of the two stairwells, and photographic evidence is inconclusive. However, Joseph Smith's youngest son, David Smith, rendered a painting of the temple's damaged facade, which clearly shows half-circular windows at the basement level in the north and south corners of the facade.[3]
The staircase in the northwest corner was never completed. It was roughed in with temporary boards resting on the risers. Workmen used this staircase to gain access to the building during its construction, especially during the winter of 1845-1846 when persons were using the other staircase to reach the attic for ordinance work. The southwest staircase was completely finished for use. It included lamps for night illumination, and may have been carpeted near the attic landing.[3]
The Great Hall
Entrance to the first floor assembly hall, called the "Great Hall", was through two large double doors at the east end of the vestibule. The Great Hall occupied the remainder of the floor space east of the vestibule. The room was flanked on either side by seven large, arched windows, with four similar windows along the east wall. An arched ceiling spanned some fifty feet in breadth, in the center. The floor was stained wood and the walls were painted white.[3]
There were two rooms to the north just past the entrance. It has been suggested that William Weeks initially used these rooms, because Thomas Bullock refers to them as the "architect's room." Their eventual intended use is not clear.[3]
Pulpits
At the east and west ends of the hall were two sets of similar pulpits. Resembling the pulpits used in the Kirtland Temple, and repeated in later temples, they were arranged with four levels, the top three consisting of a group of three semi-circular stands. The lowest level was a drop-table which was raised for use in the sacrament.[3]
The pulpits to the east, standing between the windows, were reserved for the Melchezidek Priesthood. Accordingly each pulpit had initials identifying the priesthood office of the occupant. The topmost pulpits read P.H.P., which stood for President of the High Priesthood. The next level down had P.S.Q for President of the Seventy Quorums. Below that, the labels were P.H.Q. which stood for President of the High Priests Quorum, and the folding table had the inscription P.E.Q. standing for President of the Elders Quorum.[3]
Above the eastern pulpits, written in gilded letters, along the arch of the ceiling, were the words, "The Lord Has Seen Our Sacrifice - Come After Us."[3]
The pulpits to the west end were reserved for the Aaronic Priesthood. Each pulpit similarly had initials identifying the priesthood officers who occupied that stand. The highest three pulpits bore the initials P.A.P., which stood for President of the Aaronic Priesthood. The next lower pulpits had P.P.Q., for President of the Priests Quorum). Again, the next had P.T.Q. for President of the Teachers Quorum and on the table at the bottom was written P.D.Q. for President of the Deacons Quorum.[3]
Pews
Similar to the Kirtland Temple, the hall was fitted with enclosed pews with two aisles running down its length. There were also pews for a band and choir. The room could accommodate up to 3,500 people. Because there were pulpits on both ends of the room, the pews had movable backs which could be swung to face either direction, depending on who was presiding - the Melchizedek Priesthood or the Aaronic Priesthood.[3]
First floor mezzanine
Access to the first floor mezzanine was directly from landings of the two staircases in the west end of the building. A foyer, corresponding in size to the vestibule below, connected the two stairway landings.
