The Great Salt Lake Temple Photographic Robbery/Ransom Tale of 1911

  

 

                           The Deseret Evening News headline from September 16, 1911.

     THE iconic Salt Lake Temple was wildly in the news for photographs, not of its gothic looking exterior, but for surreptitiously obtained interior pictures, back in September of 1911, just over 18 years after the Temple was dedicated.

  What unfolded was a tale of lies, deceit and blackmail against The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

  Here’s a summary of what took place:

  Gilbert L. Bossard, a German convert to the Church, was living in Salt Lake City. He excelled at photography. In an interview, Bossard said that he spent the better part of an entire year sneaking into the Salt Lake Temple with a camera and taking a total of 68 inside photographs.

  He said he often hid a camera under his coat. He may have also convinced an assistant gardener on the Temple grounds (according to the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper of Sept. 18, 1911) to help him gain access to the interior of the Salt Lake Temple, at times. There is even a tale that he may have entered into the Temple’s interior through a large heating vent.

  In any event, he had the photographs to prove that he somehow took them, even though in one interview, he said it was usually that he was only able to take one interior photo with each visit to the Temple.

  Other than the 600 VIPs who got to tour the inside of the Salt Lake Temple, before it was dedicated, in 1893, there were no other public tours of its interior, Hence, there was a lot of curiosity about inside, where only members with a Temple Recommend could go.

   Bossard took his photographs and sold them to Max Florence, a motion picture businessman, who was formerly of Salt Lake City and since moved to New York City.

  It was no secret that Florence was in financial trouble.

  “Max Florence on financial rocks?” was a November 11, 1910 headline in the Deseret News, outlining his financial debts.

  So, he wanted to blackmail the Church into giving him money to not release the pictures publicly. In one interview, he mentioned a $100,000 sum of ransom, but then said that was not the amount.

  “Max Florence fails to scare the Church” was a September 16, 1911 headline in the Deseret Evening News.

                             President Joseph F. Smith                            From Wikipedia Commons.

  Church President Joseph F. Smith said, “I will make no bargain with thieves or traffickers in stolen goods. I prefer to let the law deal with them.”

  President Smith also stressed that the inside of the Temple was sacred, not secret.

                                  The Deseret Evening News from September 18, 1911.

    (Note that until the later 20^th Century, public tours of undedicated temples were rarely given and so to outsiders, the Latter-day Saints’ Temples were somewhat “mysterious.”)

  Florence seemed to also want to discredit the Church and even boasted that he could steal the Angel Moroni statue, if the Church made him any madder. He also said he knows the Salt Lake Temple as well as its architect (Florence was not a member of the Church and he also seem to brag as if he took the pictures, when they were taken by Bossard).

 

                             Elder James E. Talmage.                                From Wikipedia Commons.

  Elder James E. Talmage made a suggestion to the First Presidency in September of 1911, that he could write and compile a new book, “The House of the Lord,” that could include high-quality interior photographs of the Salt Lake Temple, taken by their own photographer, thus stealing Florence’s thunder, as well as handling the pictures in a complimentary and explanatory way, instead of for revenge and ransom.

   It was a bold, but clever move. That book was published a year later and contained 31 interior temple pictures. (Elder Talmage was made an Apostle in December of 1911.)

 Note that back in 1911, there was no quick way to release photographs to the public, as there is today, so a printed book was considered the optimal and widespread method.

   The Salt Lake Tribune reported on October 4, 1911, that Bossard, who took the unauthorized interior Salt Lake Temple photographs, was excommunicated. Years later, living on the East Coast, Bossard tried to regain his Church membership, but Church leaders said he failed to recognize how badly he had discredited the Church and its flagship temple.

  -Perhaps a long-lasting after effect to this incident was a phobia, a fear, among Church leaders, that the Holy Edifice could be invaded again. Security at the temple was probably reviewed and improved after the incident, And, as such, the Salt Lake Temple also had an iron fence around it and only members with recommends could get close to the Temple, or touch it. (No other temple seemed to have a similar barrier.) That didn’t change until about 2001, when the Church prepared to welcome the world for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Then, the wall came down and there was more open access to the Temple Square grounds around the Salt Lake Temple itself.

  -In addition, to this writer’s advantage, when he prepared to write/compile a new book, “Images of America Salt Lake Temple,” he was surprised at how many great interior photographs of the Salt Lake Temple from the early 20^th Century were available. Even though he knew of the “stolen photographs” story, it was a long time before he connected the dots and realized that without that ransom incident, such a book would likely not be possible, because of not nearly enough official inside pictures of the Salt Lake Temple being otherwise available, to support such a vintage picture book. (This new book will be available in April of 2027, through Arcadia Publishing.)

