p. 477 | The Mormon Temple

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Aug 7, 1884

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 10, No. 30.

The Mormon Temple.

At the founding of Salt Lake City, one square was set apart as the "Temple Block" for holy use. This was intended to be not only the spiritual but the geographical center of the city. On this ten-acre lot the Mormons held their first worship; here were built the structures now known as the Endowment House and the Assembly Hall; here, later on, the combined voluntary labor of the members of the church erected the first tabernacle, and here were laid the foundations of the temple, which is still incomplete.

This temple is to be a tall, many-turreted building of white granite, which is almost as white and crystalline as marble, and unexcelled as material for an imposing structure. The granite is brought from Little Cotton-wood Cañon, where it is split from enormous detached fragments that have fallen from the cliffs. It was formerly hauled into the city by ox teams, but is now brought by rail. The temple was planned by Brigham Young. The style is one unknown to architectural schools, but is said to more nearly resemble the Gothic than any other.

The structure is of Cyclopean strength; its base, far below the surface, is sixteen feet in thickness, decreasing to nine feet in thickness at the surface. One course of the basement stones stands in the shape of a series of solid reversed arches. Above, the walls rise nearly seven feet in thickness to the present height of eighty feet, which is nearly to where the roof begins. There is no hollowness or "filling" or brick-work—nothing but solid chiseled granite through and through, not only the outer walls, but in the partitions, the ceilings, and the stairways. The window openings are like the embrasures of a fort, and the heavily-walled compartments of the basement suggest the direst dungeons. All the externals of the building have a religious significance. It is said that Brigham Young's intention was that the building should last a thousand years. This enormous temple is not intended as a place of worship, but as a sacred edifice in which various ceremonies of consecration, marriage, etc., shall be performed that are now celebrated in the Endowment House. For this purpose the whole building is cut up into little cloister-like rooms. The cost of the temple, which during thirty years has been building, is said to be, in round numbers, about $2,000,000. It is supposed that three years more time and another million dollars will complete it. It is doubtful whether there is in the United States another building so massive and genuine.—Harper's Monthly.