Evidence suggests that this mezzanine had fourteen small rooms, seven along each side of the North and South wall. Each room had a small circular window supplying light. These rooms may never have been completed, except perhaps some kind of partition dividing them.[3]
Second floor assembly hall
The second floor hall was similar in construction to the Great Hall, except that it included the foyer area where the vestibule would be. This made the room about seventeen feet longer. A forty-one foot long stone arch ran north and south between the circular stairwells supporting the massive timbers for the tower above. It had seven large windows along the north and south wide, with four windows along the east wall.[3]
The floor would have a similar configuration as the Great Hall with a set of double pulpits and pews, but the room was never completed. Doors were never hung, the plastering was unfinished, and the floorboards were only rough timber, not the tongue and grove finished hardwoods of the other floors. The room, when used for an occasional meeting, was furnished with wooden benches.[3]
Second floor mezzanine rooms
The second mezzanine was similar to the first floor mezzanine. It was accessed via the two staircases at the west end of the building. There was no foyer connecting the two stairwells.[3]
The second floor mezzanine is also presumed to have been divided into fourteen small rooms, seven rooms along each side of the north and south walls of the building, between the arched ceiling of the second floor. Circular windows in the entablature of the building allowed for illumination. Just as with the second floor assembly room, there is no evidence that these rooms were ever completed, except perhaps for the partitions dividing each room. There was a staircase in the second room from the southeast corner leading to a room above, providing another access method to the attic.[3]
Attic
At the top of the two stairways, opening to a foyer, was the attic floor. The attic was not built of limestone but of wood. It was composed of two sections. The west end of the temple was a flat roofed section that supported the tower. The rest of the attic was a pitched-roof section running the length of the temple.[3]
The flat-room section was further divided into two sections, the foyer on the west side, and a suite of rooms to the east. When the attic was used for ordinance work, they were used as a pantry, wardrobe and storage rooms. The area was illuminated by six windows along the foyer's west wall. Outside windows also provided light along the north and south sides. The roof had four octagonal skylight windows to provide light to the interior rooms, in addition to a twenty-foot arched window.[3]
The incline of the roof prevented a six-foot-tall man from standing erect along the outside wall. The second room from the southeast corner had a stairway leading to a room in the mezzanine below.[3]
Tower rooms
Rising from the plateau of the attic is an octagonal tower. The tower was divided into three sections, each accessible by a series of stairways leading from the attic to an observation deck at the top. The lowest section was a belfry containing a bell, which was rung for various occasions. Between the observation deck and the belfry was a section containing the four clockwork mechanisms.[3]
The reconstruction
In 1999, it was announced the temple would be rebuilt with the same exterior look of the original temple. On June 27, 2002, the Nauvoo Illinois Temple was dedicated.
The limestone used for the original temple was quarried from a site just west of the temple. Because the original quarry was submerged in 1912 with the construction of the Keokuk Dam, the exterior finish of the new temple was quarried in Russellville, Alabama, a site chosen specifically because the stone best matched the original.
The reconstructed baptistery follows the original, with the addition of a metal lining to prevent deterioration and a platform where witnesses may sit. The floor of the baptistery, the largest of any temple in the church, was also replicated in red brick tile. A dome and chandelier are featured in the ceiling and art glass window on the east end. Intricate moldings are attached along the ceiling.
The Allyn Historic Sash Company in Nauvoo produced the window moldings. This included framework for six-pointed stars made of red, white, and blue glass to replicate the originals.
The floors are hardwood with rugs, runners, and furnishings typical of the time. The first floor Assembly Room, featuring ten chandeliers, is a truncated version of the original, allowing room for the recommend desk and administrative offices. The assembly room has no balcony, but instead was designed for dressing rooms. The upper floors house four progressive-style ordinance rooms, first introduced in the Logan Utah Temple, leading to the Celestial room as well as six sealing rooms. Each ordinance room is adorned with murals, including the Celestial room, the first temple to have murals in that room since the construction of the Los Angeles California Temple.
Castellated temples of Utah
St. George Utah Temple
The St. George Utah Temple (1), described as castellated Gothic style has three ordinance rooms and eighteen sealing rooms. It has a total floor space of square feet ( m²).[4]
The temple was originally patterned after the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples with two large assembly halls featuring a set of pulpits at each end. The lower hall was partitioned with screens for presentation of the endowment. It was extensively remodeled for over a year from 1937 to 1938 where the lower hall was permanently divided into five progressive-style endowment rooms.
Following a second major renovation project in 1975, the progressive-style ordinance rooms were replaced with three motion-picture ordinance rooms. Live-acting endowment sessions were much longer and only three were performed a day. The film version allowed for fourteen sessions a day.