-If you would like a more detailed (and scholarly) examination of the Salt Lake Temple stolen photographs incident, “I’m Here for the Cash”: Max Florence and the Great Mormon Temple,” By Gary James Bergera, was published in the Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, Number 1, 1979.

A link, to cut and paste, to that lengthy article:

https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume47_1979_number1/56?e=65&o=1

 

 

 

1894 in Utah: When bicyclists outraced horses over 50 miles – Plus, a mini S.L. Temple Square tale

IT was an unusual race: man vs. beast and over an artificial track the human was the victor, with some 600 people watching.

“Ponies beaten by bikes. An exciting fifty-mile race for blood. Exhibition of endurance. The wheelmen covered the distance in 2:45 1-5 and won the race by a lap and a half – The dangerous freaks of a bolting mare – Ogden wild over the bicycle races.”

That was the headline in the Salt Lake Tribune of August 27, 1894.

Bert Austin of Farmington and Charles Parr of Mill Creek were the horse riders, while D.E. Brockbank and Jack Prince and “Shock” were the two human cyclists (or “wheelmen” in that day’s vernacular).

Since the horses had to remain on the outside of the track, located somewhere in Ogden, they were given a 3 ½ lap lead to make it even.

Public bets were made on the outcome of the race, though it was said to be poorly advertised.

The bikes rolled rather smoothly over the gravel track, while the horses threw up gravel, even into the spectator area. Even a brief rainstorm didn’t deter the racers or the spectators.

After some 32 miles of the race, the horses were faltering and some spectators were hissing and catcalling at them.

Cries of “foul” were also frequent when the horse riders would “spank” their animals, trying to gain more speed. The cries only stopped when the hitting did.

One of the horses would also sometimes take a diversion off the track and into the weeds, only to return with some lost time. The rider was described as “just was well of been a monkey on her back” of the horse for all it cooperated at times.

At the 45-mile mark, the cyclists had taken the lead and though the horses gained back some of the distance, they were beaten.

-MINI TEMPLE REPLICA? Jump ahead some 27 years and the Salt Lake Telegram of Dec. 13, 1921 sported an intriguing little news item: “Will decide upon acceptance of land” was the headline.

A gift of six acres of ground were proposed to be donated to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by the Harry Culver Company of Los Angeles. The land was on Grand View Boulevard in Ocean Heights – just outside the city limits of Venice, California (a city that merged with Los Angeles in 1926).

If accepted by the First Presidency of the Church, the site was proposed to include a “$500,000 temple to resemble Salt Lake Temple Square …”

Church members were said to be eager to build homes nearby and that a golf course could also be constructed nearby. The story even claimed that C.W. Nibley (Presiding Bishop of the LDS Church) contemplated building a home in the area at a later date.

Yet, the gift of land was apparently not accepted and the mini Temple Square idea never happened.

                        Illustration in the Salt Lake Herald of President Snow's ride.

-Yet another unusual LDS Story: “President Snow compared automobiles with ox teams” was a May 16, 1900 headline in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper.

President Lorenzo Snow had beaten Joseph F. Smith in an earlier 15-mile automobile race down by Cove Fort, according to the story.

Now he had ridden another horseless carriage in Salt Lake City. “’Oh, my, it is as wonderful as it is glorious,’” the Herald quoted President Snow as saying after his latest motorized ride. Though he had to shake the dust off his clothes after the ride, he seemed to have an affection for such “novelty.”

Later. President Snow said in the story, “I was thinking of getting a bicycle, but I guess the automobile is what I want, after all. It is quite different from driving an oxcart. That is the way I saw Salt Lake City first. But fifty years makes a great difference in most everything. In 1849 when we came here I drove one of the ox teams over the same roads, but we made on an average of 100 miles a week, while I believe that carriage would have no difficulty in covering about thirty-five miles an hour on good roads.”

President Snow also said that he has heard that there will be no stables or horses in “The City of Zion in Jackson County,” something he previously could not understand. Yet, now the use of automobiles might explain that.

He furthermore said that not having to carry oats in the bottom of a buggy, to feed horses, is also not something he would miss.

The Mystery of the Granite Record Facility

THE Granite Mountain Records Facility in Little Cottonwood Canyon contains what is very likely the world's most extensive collection of family records.

Operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, these vaults are encased in the mountain, located about 20 miles southeast of Salt Lake City.

When these vaults, about one mile up the canyon, first opened in 1963, the public was invited for tours. However, by the end of the 20^th Century, they were off limits to all but vault workers. The media were also never invited there, likely after the 1970s.

