Preservation Updates: St. George Tabernacle, SLC 5th Ward, and Salt Lake Temple

After all the excitement of the Manti Temple open house, there are a few other interesting news items that have come up in the past few weeks:

St. George Tabernacle closed for another project

Even though it just completed a renovation in 2016-18, the St. George Tabernacle closed this month for another 3-month renovation. The fact that it's so soon after a major renovation--and that it was announced so soon before it closed--tells me that there was some urgent issue that came up. The article mentions painting, roof repairs, and stairs, entries, and exits, so my guess is some leak. I toured the tabernacle just a couple of months ago and it still looks spectacular.

Salt Lake Fifth Ward Partially (and Illegally) Demolished

It's been all over the news, but the Salt Lake 5th Ward, built in 1910 and sold by the Church in 1975, was partially, illegally demolished on Easter Sunday. This is incredibly tragic that someone tried to bypass all of the city and historic codes to presumably do what they want with the property. 

From what I can tell the demolition did most of the entryway and part of the wall of the original chapel. Salt Lake City has said the developer has to rebuild it, so we'll see how it turns out.

Salt Lake Temple Rumors

As the Salt Lake Temple renovation progresses--two years away from its opening--I had a slew of people email me saying they heard that the temple was gutted. While I am as unenthused with the removal of the original baptistry and endowment rooms as anyone, this is not the Logan Temple fiasco all over again. (Prior to this week, I also had several messages from people claiming that the Angel Moroni would not be restored to the temple.)

Still lots of work being done

It appears there was a tweet several months ago that claimed that one of the building managers was in the temple and could see up to the ceiling, hence, the whole temple was gutted. But some basic fact-checking of the tweet showed that Pres. Nelson was standing in the original celestial room a couple weeks after he claimed it was gutted.

I think the entire basement level has been gutted, which would include the original creation room, garden room, and baptistry, to make way for four stationary rooms. To be clear, I still think it's tragic that these spaces were renovated so drastically. But I anticipate the rest of the temple will be preserved pretty well. The world room will be converted to another stationary room, but the terrestrial room shouldn't have any major changes as it changes to a veil room. The celestial room and its sealing rooms should also not see any major changes, nor should the rooms above them (the rooms holding council rooms for leadership of the Church and the assembly hall).

I'm as anxious as anyone to see the results of the renovation. While part of me wishes the Church would take a step similar to Manti and keep the progressive endowment--even with the film--I'm still hopeful that with the exception of the bottom floor, much of the temple is being preserved and even restored.

Manti Temple Renovation Complete

Photos were posted today of the completed Manti Temple renovation. All of the photos below come from Church Newsroom.

I'm very, very happy about this renovation. It seems they were able to keep everything that makes this temple unique, with the exception of the live endowment.

The annex looks much the same; a historically accurate green color is on the walls. You can see that Isaac Morley's temple apron is still hanging at the end of the annex.

In the chapel, John Hafen's 1906 painting (a copy of Benard Plockhorst's Jesus Blessing the Children) still remains at the front of the chapel:

In keeping with the Church's Christ-centric focus, especially in temples, the Christensen mural of the Manti Temple in the lobby has been replaced with a beautiful painting of Christ as a shepherd. I'm assuming the Manti Temple mural is elsewhere in the building. Beneath the painting, the Logan Temple sacrament table still remains.

In the baptistry, the murals of Christ and Joseph Smith's baptism were added by Robert L. Shepehrd in 1946. In 1982, the scriptural quotations were added by Wes Wright. 

The mural even extends to the ceiling above the font.

On the back wall is a mural of baptisms from the Book of Mormon, also done by Shepherd.

In the ordinance room, the Church has kept the original murals as well as the benches. I was particularly happy that they kept the benches, as it adds some authenticity to the endowment experience. While the film presentation is now used, they added it with projectors and screens that come down from the ceiling, leaving the walls undisturbed.

I had assumed that there would be some kind of equipment in place to make the endowment rooms more accessible--like ramps or lifts. It appears that after some study, the Church decided it would cause too much damage, and so it must still be difficult to complete an endowment session if you have accessibility concerns. (In one session I attended, they recruited 4 brothers to carry a woman up the stairs in her wheelchair.) However, with the Ephraim Temple being built 15 minutes up the road, no one in the valley should have issues completing temple ordinances.

The oldest temple mural in use, C.C.A. Christensen's 1886 mural in the creation room, remains. I had read in another source that the Church planned to remove it and repaint it during the course of the renovation, but it appears that they decided to keep it. This was the most difficult one, since it was painted directly on the plaster (not on canvas like the other ordinance room murals). They said they even found a few animals in cleaning it that you couldn't see before.

It's so nice to have this mural in place!

The garden room's mural, Robert Shepherd's 1944 garden mural has been preserved. The screens at the front, used by actors in the live endomwent, are gone. Also, heavy curtains (that presumably close when needed) have been added to windows in this and the world room; before, there were only sheer ones.

The most popular mural, Minerva Teichert's world mural, has been well-preserved here, too. I also like that the Church kept altars in the garden and world rooms (even though with the current ceremony's iteration they won't be used here).