About a year after the dedication, a lightning storm caused extensive damage to the original tower. It was replaced with a taller more majestic tower.
Logan Utah Temple
The Logan Utah Temple (2) was the first temple to feature progressive-style ordinance rooms for presentation of the endowment ceremony. This design has a room symbolizing each stage of man's progression: the Creation room, representing the events of Genesis; the Garden room represents the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve lived prior to the fall of man; the World room, where Adam and Eve lived after the fall; the Terrestrial room; and the Celestial room representing heaven.
In addition to these ordinance rooms, the temple has eleven sealing rooms with a total floor area of square feet ( m²). The temple is the only temple to be completely gutted and rebuilt. The two-year project replaced the progressive-style ordinance rooms with motion-picture ordinance rooms. Spencer W. Kimball, the church president who rededicated the completed temple in 1979, regretted the need to reconstruct the interior of the temple because of the loss of pioneer craftsmanship.[5]
The exterior walls of the Logan Utah Temple were originally painted a buff color to hide the dark, rough-hewn limestone. In the early 1900s, however, the paint was allowed to weather away, uncovering the beautiful stone that characterizes the temple today.
Manti Utah Temple
The Manti Utah Temple (3) is described as castellated style having influences of Gothic Revival,
Neo-Renaissance, Second Empire and
Colonial Revival architecture.[6] The temple has four progressive-style ordinance rooms and eight sealing rooms.
The total floor area is square feet ( m²). It is the oldest temple which has preserved the original mural paintings.
One of the more dramatic engineering marvels of the early Mormon pioneers are the
open-center
Salt Lake Temple
The Salt Lake Temple (4) is the most recognizable of all Latter-day Saint temples and is an international symbol of the church. It is the largest temple of the church with a total floor area of square feet ( m²). (The Los Angeles California Temple was larger before the Salt Lake temple was expanded.) The first temple of this group to be started, it was the last to be completed after 40 years of construction.
The building has six spires, suggestive of Gothic and other classical styles but unique, distinctive, and symbolic. It has four progressive-style ordinance rooms and twelve sealing rooms.
The walls of the Salt Lake Temple are nine feet thick at the base and six feet thick at the top. It was the first temple to feature the prominent standing angel Moroni statue, which was created by Paris-trained sculptor Cyrus E. Dallin. Prior to that, the Nauvoo temple sported a flying angel weather vane. Additional statues after this pattern will continue to top nearly every temple thereafter.
The angel Moroni depicts both a messenger of the restoration of the gospel and a herald of the Second Coming: "for the Son of Man shall come, and he shall send his angels before him with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together the remainder of his elect from the four winds" (JS-M 1:37).
The Salt Lake Temple features murals on the walls of its progressive-style ordinance rooms, excluding the Terrestrial room and Celestial room which is adorned in elaborate French Renaissance Revival.
This is the most symbolically adorned temple of all temples, surpassing the spiritual motifs of the Nauvoo Temple.
The east and west towers of the temple represent the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods, just as the east and west facing pulpits did in the Kirtland and Nauvoo assembly halls. Additional symbolism has been added to the towers. The east facing towers represent the First Presidency of the Church, the highest office of the Melchizedek Priesthood. The west towers represent the Presiding Bishopric, the highest office of the Aaronic Priesthood. There are twelve pinnacles on each tower, the east pinnacles representing the office of the Twelve Apostles, and the west pinnacles representing the High Council.
Castle-like battlements surround the temple symbolizing a separation from the world and a protection of the holy ordinances from the outside world.
At the base of each buttress is an earthstone. Earthstones represent the Earth, the "footstool of God". The earth itself is in a telestial state, but will transition into a terrestrial state with the coming of the Millennium, and finally will receive Celestial glory at the end of the one thousand years.
Moonstones are located directly above the earthstones. Each moonstone is depicted in a different phase. The changing moon represents the stages of human progression from birth, life, death and resurrection. It also represents one's journey from total darkness into the full light of Christ.