“LDS buys quarry tract as records repository” was a Sept. 29, 1959 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. The story stated that the Utah Granite Company and Temple Granite Quarries Corporation had sold the land needed for the records vault to the Church. Exact details of the transaction were never made public.

“Church cuts vaults in Granite quarry” was a Jan. 12, 1961 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. The story reported that some 80 years after the Latter-day Saint Church first began chipping and hauling away granite blocks for its future Salt Lake Temple, the Church was back in the same canyon doing other work with the dominant stone there.

Work had started on the project in the summer of 1960.

The Centennial Development Company of Juab County had the contract to do the excavation in the canyon. The company first drilled a 700-foot exploration tunnel, to be followed by larger tunnels.

President Henry D. Moyle, Second Counselor in the Church’s First Presidency, told Malin Foster of the Tribune that the vaults are being built at the safest known place from disasters in the area for storing records. The rock vaults were also considered an ideal location for the storage of records based on temperatures and humidity.

“Drills deepen sanctuary for Church records” was a May 29, 1961 headline in the Tribune. Staff writer Don LeFevre reported that a crew of 14 men were cutting through granite to create large caverns.

“Their environment is a dark, damp and cool one as they labor on the construction of the vault which will one day house millions of dollars worth of valuable microfilm and documents,” LeFevre wrote.

To that date, the drilling was through some 1,800 linear feet of rock and completed channels measure 27 feet wide and 16 feet high. A total of six portals had been drilled into the mountain, on the north side of the canyon, above Utah Highway 210.

(The canyon road leads to Snowbird and Alta ski resorts. The Church has a historical trail just inside the mouth of the canyon and on the opposite, south side, that commemorates the granite quarry when the S.L. Temple blocks originated from.)

“Crews work in LDS ‘cave’ project” was a Jan. 27, 1962 Tribune headline. By early 1962, crews were done drilling and were pouring cement and deciding the best type of flooring, walls and ceiling for this “cave.” Trenches in the floor had also already been made for future plumbing and electrical lines.

This story also stated that the First Presidency itself chose the site for this granite vault records repository.

“Impregnable storage vaults safeguard LDS genealogical records” was an Oct. 6, 1963 headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner. This Associated Press story stated that the vaults were originally called “The Little Cottonwood Project,” had cost more than $1.5 million, had been more than three years in the making and was slated for completion in about one year.

There were three 600-foot-long storage vaults, lined with 18 inches of cement and corrugated steel. Three large heavy bank-like vault doors covered the entrances. The three main passages were also intersected by three others, more than 400 feet long and all interconnected.

“LDS grants look-see of tunnels” was a Dec. 2, 1963 headline in the Salt Lake Tribune. Church leaders first toured the new granite vaults. Then selected civic and business leaders had their turn on day number two; and finally on the third day, the general public got to come and take a look on a guided tour. They were titled "Church Records Vault" when they opened. (Their current title is "Granite Mountain Records Facility.")

The Tribune story stated the inside of the vaults were painted in pastel colors and boasted self-contained power, water and ventilation.

The story also said that the vaults were “buried beneath 600 feet of solid granite.

There have been no public updates by the Church on these record vaults. Presumably, they have been updated and likely contain not only original microfilm records, but likely the cutting edge in records storage, including CDs and other high-tech equipment.

-Similarly, the U. S. Air Force had began work on its own Cheyenne Mountain Complex in 1957, inside a granite mountain in Colorado, near Colorado Springs. That much larger vault was not completed finished until 1967, cost more than $142 million and sits underneath an estimated 2,000 feet of granite.

-The Salt Lake Tribune of Aug. 23, 1967 reported that landowners in Little Cottonwood Canyon had dropped a plan to build a housing subdivision at the mouth of the canyon, in favor of constructing a private facility for microfilm and other storage inside the mountain itself. Located just up the canyon from the Church’s granite vaults, they were designed to be similar to those man-made caverns. Today, they are called Perpetual Storage, Inc., located at 6279 Little Cottonwood Road.

-The accompanying illustrations above are some of the images from a mid-1960s brochure, published by the LDS Church on the Vaults.

Is the foundation of the Salt Lake Temple composed of granite or sandstone?

DOES the famous and historic Salt Lake Temple actually sit on a base of all granite?

There’s no doubt that a sandstone base, taken from Red Butte Canyon, was the Temple’s original base. But is any of the sandstone still there?

The vast majority of all Internet searches find sources that imply the sandstone base was entirely removed – it is all granite now.

The most authoritative of these sources is from the BYU Religious Studies Center at:

https://rsc.byu.edu/archived/salt-lake-city/4-design-construction-and-role-salt-lake-temple

This report states that the Temple’s foundation was covered as the U.S. Army approached Salt Lake in the summer of 1857.