The terrestrial room looks exactly the same, although two large screens have been added to the front of the room. While somewhat jarring, it would have been really hard to add projectors and screens here. In the other ordinance rooms, everyone faces forward; here people are facing 3 directions (forward and to the sides, all toward the center of the room), so a screen was probably the best option.

The celestial room looks the same, and it looks like it's kept much of the same furniture as it did before:

Several sealing room images were provided, although I'm less familiar with these and can't pinpoint their locations as well. Some are in the annex, and smaller ones are off of the celestial room. If I had to guess, I think the first sealing room pictured here is one of the smaller ones in the east tower (added in the 1980s renovation), the second one is in the annex (also added in the 1980s), and the last one is on the same floor as the celestial room.

The sealing room just off the Celestial Room--which serves as the temple's Holy of Holies--has also been beautifully preserved:

Finally, the Church provided images of the spiral staircases and the assembly room. Both look in great shape. In the assembly room, they've kept most of the floor uncovered, using just runners in the aisles, as before.

The benches face toward the Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits on the temple's east side. This side includes a microphone, speakers, and an organ:

The Aaronic Priesthood pulpits, seen here, are on the west side, but look exactly the same. After the Kirtland and St. George Temples, assembly room pulpits didn't have initials for priesthood offices.

Nearly everything in this room, except for the carper runners and some upholstery, is original. Even the panes of glass. No curtains are needed in this room, and participants can see a beautiful view of the Sanpete Valley.

It will be fantastic to see the open spiral staircases in-person again.

I'm very happy with this remodel. I wish a similar remodel could have been done to the Salt Lake Temple (or even the St. George Temple), but at least the Manti Temple remains the best way to see pioneer temple architecture.

Architecture Highlights: International Mormon Architecture

Note: This post is updated with new pictures.

The history of the LDS Church means that most significant architecture (built anywhere before 1950) is found in the Mormon corridor. Almost all of my posts focus on meetinghouses, chapels, tabernacles, and temples built in Utah, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Arizona. However, I've had several readers message me asking about historic international architecture. Here are some highlights I'd like to share:

Mexico

The Church has a long-established history in Mexico, beginning with the Mormon Colonies (just south of the border) in the 1880s. Two colonies still remain--Colonia Dublan and Colonia Juarez--and both have great examples of historic buildings. Dublan has this former meetinghouse, constructed in 1898, which now serves as a museum:

(Image Source)

Colonia Juarez has the historic academy (the only stake academy that remains in its original form, and the old LDS-run high school in Mexico), constructed in 1904.

(Image Source)

However, many other significant historic chapels are found throughout Mexico. I ended up serving in one of these on my mission (which I found out later). The best source to find these chapels is the Mormon Images Instagram account. Here a just a couple of good examples:

This is a chapel constructed of native stone in Santiago Tezontlale, State of Hidalgo. (It's a small town north of Mexico City). It was built in 1933, and is very likely the oldest chapel still in use by the Church. From what I can see a newer chapel connects to it, so my guess is that this original chapel now serves as some type of classroom.

(Image Source)

In another nearby town, Tula, there is a chapel with a tower. It was built in the late 1920s, but largely reconstructed in 1951.

(Image Source)

This chapel is the only one I'm aware of that has stained glass in the country.

(Image Source)

South America

The oldest chapel in South America is located in Joinville, Brazil. A number of Latter-day Saints from Europe, mostly Germany, had moved to Joinville. In 1929 they acquired an old house to serve as a chapel, and while it's been heavily remodeled, it's still standing.

 

New Zealand & South Pacific

New Zealand and the South Pacific have a long history in the Church.One of the oldest chapels there is found in Takaroa in French Polynesia, dating back to 1891. I believe this was originally a Catholic or other Church that the members purchased.

(Image Source: Mormon Newsroom)

 

New Zealand has a fair amount of historic architecture in Hamilton, where the Hamilton New Zealand Temple (currently undergoing a renovation) and the former campus of the Church College of New Zealand is located. Most of these buildings were built by labor missionaries serving for the Church. While the temple is being remodeled, many of the buildings of the closed campus have been largely remodeled or rebuilt entirely. Pictured below is the remodeled Wendell B. Mendenhall Library, which now houses historic exhibits. The architecture is much less ornate due to the conditions in which it was built, but it's significant just the same.

(Image Source)

Canada 

Most of the Church's historic identity in Canada traces back to the Cardson area, which I've visited and written about. However, the first chapel in Eastern Canada is found in Toronto, built in 1939.

The building has since had additions, but the current primary room is the old chapel. It has high ceilings, stained glass windows, a dark oak pulpit with "Thy Word is Truth" carved into it, and an original bench. 

 

 

Europe

Much more well-known is the Gadfield Elm chapel, built in 1836 by a religious group (the United Brethren) that entirely converted to the LDS faith 4 years later, thanks to Wilford Woodruff. The chapel was sold in 1842 to fund emigration, but was bought back by LDS members in 1994, and given to the Church in 2004. It's still open and operated as a historic site.

(Image Source: Wikipedia)

That's all I have for now. What did I miss? Has anyone else visited a unique LDS meetinghouse outside of the Mormon corridor, historic or not?