Above the moonstones are sunstones, representing celestial glory.
Two cloudstones are carved on the east center tower, with descending rays of light. The original plan was to have one stone be white and the other black, with descending trumpets. The parallel of this symbolism is found in the Old Testament. Once temples were dedicated in ancient Israel, they were filled with the "cloud of the Lord." At Mount Sinai, the children of Israel saw this cloud as both dark and bright accompanied by the blasting of a trumpet.
Various starstones adorn the temple. Six-pointed stars represent the stars in the heaven. Upside-down five-pointed stars represent morning stars, compared to the "sons of God" in the scriptures. The large upright five-pointed stars may represent the governing power of the priesthood while the small upright five-pointed stars may represent the saving power of the priesthood for those who attach themselves to it.
The center west tower has a depiction of the Big Dipper constellation. This represents the method travelers have used for thousands of years to find the North Star. This symbolized the purpose of the temple in showing the way to God.
Each of the center towers features a pair of clasped right hands identified as the "right hands of fellowship" cited in Galatians 2:9. In Jeremiah 31:32, the Lord uses the handclasp to denote covenant making—an act at the very heart of temple worship.
Each of the center towers has a carved All Seeing Eye of God, which represents God's ability to see and know all things.
Temples with no spire
Following the completion of the Salt Lake Temple, the church took a break from temple building. It would be two decades before another temple would be announced. That announcement came as the Cardston Alberta Temple (6) on June 27, 1913. This temple was different than previous temples. It was the first temple design to be put out to bid to prominent architects. It was also the first temple to be designed without a priesthood assembly hall beginning a transition away from multi-purpose temples.
The design of the Cardston Alberta Temple served as the basic pattern for the Laie Hawaii Temple (5), which was completed four years before the Cardston temple. World War I caused the delay. It was also the pattern for the third temple built after Salt Lake, the Mesa Arizona Temple (7).
These three temples are often described as designed after the style of Solomon's temple. They were the first three temples built outside of Utah. The Laie Temple design is "suggestive of the ancient temples found in South America—shaped like a Grecian cross with no tower."[7] The top of the temple is decorated with carved friezes. Each side depicts four dispensations of time: Old Testament Dispensation (west), New Testament Dispensation (south), Book of Mormon Dispensation (north), and Latter-day Dispensation (east). It is the smallest of the three temples with a total floor area of square feet ( m²), three ordinance rooms and six sealing rooms.
The Cardston and Mesa temples were originally built about the same size, but an addition in 1974 to the Mesa temple expanded its area to sq ft ( m²). It is described as a "modification of the classic style, suggestive of pre-Columbian temples and the Temple of Herod."[8] It has four ordinance rooms and nine sealing rooms, expanded from the original four sealing rooms.
The Cardston temple has square feet ( m²) of floor space and is described as an "octagonal design with no spire—similar to Maltese cross—it has Grecian massiveness and a Peruvian touch of Aztec influence with pyramid silhouette."[9] It has four ordinance rooms and five sealing rooms.
Modern center spire design
The Idaho Falls Idaho Temple (8) was the first temple designed with a central spire. This design represented a return to the use of spires, as the three previously dedicated temples featured no towers or spires. It has four progressive-style ordinance rooms and nine sealing rooms. The floor area is square feet ( m²).
The Oakland California Temple (13) is an unusual variation on the center spire design because it incorporates four additional spires--one on each corner of the building--for a total of five, the center spire being the tallest. It is also the only temple with five spires. It contains four ordinance rooms and seven sealing rooms. It was built slightly larger than the Idaho Falls temple, with a floor area of square feet ( m²).