Then, as the Army threat disappeared, the foundation was uncovered as Temple work was ready to resume.

The BYU Religious Studies history of the Salt Lake Temple then states:

“At this time, President Young examined the newly uncovered foundation and became aware that it was defective. He and his associates noticed large cracks and concluded that its small stones held together with mortar could not carry the massive weight of the temple. On January 1, 1862, he announced that the inadequate foundation would be removed and replaced by one made entirely of granite. The footings would be sixteen feet thick. “I want to see the Temple built in a manner that it will endure through the Millennium,” he later declared. The work of rebuilding the foundation moved slowly, and the walls did not reach ground level until the end of the construction season in 1867, fourteen years after the original cornerstones had been laid.”

However, this report can be supplemented by several Deseret News stories, including a photograph from the early 1960s.

The Deseret News of March 30, 1963 published a photograph of when extensive excavations were made around the base of the Salt Lake Temple. This photograph lists the granite foundation as 14 feet deep (two feet less than the BYU article stated).

It also clearly shows a sandstone sub-foundation still there, underneath the granite foundation.

So, technically both statements of a granite or sandstone base are true.

An earlier Deseret News story on Sept. 8, 1962, stated:

“The story of the foundation and the back-breaking labors of the pioneers who toiled with oxen to haul giant pieces of granite from Cottonwood Canyon quarries to replace an original foundation of sandstone has been told.”

Thus, if there ever was a full foundation of sandstone up to the ground level, then the upper 14 feet of that base had to have been removed and replaced with granite. However, the BYU story stated that the temple structure didn’t rise to ground level until 1867, or 10 years after the threat from the U.S. Army. So, this casts some doubt on a full underground base of sandstone ever existing.

Notwithstanding, it is a fact that some 14 feet to 16 feet of lower sandstone sub-base still remain below ground.

The 1963 Deseret News story stated that the sandstone sub-foundation was 30 feet down. Amazingly, only hand tools, horse and oxen power created that foundation.

This sandstone sub-foundation covers an area of 4,850 square feet.

The photograph also reveals how layered in blocks and even partially eroded the sandstone sub-foundation appears to have been in 1963.

During the 1963 renovation, cement wells and footings were added to replace the previous rocky subsoil. At the same time of the 1963 underground improvements, underground passages were also added.

-“Facts about the Temple” was an Oct. 22, 1891 story on the S.L. Temple in the Salt Lake Herald newspaper. This article accurately mentions the deepest foundations as being sandstone.

“The Salt Lake Temple foundation is not laid of granite from Cottonwood canon (sic), as has been stated, but is of the same kind of sandstone as the temple block wall foundation – we call it firestone – and has never been disturbed or taken up and relayed as has been stated …” the Herald story stated.

The Herald also explained that oxen hauled the sandstone from a spur in the mountain a little south of the mouth of Red Butte Canon (sic), in blocks about three feet thick.

Back to the Deseret News’ 1963 photograph, it does appear to show the three-foot thick sandstone blocks in the sub-foundation.

-One other interesting excerpt from the BYU Religious Studies article on the history of the S.L. Temple is this:

“Because the builders recalled President Young’s desire for this temple to stand through time, the structure was very solid. Even at their tops, the walls were six feet thick, and the granite blocks were individually and skillfully shaped to fit snugly together. Nearly a century later, Elder Mark E. Petersen attested to the soundness of the temple’s construction. He was in the temple when a rather severe earthquake hit, damaging several buildings around the Salt Lake Valley. “As I sat there in that temple I could feel the sway of the quake and that the whole building groaned.” Afterward, he recalled, the engineers “could not find one semblance of damage” anywhere in the temple.”

So, the finished Salt Lake Temple may be more earthquake resistant than some may believe – notwithstanding that sandstone sub-foundation.

-Still one more interesting fact from the BYU Religious Studies article is this:

“Some have suggested that in the Salt Lake Temple, shafts were provided for elevators and spaces left throughout the building for electric conduits and heating ducts even before these technologies were known. Angell Sr., (the temple’s architect) however, certainly would have learned about elevators, which were just coming into use at the time of his 1856 visit to Europe. By the early 1860s, electricity was already being used in Utah for the Deseret Telegraph system. Hence, most of the temple’s interior was designed and built long after these technologies emerged. Although the west center tower proved to be a convenient location for the two main elevators, there is no evidence to suggest that their shafts were planned when there was no knowledge of this technology.”

NOTE 1: The term "granite" is a layman's term in this article. Geologists probably have their own different scientific terms.

