St. George Utah Temple

The St. George Utah Temple (formerly the St. George Temple) is the first temple completed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after the forced exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, within two years of the death of Joseph Smith, Jr. Located in the city of St. George, Utah, it was designed by Truman O. Angell and is more similar in its design to the Nauvoo Temple than to later LDS temples.

The St. George temple is the oldest temple still actively used by the members of the Church. The temple currently has three ordinance rooms and 18 sealing rooms, and a total floor area of convert|110000|ft|m. It was originally designed with two large assembly halls like the earlier Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples. The lower Assembly Hall was partitioned with curtains to provide the ordinance rooms for the Endowment Ceremony. In 1938 the lower Assembly Hall was rebuilt with permanent walls dividing it into four ordinance rooms. The four ordinance rooms were later changed into the present three rooms, at the time the endowment ceremony was changed from a live endowment to one presented on film.

In the 1970s the temple was closed and underwent extensive remodeling. Spencer W. Kimball rededicated it in 1975.

Temple construction and dedication

A temple for St. George was announced on November 9, 1871 by Brigham Young and was dedicated on April 6, 1877. Even though the Salt Lake City Temple had been announced years earlier in 1847, construction would continue until 1893. The St. George Temple was built to satisfy the church's immediate need for an appropriate place for temple ceremonies and ordinances. Because of the pressing need, the building's groundbreaking ceremony was held on the day the temple was announced. It was the third to be completed by the church and the first one in Utah.cite web | title=St. George Utah Temple Visitors' Center | work=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | url=http://www.lds.org/placestovisit/location/0,10634,1801-1-1-1,00.html | accessdate=2006-06-16]

Brigham Young, President of the Church at the time, chose a six-acre plot as the temple site. Unfortunately, the Saints soon discovered that the chosen site was swampy with numerous underground streams. Young was consulted on moving the site, but the prophet remained firm in the idea that this was the site for the temple. To deal with the problem of the swampy site, the Saints created drains to eliminate as much water as possible. Then they decided to bring lava rock to the site, crush it and use the fragments to create a dry foundation for the temple. This led to a new problem: how to crush the rock. Someone suggested using an old cannon that the city had acquired. After creating a pulley system, the cannon was used like a pile driver to compact the lava rock and earth and create a firm foundation.

The old cannon had an interesting history. It was made in France and used by Napoleon during his siege on Moscow. During Napoleon’s hasty retreat, however, the cannon was left behind. It was later dragged to Siberia, then Alaska, and finally ended up at a fort in California. Members of the Mormon Battalion acquired the cannon, had it mounted on wheels, and brought it to Utah. Today, the old cannon is displayed on the temple grounds.

After stabilizing the foundation, work finally began on the structure itself. The walls of the temple were constructed out of the red sandstone common to the area and then carefully plastered for a white finish. The Saints worked tirelessly for over five and a half years to complete the temple. Historians James Allen and Glen Leonard made note of the dedication shown by the pioneers in Southern Utah. The workers opened new rock quarries, cut, hauled and planed timber, and donated one day in ten as tithing labor. Some members donated half their wages to the temple, while others gave food, clothing and other goods to aid those who were working full time on the building. Mormon women decorated the hallways with handmade rag carpets and produced fringe for the altars and pulpits from Utah-produced silk. At its completion, it contained a million feet of lumber, which had been hand chopped and hauled between forty and eighty miles. They also used seventeen thousand tons of volcanic rock and sandstone, hand cut and hauled by mule teams.

In honor of the temple, the Church's general conference was held in St. George. The temple dedication ceremony took place on April 6, 1877. Young presided and Daniel H. Wells, his second counselor, gave the dedicatory prayer. The St. George Temple was the only temple completed while Brigham Young was president. Shortly after the dedication and the conference, Young returned to Salt Lake and died a few days later on August 29, 1877 at age 76 years.

When the temple was completed, Young was not completely satisfied with the tower and dome; in his words, it was too "squatty." He suggested having it fixed, but the Saints were so excited to have the temple operational that Young did not push the suggestion. About a year after the dedication, on October 16, 1878, a large storm rolled through St. George and a lightning bolt struck the tower of the temple. Extensive damage made it necessary to reconstruct both the tower and dome. Young's feelings were well known and when a design was created, the tower was taller. This led the builders to claim that, even in death, Brigham Young got his way.

After remodeling of the interior, the temple was rededicated on November 11 1975.cite web | title=St. George Utah Temple Main | work=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints | url=http://www.lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-37-0,00.html | accessdate=2006-06-16]

Access

The temple can only be entered by members of the Church with current Temple Recommends, as is the case with all operating Latter-Day Saints temples, as opposed to LDS churches, which have no such restrictions. There is an adjacent visitors center which is open to the public.

=Additional

ee also

* Temple (Mormonism)
* List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
* List of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by geographic region
* Comparison of temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
* Temple architecture (Latter-day Saints)

Notes

References

*Allen, James and Leonard, Glen M. (1976, 1992) "The Story of the Latter-day Saints"; Deseret Book; ISBN 0-87579-565-X

External links

* [http://www.lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-37-0,00.html Official LDS St. George Utah Temple page]
* [http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/stgeorge/ St. George Utah Temple Page]
* [http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Parthenon/4909/stgeorge.html St. George Utah Temple Page]
* [http://www.lds.org/ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] - Official Site
* [http://www.mormon.org/ The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] - Visitors Site