With the construction of the Ogden Utah Temple (14) the design was expanded with six ordinance rooms and eleven sealing rooms and a floor area of square feet ( m²). The trend continued with the Provo Utah Temple (15) and eight years later with the Jordan River Utah Temple (20) each temple larger than the last ( square feet ( m²) and square feet ( m²), respectively) adding more sealing rooms; twelve for Provo and seventeen for Jordan River.
Modern single spire design
The first temple built in Europe was the Bern Switzerland Temple. Its distinctive design differed from the Idaho Falls temple, to a style more reminiscent of older temples like Kirtland and Nauvoo, but with a more contemporary design. This temple was also unique as it was designed to show a film in the presentation of the endowment, rather than live actors. This was to accommodate the many languages of Europe. Originally built with one ordinance room and three sealing rooms, the temple was later remodeled in 1992. The renovation included an update of the interiors and the addition of ordinance and sealing rooms. The temple now has four ordinance rooms and seven sealing rooms. It has a floor area of square feet ( m²). In 2005, an angel Moroni statue was added to the spire in commemoration of its 50th anniversary.
The Los Angeles California Temple (10) was dedicated in 1956 and was the largest temple ever built by the church. It is still only second to the Salt Lake temple in size and only due to renovations that expanded the flagship structure. It was also the first temple since Salt Lake to have a priesthood assembly room, added to the plans when World War II delayed construction. It would be the last temple designed for a live-acting presentation of the endowment. The ordinance rooms are filled with murals, and is only one of two temples that have murals in the Celestial Room (the other being the Idaho Falls Temple).
When the statue of Moroni was installed, it faced southeast (as does the temple), but was later turned to face due east at the request of church president David O. McKay. In 2003, the temple was changed to a progressive-style presentation, with a newly renovated Terrestrial Room. The endowment was still presented on film. In November 2005, the temple was once again closed, this time, for a seismic overhaul and renovation of the baptistery, which had drainage and mildew problems. It reopened July 11, 2006, fifty years after the original dedication.
In addition to the Celestial room, the temple has four ordinance rooms (Creation room, Garden room, World room, Terrestrial room), and ten sealing rooms. It has a square footage of square feet ( m²).
Following the basic design of the Bern temple, the Hamilton New Zealand Temple (11) was dedicated in 1958. It was built, along with the Church College of New Zealand, entirely by volunteer missionary labor, and was the first temple of the church in the southern hemisphere. It has only one ordinance room, and three sealing rooms. The floor space is square feet ( m²).
The London England Temple (12), dedicated in 1958 follows the same basic pattern of the Bern and Hamilton temples. The temple was also renovated in 1992 to include four ordinance rooms and seven sealing rooms. The floor area is square feet ( m²).
The next temple to incorporate this style would be built 22 years later in 1980. Unlike the other temples, the Seattle Washington Temple (19) was designed from the beginning to have four ordinance rooms and twelve sealing rooms. It was also built larger than Bern, Hamilton and London at square feet ( m²).
Ten years later the church built four temples, similar in style, based on the single spire design. These temples all have four ordinance rooms and four sealing rooms. With sizes ranging from 57,000 to square feet ( m²), these were stylistically unique, although the Boston Massachusetts Temple (100) dedicated in 2000 resembles the St. Louis Missouri Temple built three years earlier. The other temples are the Preston England Temple built in 1998 and the unique Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple built in 2000.
There was quite a bit of controversy regarding the Boston temple, and in particular its spire. Initial lawsuits attempted to have the half completed temple torn down, arguing that the Dover Amendment, which exempts religious structures from local zoning laws, unfairly discriminates against non-religious groups.[10] Lawsuits delayed the addition of the spire by several years as the courts decided if the spire/steeple was a required element to the design of the temple. In support of the Dover Amendment, the court continually sided with the church. Chief Justice Margaret H. Marshall wrote in the 17 page ruling, "A rose window at Notre Dame Cathedral, a balcony at St. Peter's Basilica, are judges to decide whether these architectural elements are 'necessary' to the faith served by those buildings?"[11][12][13]
Small modern single spire design
In the mid 1970s, beginning with the São Paulo Brazil Temple (17) and the Tokyo Japan Temple, the church designed temples based on a more chapel-like design, square buildings with a smaller spire. These first temples each had two ordinance rooms, but because there was no set plan during this time, the temples have four and five sealing rooms, respectively.