NOTE 2: It was announced in April of 2019 that the Salt Lake Temple will close at the end of 2019 for approximately 4 years for extensive remodeling. This will be the first remodeling of that temple since 1963, when some of the photos on this blog were taken. Extensive seismic upgrades will be made -- and the sandstone sub-foundation will surely be exposed again.

-Originally published in the Deseret News.

NOTE 2: Temples can be vulnerable to earthquakes. Example: The Logan Temple's main structural beam was found to be cracked in two when extensive remodeling work began in 1976. It was surmised that a past earthquake (possibly from the March 27, 1975 Pocatello Valley Idaho quake that was near the Utah-Idaho border and equaled 6.3 in strength), damaged it.
Thus, if the temple had simply been renovated, the roof could have eventually collapsed. Fortunately, a total rebuilding inside the walls and roof was done.

The first sermon ever delivered in Utah territory

WHAT was the first sermon ever delivered in Utah?

According to the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper of July 24, 1921, it was delivered by a Mormon Apostle, Orson Pratt, on July 24, 1847, soon after the first group of pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley.

                                             Elder Orson Pratt

Elder Pratt based his talk on two verses from the Book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, Chapter 52, verses 7-8:

7. "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publishethpeace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

8. Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice; with the voice together shall they sing: for they shall see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion."

(Note that LDS Church President Brigham Young was too ill that day to give a discourse.)

Elder Pratt's discourse was an inspiration to the pioneers, since they had all safely made the trek to the Salt Lake Valley.
-And, on July 24, 1921, some LDS Church members met in Parley's Canyon (named after Elder Pratt's older brother, Parley), and held a campfire reunion to honor Orson Pratt and other pioneers. Many of this group were descendants of Pratt himself.

The Manti Temple: From Rattlesnake Heaven to Mummies to Bigfoot

                                            The Manti Temple.

By Lynn Arave

THE story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent probably has a little more relevance at the Manti Temple, than at any other Church Temple.
Why?

ACCORDING to www.ldschurchtemples.com, "The Manti Utah Temple was built on a rattlesnake-infested site, known as the Manti Stone Quarry."
The Temple's construction started in 1877 and was completed 11 years later in 1888, as the third temple in Utah.
Located on "Temple Hill," the exterior of the Temple was obtained from quarries in the hill where it is located.

                                          Some of the exposed rock just east of the Temple.

                         Some above ground rock, left intact,  in a yard just to the south of the Manti Temple.

This hill was apparently rattlesnake heaven as not dozens, but hundreds of the poisonous reptiles called it home when the first pioneer settlers arrived there.
In fact, according to the Ensign Magazine of March 1978, settlers "battled rattlesnakes for possession of the valley." 
According to several pioneer diaries referenced on scholarsarchive.byu.edu, the Temple Hill had the greatest infestation of all.
The first pioneers arrived in the fall of 1849 and sought refuge by building dugouts on the south side of the hill that would later be known as "Temple Hill."
After what was one of the worst winters ever in the area (according to the local Native Americans), a warming spring brought hope to the settlers.
However, as temperatures warmed in the spring of 1850, rattlesnakes began to appear everywhere on the hillside -- even in people's dugouts, beds, etc.

             The famous, now cancelled, Manti Pageant used to be held on this open lawn.

One pioneer diary claimed 300 snakes were killed during the first night they appeared. Another stated at least 500 were killed. Still another claimed "1,500" were wiped out. The extermination of the reptiles continued several more nights too.
Settlers primarily used primarily torches and clubs to kill the snakes and the miraculous factor is that there was not one report of a snakebite.
According to Utah Pioneer Stories on Sanpete.com, the spring of 1850 brought this development:
"Soon hundreds of hissing rattlesnakes appeared in the dugouts. They were everywhere! As the sun began to go down the snakes became more plentiful and the battle was on. The settlers armed themselves with clubs, torches and anything else that they could use as a weapon against hundreds of snakes."

                   Manti is a Utah pioneer city older than any outside the Wasatch Front.

Some 27 years later in 1877, presumably most of the snakes were gone by then, as Brigham Young announced the temple site.

President Young said, “Here is the spot where the Prophet Moroni stood and dedicated this piece of land for a Temple site, and that is the reason why the location is made here, and we can’t move it from this spot; and if you and I are the only persons that come here at high noon today, we will dedicate this ground.” (LDS Church News, March 8, 1958.)

A section of the City's garden, southwest of the Temple. There used to be a "Mortal" Moroni statue standing nearby, but it was permanently removed in about 2012.

Construction began that same year and the first step was to level out the hilltop so a temple could sit there. It required significant blasting as the hill contained a lot of rock.

