In July 1847, immediately after arriving with the first group of Latter-day Saints in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young announced the site of a temple. As construction of the Salt Lake Temple stretched over the following four decades, the…

In 1962, the original Salt Lake Temple annex was demolished. Until the new, much larger annex was completed, the North Temple Square Visitors Center functioned as “a temporary annex and temple entrance”. Upon the completion of the new annex, the…

Latter-day Saint Church architects, learning through the experience of building the Endowment House and temples in St. George (1877) and Logan (1884), Utah, realized the necessity of having an annex for the Salt Lake Temple. The purpose of a temple…

Since its conception, Temple Square has attracted interest. Many visitors to Salt Lake City were suspicious that the “heart of the city” seemed shrouded in mystery. In 1902, nine years after the completion of the Salt Lake Temple, Church officials…

Like many Christians living on the frontier in the early 19th century, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints often lacked formal meetinghouses. They congregated in homes, stores, and out in the open air. Before permanent…

Brigham Young proposed building the Salt Lake Assembly Hall in August 1877, just weeks before his death. One reason for his proposal was because the Salt Lake Tabernacle proved too difficult to heat with the available technology. Like the Salt Lake…

The site of the Salt Lake Temple was identified just days after Brigham Young and the first group of Latter-day Saint pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 24th, 1847. While Young claimed to have received the basic design of the building…