Shortly after these temples were built the church built a larger version of the temple with the Atlanta Georgia Temple (21). It has four ordinance rooms and five sealing rooms and a floor area of square feet ( m²). Later the church would repeat this pattern with two similar temples; the Denver Colorado Temple (40) and the much larger Toronto Ontario Temple, each with 6 sealing rooms.
The Apia Samoa Temple (22) was built at this time, but during a later renovation, the building caught fire and was destroyed. It was immediately rebuilt with a larger design, but still based on the concept of the single spire. It has two ordinance rooms and two sealing rooms, with a total floor area of square feet ( m²).
Similar two ordinance room temples are the Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple and the Santiago Chile Temple (24) with three sealing rooms, and the Papeete Tahiti Temple (25) and the Sydney Australia Temple (28) with two ordinance rooms.
Freiberg Germany Temple
Located in Freiberg, Saxony, Germany, the Freiberg Germany Temple (33) was announced in October 1982, ground was broken for construction on April 23, 1983, and the temple was dedicated in 1985. Built in what was then the German Democratic Republic, the Freiberg Germany Temple was the first LDS temple to be built in a communist state.
The East German government approved the building of the temple on practical grounds, because of the many Latter-day Saints
requesting visas to travel to Switzerland, the
location of the Bern Switzerland Temple. The government wished to minimize
citizens' travel outside the G.D.R., so they invited the Church to build a new temple inside the country. Latter-day Saints
popularly attribute a hastened fall of the
The temple was built on a very small scale with no outward adornment of any kind. No oxen were used in the baptistery and only the bare minimum functional details were allowed inside.
After the German reunification in 1990, Germany became the first country outside of North America to have more than one temple, this and the Frankfurt Germany Temple.
Political changes in Germany allowed for renovation of the temple from 2001–2002 to the high standards of temples built today. Additional square footage extending to the east approximately doubled the size of the temple. New amenities included installation of twelve oxen to support the baptismal font, a non-patrons waiting room, a matron/brides room, and an office for the temple president. On December 20, 2001, an angel Moroni was placed atop the temple.[14]
The temple is still small with one ordinance room and two sealing rooms and a total floor area of square feet ( m²).
Six spire sloped roof
The first temple built in the six spire sloped roof style was the Boise Idaho Temple, the design of which started after its announcement on March 31, 1982. The last temple built in this style was the Las Vegas Nevada Temple, which was completed in 1989. This style was then largely replaced by the classic modern, single-spire design. The unifying concept behind this style were the six-spires and the sloped roof. Other than those factors, the temples varied widely in size and capacity, as illustrated in the table below:
| Temple | Number | Dedicated | Square Feet |
Ordinance Rooms | Sealing Rooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boise Idaho Temple | 27 | 1984 | 35,325 | 4 | 4 |
| Manila Philippines Temple | 29 | 1984 | 26,683 | 4 | 3 |
| Dallas Texas Temple | 30 | 1984 | 46,956 | 5 | 5 |
| Taipei Taiwan Temple | 31 | 1984 | 16,000 | 4 | 3 |
| Guatemala City Guatemala Temple | 32 | 1984 | 11,610 | 4 | 3 |
| Stockholm Sweden Temple | 34 | 1985 | 14,508 | 4 | 3 |
| Chicago Illinois Temple | 35 | 1985 | 29,751 | 5 | 4 |
| Johannesburg South Africa Temple | 36 | 1985 | 19,184 | 4 | 3 |
| Seoul Korea Temple | 37 | 1985 | 28,057 | 4 | 3 |
| Lima Peru Temple | 38 | 1986 | 9,600 | 4 | 3 |
| Buenos Aires Argentina Temple | 39 | 1986 | 11,980 | 4 | 3 |
| Frankfurt Germany Temple | 41 | 1987 | 24,170 | 4 | 5 |
| Portland Oregon Temple | 42 | 1989 | 79,220 | 4 | 14 |
| Las Vegas Nevada Temple | 43 | 1989 | 80,350 | 4 | 6 |
Classic modern, single-spire design
The classic modern, single-spire design heralded an era of temple design where the temples implemented a more classic design by squaring off the roof and returning to a single spire design. In addition, the temples tended to be larger on the whole, with the smallest temple at square feet ( m²), and the largest at 104,000 square feet (compared to the earlier six-spire designs with the smallest at square feet ( m²) and the largest at 80,350 square ft). All of the temples built in this style were dedicated between 1994 and 1999, with the exception of the Campinas Brazil Temple which was not dedicated until 2002.