Note that there is no Angel Moroni on either of the Manti Temple's spires. That's ironic, a lack of Moroni's image on the outside of the temple, given that from at least one source, the Prophet Moroni as a mortal, wandered the Americas and possibly dedicated the very spot where the temple is to be such.

(In fact, even today Temple Hill only has dirt that extends downward from a few inches deep to several feet before hitting all rock.)
When the temple builders were creating the western foundation for the structure, they discovered an extensive network of caves and tunnels, obviously where the rattlesnakes used to nest in winter several decades earlier.
Rattlesnakes have left a lasting impression on the Manti area. Indeed, one of the tallest mountain summits in the area is named Rattlesnake Peak, at 8,612 feet above sea level.

-There are also other, more fanciful tales regarding the Manti Temple.
There are unconfirmed stories of strange inscriptions on some of the rocks found inside Temple Hill's caves during the early construction.
Other tales speak of even metal plates and mummies found beneath the hill in its caves.
Some stories claim local Native Americans spoke about an ancient temple and altar being on the hill long ago. These Indians also warned of the dangers of going inside any of the caves.

-Even stranger story: At the timber camp in Ephraim Canyon, during the early construction of the Manti Temple, likely in the late 1870s, there was an incident one night where men of the camp were terrified by some creature in the forest. It made strange noises, killed some of their dogs and frightened their horses. They finally started a bonfire and shot guns in the darkness to try and get it to leave. It did finally depart.
Some believe this creature was Bigfoot and could have been the first recorded sighting ever of Sasquatch in Utah territory.

The enclosed arch where you used to be able to drive through the temple without a recommend.

-TRUE TALE though is that you used to be able to drive THROUGH the Manti Temple.

The original construction included an arched tunnel at ground level, just wide enough for a small automobile or wagon to pass through.

The archway was eventually filled in decades later and is now a large window and stone.

Still, people back in the day used to joke that Manti was the only temple you could go through WITHOUT a recommend.

(Some early photographs of the Manti Temple clearly show the archway.)

The Extensive History of the Ogden Temple

NOTE: This story is most suitable for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, given the depth and extensive details provided therein.

By Lynn Arave

IT took 40 years to build the Salt Lake Temple, but Ogden had to wait almost 125 years since being settled before it was blessed with an operating temple.

Then, there was the 3 ½ year gap of no temple again, as the structure was almost totally rebuilt, from 2011 to 2014.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve said, "It's not all bad to have a temple closed for a time," at the second re-dedication session of the Ogden Temple on Sept. 21, 2014.

He then said you may not take such a temple for granted and appreciate it more, once it reopens.
Yet, why did Ogden, Utah's second-largest city for well over a century, have to wait more than a century for a temple?

Well, it was simply because it was "Ogden."

Yes, Ogden was that "railroad town" that brought the liberals, the unions, non-Mormon mayors and more into Northern Utah.

Read any old Utah newspapers before the 1970s and it is clear that Ogden was not generally favored by Salt Lake County residents, nor by most General Authorities of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints either.

Ogden and Salt Lake also competed for many things over the years, from the railroad hub status of the Intermountain West, to the Lucin Cutoff and more.
(Ironically in the 21st Century, it is Salt Lake City that is far more liberal than other areas in Utah.)

First settled in 1847, Ogden area church members actually helped construct and finance the Salt Lake Temple, which was completed in 1893.

By the early 20^th Century, church members were eager for their own temple.

 Indeed, “Ogden to get temple, Mormons are told,” was a big headline in the Ogden Standard-Examiner newspaper on Dec. 13, 1920.

Church members at the North Weber Stake quarterly conference were informed then by Church Patriarch Hyrum G. Smith that Ogden would have a temple in the “near future.”

Patriarch Smith mentioned the overcrowding in the Salt Lake Temple and challenged members to be ready for new construction of both a tabernacle and a temple.

 However, in 1921, Church President Heber J. Grant made a special visit to Ogden and left indicating it was not the proper time to have a temple there.

 An article in the Deseret News on May 16, 1921, reported: “A temple site was inspected in this city early Sunday morning by Presidents Heber J. Grant and Anthony W. Ivins, together with local Church officials.”

               Today's 30th Street and Tyler sign, just southeast of Ogden High's stadium.


The Joseph Clark Family had approached the Church about receiving a donation of land, near 30^th Street and Tyler, with just one condition – that an Ogden Temple be erected on the property one day.

This 30th Street and Tyler land already had a religious history: In the year 1890, a Methodist University, dubbed as “Utah University,” was being built at the same address.

The entire first floor of that university’s main building was built by 1891, before financial problems and some national shakeups with the Methodist Church doomed that project.

The land eventually was returned to its original owners, the Clark Family, who then 30 years later wanted to donate it for a temple site.

