{"id":421,"featured":0,"modified":"2026-04-17 19:32:08","latitude":40.76973699999999922738425084389746189117431640625,"longitude":-111.8932539999999988822310115210711956024169921875,"title":"The Bowery and the Old Adobe Tabernacle","subtitle":"","fullsize":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/ac50b09dd3d2785344e23a1a64225147.jpg","address":"","all_locations":[],"zoom":19,"creator":["Ryan J. Hallstrom, Brigham Young University"],"description":"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 accommodations could be built, Latter-day Saints often constructed boweries. A “bowery” was created by covering a timber framework with brush and/or tree branches.
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\r\nArriving just days after Brigham Young’s vanguard group, members of the Mormon Battalion entered the Salt Lake Valley on July 29th, 1847. They completed a small bowery in an area that had already been designated by Brigham Young as the “Temple Block”. This was the first structure built by the pioneers in the valley. Although the bowery was used primarily for religious meetings, it was also used for social gatherings.
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\r\n Salt Lake City’s population quickly swelled as waves of pioneers entered the valley. In 1849, another bowery, twice the size of the original, was erected.
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\r\nAs the city rose out of the desert, the Saints began construction on a tabernacle. According to the Church, the word tabernacle comes from the prophecy in Isaiah that “Zion would be like an Israelite tabernacle established before Christ’s Second Coming.” The Church of Jesus Christ constructed a number of large assembly halls, called tabernacles, to be used for religious and civic gatherings throughout the West. Here Saints would gather for worship services and also to “discuss the day to day challenges of the settlement process.” The first tabernacle built on Temple Square was designed by the architect of the Church, Truman Angell. This adobe building replaced the bowery. An organ for the Adobe Tabernacle was donated by a member of the Church and was painstakingly shipped from Australia to Salt Lake City.
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\r\nDue to the city’s fast population growth, by the time the Adobe Tabernacle was completed in April 1852, it was already too small. Consequently, in July 1854, the First Presidency of the Church announced intentions to construct a bowery once again on Temple Square. This bowery was built just outside of the Tabernacle to accommodate the large crowds that assembled for General Conferences of the Church. While the Tabernacle provided shelter during inclement weather, some, including James S. Brown and Elder George A. Smith, extolled the pleasures of preaching outdoors under the bowery.
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\r\nThis large bowery was later used as a workshop for workers who were constructing another tabernacle on Temple Square. That tabernacle, which is still in use today, was conceptualized by Brigham Young to be like a “turtle back” and was designed to seat over 12,000. The Old Tabernacle was demolished in 1877 and the Salt Lake Assembly Hall was built in its place.","sponsor":null,"accessinfo":"","lede":"The Bowery and the Original Adobe Tabernacle served as public assembly spaces in Salt Lake City’s early years. They helped the city develop as a tight-knit community despite the challenges faced by the early pioneers.","website":"","related_resources":["Allen, James B. “A Note About Boweries.” Nauvoo Times - James B. Allen - A Note About Boweries, June 19, 2013. http://www.nauvootimes.com/cgi-bin/nauvoo_column.pl?number=101700&author=james-b-allen.","Brown , James S. “Views on Out-Door Preaching.” The Latter-Day Saint's Millennial Star, July 13, 1861. Accessed on Google Books. https://books.google.com/books?id=65tJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA433&lpg=PA433&dq=brigham+young+on+preaching+outdoors&source=bl&ots=2Nykzop2nC&sig=ACfU3U3yzshEZJ7FxtTXGWKghpJCZs-bSQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjanemBstnoAhVMgnIEHbvKBrYQ6AEwCHoECAwQKQ#v=onepage&q=brigham%20young%20on%20preaching%20outdoors&f=false","Church History in the Fulness of Times Student Manual, “The Church in the Early Twentieth Century.” Chapter Thirty-Four. Published in SLC, UT USA 2003. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times/chapter-thirty-four?lang=eng","Esplin, Scott C. “Buildings on the Temple Block Preceding the Tabernacle,” In The Tabernacle: “An Old and Wonderful Friend” (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007), 107–36. https://rsc.byu.edu/tabernacle-old-wonderful-friend/buildings-temple-block-preceding-tabernacle.","“History of the Tabernacle.” newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . Accessed April 8, 2020. https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/additional-resource/history-of-the-tabernacle.","Jenson, Crystal Wride, \"The Geographical Landscape of Tabernacles in the Mormon Culture Region\" (1992). Theses and Dissertations. 4826. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/4826.","Smith , George A. “Preaching the Gospel”, Journal of Discourses 3. August, 12, 1855.https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Journal_of_Discourses/3/5.https://www.fairmormon.org/answers/Journal_of_Discourses/3/5.","“What Is a Tabernacle?” The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, May 13, 2014. https://www.thetabernaclechoir.org/articles/what-is-a-tabernacle.html."],"factoids":[],"files":{"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/ac50b09dd3d2785344e23a1a64225147.jpg":{"id":1748,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Replica of the Original Bowery built in Salt Lake City.","description":"The Bowery was the first structure built by white settlers in the Salt Lake Valley. This is a modern replica of the 1847 Bowery at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City Utah. | “Bowery” This is the Place Heritage Village. Photograph Used by Permission. https://www.thisistheplace.org/heritage-village/buildings/bowery","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/ac50b09dd3d2785344e23a1a64225147.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/ba29623d9cb22371203c56e6bf45331e.jpg":{"id":1749,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"The Old Tabernacle and its overflow Bowery.","description":" The Old Adobe Tabernacle is shown here with the Bowery standing next to it. After the Old Tabernacle was demolished, the Salt Lake Assembly Hall was built in its place. | ‘The Old Bowery and Tabernacle”. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. BYU Digital Collections, Religious Education. CES Slide Set H-28. https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/RelEd/id/2956/","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/ba29623d9cb22371203c56e6bf45331e.jpg"},"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/fullsize/963aed74e7f839af7e40293a97fd9524.jpg":{"id":1750,"mime-type":"image/jpeg","title":"Architectural plans for the Old Adobe Tabernacle.","description":"A page of Truman Angell’s architectural plans for the Adobe Tabernacle. The Old Adobe Tabernacle could seat between 2,000 and 3,000 people. | “Elevation of north and south ends of tabernacle.” Truman O. Angell architectural drawings, 1851-1867. 1851. Call number: MS 8777.
\r\nhttps://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/record?id=eaa70fac-e9e8-4fc0-bccd-614f8834078e&compId=b1d9b595-114a-4c4f-8461-22e6f5c853e0&view=browse. | 1851.","thumbnail":"https://www.intermountainhistories.org/files/square_thumbnails/963aed74e7f839af7e40293a97fd9524.jpg"}}}