| Temple | Number | Dedicated | Square Feet |
Ordinance Rooms | Sealing Rooms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orlando Florida Temple | 46 | 1994 | 70,000 | 4 | 5 |
| Bountiful Utah Temple | 47 | 1995 | 104,000 | 4 | 8 |
| Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple | 49 | 1996 | 107,000 | 4 | 8 |
| Madrid Spain Temple | 56 | 1999 | 45,800 | 4 | 4 |
| Bogotá Colombia Temple | 57 | 1999 | 53,500 | 4 | 3 |
| Guayaquil Ecuador Temple | 58 | 1999 | 70,884 | 4 | 3 |
| Campinas Brazil Temple | 111 | 2002 | 48,100 | 4 | 3 |
Small temple pilot design
The Monticello Utah Temple (53) was chosen as the pilot temple for the first of the new generation of very small temples. Originally designed with one ordinance room and one sealing room as well as a small baptistry, this temple only had square feet ( m²) of space. These temples were to be the bare bones of functionality. They didn't have offices or laundry facilities. The changing rooms were small and there were no waiting rooms. They had a single ordinance room that acted as the Creation Room, Garden Room, World Room and Terrestrial Room, leading to the adjacent Celestial Room.
The temples were built next to existing chapels so the business of the temple could be conducted in the offices of the adjacent church. Temples will continue to be built on existing land adjacent to existing chapels, but the offices of the temple will be in the temple itself.
In 2002 an additional square feet ( m²) were added to the Monticello temple which included a second ordinance room and sealing room, a waiting room, offices for temple workers, and laundry facilities.
The Anchorage Alaska Temple (54) was built next, and subsequently expanded to include a second ordinance room, offices for temple staff, new men's and women's dressing rooms, a patron waiting room, a laundry facility, and an elevator to a new second floor for a total square footage of 11,937.
The Colonia Juárez Chihuahua México Temple (55) was built next, and has not been altered from the original design. This is the smallest temple ever built by the church.
Because the temples proved to be too small, the church quickly moved to a larger plan that included a second ordinance room and sealing room, offices, a patron waiting room and laundry facilities.
Small identical design
Beginning with the dedication of the Spokane Washington Temple on
August 21, 1999, by Gordon
B. Hinckley, the church began an aggressive temple building cycle, constructing dozens of temples using relatively
identical models and floorplans. Described as a "classic modern, single-spire design," these temples have two ordinance rooms and
two sealing rooms[15] Total floor area for these temples is
square feet ( m²). The exteriors may have slightly different finishes, but most are some variation of
List of identical temples
Variations in design
Occasionally the church would change the design slightly adding or removing square footage, but keeping the general design the same with two ordinance rooms and two sealing rooms. Other temples had distinct modifications to their exteriors and size.
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Additional sealing room
The church built several temples based on the two ordinance room plan, but added more square footage to accommodate an additional sealing room. These temples also varied in size and styl