Talking to Ogden resident Carla Vogel (age 82 in 2014 and who grew up at 32nd Street and Iowa in Ogden), she said her father knew the Clark Family well and always maintained the actual site the Clarks had in mind for an Ogden Temple was on the hill and to the east above 30th and Tyler -- AND actually where the eventual St. Benedict's Hospital would be opened in 1946.

She said that site meant a large portion of the city would be able to see the temple.

(Likely the reason the 30th Street and Tyler address was given in the articles, was because in that 1920s era, there was likely no real development above and to the east of that location. Also, with Ogden High School located in this same area today, would an Ogden Temple there have meant the high school, which opened in 1937, might have been built elsewhere? Possibly ...)

The 1921 Deseret News article also stated:

  “A movement has been on foot for a temple for this city for sometime past, owing to the great amount of activity of Church members in genealogical and temple work and the fact that only limited numbers can now be accommodated at the Salt Lake Temple. President Grant … announced that from $2 million to $3 million were now on application for other purposes and there was no telling when a temple could be built in Ogden.”

President Grant also lectured Ogden area church members, proclaiming that if every member paid a full tithing, many more temples could be readily built, like one in Ogden.

 Furthermore, President Grant identified Ogden’s Lester Park (663 24^th Street, where today’s Main Weber County Main Library sits) as better suited for a temple site.

One of those church planned projects, a Deseret Gymnasium in Ogden, was already on the drawing board, and was completed in 1925.

Area wards were assessed amounts to pay for the Deseret Gym and it was implied that after that debt was paid, a temple would be next to come.

What? A gymnasium before a temple. History does contain some perplexing issues at times ….

More than three years later, on May 7 1924, the Standard reported that the Associated Clubs of Ogden had written to President Grant about trading Tabernacle Square Park (site of today’s Temple/Tabernacle) for Lester Park. Purpose of the trade was to provide “a suitable site for an Ogden temple.”

That proposal was also turned down by the Church.

Again, this illustrates how LDS Church leaders did not favor the area, likely letting the liberal non-Mormons in Ogden supersede the fact there were many faithful Church members residing there too.

In the early 1890s, the LDS Church had actually given Ogden City the deed to the property that is now Tabernacle Square. However, the city decided it could not properly care for the property and it was given back to the LDS Church a few years later.

A report in the Standard on Dec. 20, 1893 stated: “The city gives it up. City Council gives back the Tabernacle Square to the church.”

In 1929, the Great Depression hit and in late 1941 World War II came along -- two other factors likely not in Ogden's favor for gaining a temple.

On February 12, 1956, Ogden did receive a new Tabernacle, the last such new tabernacle to be built in the church (not counting the future Conference Center in Salt Lake).
But not even having Church President David O. McKay in the 1950s hailing from Ogden Valley seemed to help Ogden's temple void very much. 

  Through the middle part of the 20^th Century, Ogden area church members were actually a part of the Logan Temple District and some wards/stakes would charter evening bus trips to that temple in the 1960s.
That was a difficult trip in winter, with Sardine Canyon to traverse into Cache County.

By the mid 1960s, rumors of Ogden having the next new temple abounded.

Sites in North Ogden, northwest Ogden, the mouths of the canyons, near Weber State College, and basically much of the east bench were also investigated as possible temple locations.

Many sites were unsuitable, because they were not available for purchase.

In the end, the three finalists were these sites:

1. Tabernacle Square.

2. The property where the future McKay-Dee hospital at 39th and Harrison Boulevard would stand, across from Weber State University.

3. The top of 9th Street (east of Ben Lomond High).

(Regarding the third choice, Charles C. "Chick" Hislop, former Weber State University cross county/track coach, said that was his father's property. He said his father always relished that his land was in the top three.)

With the railroad industry – previously Ogden’s bread and better business shrinking – some downtown business leaders also heavily lobbied the First Presidency to have the temple built downtown, instead of on the hillside.

That effort was really not required as Church leaders chose Tabernacle Square on their own as the new temple site.

Ogden’s temple location was officially announced on August 24, 1967 for downtown Ogden on Tabernacle Square.

Tabernacle Square in Ogden was designated by Brigham Young when he laid out the city during his first visit there in the fall of 1850.

Brigham Young chose the site for the Salt Lake Temple himself and he also chose the block for a Tabernacle in Ogden, that later became the temple site too. So, essentially President Young chose the Ogden Temple site indirectly.

 The main reason why Ogden and Provo were to receive temples was actually not the reason previously given in church publications.

The true reason was that Church leaders had first planned to simply expand the Manti Temple, which served Utah County and the Logan Temple, that served Weber County.

