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. Dedicated in 1893, it took 40 years to construct. 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. 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. and meeting rooms for church leaders. 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. 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. 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. 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, (although plans were later changed and many historic elements were removed Temple Square visitor access and tourism would remain during the entire renovation process, but in regulated and coordinated fashion. 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. 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, 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. These symbols include the following:

thumb|350px|center|Some of the temple's exterior symbols

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.

thumb|right|175px|Original 1854 design of the East side showing the horizontal angel, Sun faces, earth details, and compass and square window details. These elements were later modified or removed.

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 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.
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" 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. Additionally, five-pointed stars have traditionally represented the five wounds of Christ (hands, feet, and side) 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 (now the Joseph Smith Memorial Building) 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.

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 damage was outside the city, minor damage was inflicted on the temple. The trumpet of the Angel Moroni on top of the temple's tallest spire was dislodged from the statue, and some stones from the smaller spires were displaced. No other damage to the temple was reported. 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.