 It was only when church leaders realized how costly that plan would be – in that grandfathered status’ of those historic temple not being up to current building codes – that they suddenly favored a plan for new temples in both Ogden and Provo.
(Also, the fact that the Church started a building committee in the mid 1960s helped get better consistency and structure in church temples and chapels.)
Thus, it came down to dollars and the Church could built two new temples for far less than it would have taken to expend the Manti and Logan temples.

Emil B. Fetzer, Church architect, was given the assignment to draw up plans for the new temples. 
Brother Fred A. Baker,assistant committee chairman over all LDS Church buildings at the time, said President McKay "lit up like a Christmas tree" when his two counselors proposed an Ogden Temple, instead of expanding Logan.
(Mark B. Garff was the committee chairman and third member of this original church building committee.)
Fetzer was told by the First Presidency that even though the temples must accommodate large numbers of people, the costs must be kept at appropriately reasonable amounts. The temples were not to be as large or expensive as those in Oakland and Los Angeles, but they were to be full-size temples and not to be confused with the smaller temples of limited capacity, such as those built in New Zealand, Switzerland, and England.

In addition, the Provo and Ogden Temples would not have solemn assembly rooms, no multiple spires and no excess footage.
"Austerity" -- plain and simple qualities -- were what the First Presidency wanted in both the Ogden and Provo temples.
In fact, President McKay was very concerned that an announcement of two new temples being simultaneously would be perceived as spending all the church's money. He didn't want to be seen as a "wild spender."

“In describing how the ideas for the temples came about, Brother Fetzer once recalled: “I think this is the only building that I have designed in words before I started to put marks on paper.”

However, Fetzer’s original architectural plans were centered around the traditional “company” temple plan –- that is moving from room to room – telestial to terrestrial to celestial room for endowment ordinances.

Fred Baker said that he was told by the First Presidency in 1967 while Fetzer was in California, that an endowment film for all U.S. Temples was being completed by BYU and that no room-to-room new temples would now be needed by the church.
(Previously a different temple endowment film had been used in just a few temples internationally.)

Baker was to tell Fetzer that all his plans were now outdated and that the two had the weekend to come up with a new sketch plan for the Provo and Ogden Temples.

A large obstacle was Baker and Fetzer had a project over the weekend in London and were both flying there the next day.

The pair met up in New York and boarded a plane to London.
Brother Baker then told Emil Fetzer about the change in plans, which put three months of work and his sketches into the garbage can. 

Baker recalled the odd thing about that flight was that dinner was ready to serve almost immediately after the flight started, instead of later.

After dinner, Baker gave Fetzer the bad news about his outdated temple plans and the 2 began laying out papers on the dinner trays to try and sketch out a workable temple.

A stewardess saw their haphazard office and pointed out that the large serving table at the back of the plan was open, since dinner had been served so early. The two men moved back there and began sketching.

They drew a celestial room in the center, surrounded by 6 endowment rooms and then kept doing the math for hours to see how all 6 rooms could operate without conflicts.

“It was the biggest mess you ever saw,” Baker told me. “It was comical,” how we worked through the night.

“Emil was the architect, all I worked on was the space and timing“ Baker said.
20 minutes before touchdown in London, they had a workable plan.
(Fetzer was influenced in his interior temple design by a park in Copenhagen that was designed with what was called a Danish ellipse.)

Now that’s what you could call a “plan made on the fly” literally – as the Ogden/Provo Temple design came during an overseas flight.
Because of President McKay's directive to save money, Brother Baker admitted the building committee didn't spend as much time being concerned over the interior of the building.
Jim Seely has provided yet another insight into why the Ogden and Provo temples were designed the way they were. He said that Keith W. Wilcox told him that Emil Fetzer based some of the design for the exterior of those temples on Exodus 13:21, which states" "The Lord was going before them in a pillar of cloud by day to lead them on the way and in a pillar of light by night ..."
Thus, the white facade of the Temples was the white cloud and the golden spire was lighted at night to represent a pillar of fire.

In the fall of 1967, some excited Church members emptied piggy banks, postponed vacations and cutback on Christmas gifts that year, all to donate to the new temple’s construction.

(Before April of 1982, many construction costs in the church came from stake and ward building assessments. From then, the church’s general fund paid for church building costs.)

The drawings for the Ogden Temple were approved in early 1968. According to the LDS Church News of Feb. 3, 1968, completion of the temple was originally planned sometime in 1970. However, that was not to be.
Underground water problems, in particular, delayed construction.
The new Ogden temple site was finally dedicated on September 8, 1969 by President Joseph Fielding Smith and Elder Alvin R. Dyer. The groundbreaking was held the same day as President McKay’s 96^th birthday), with Elder Hugh B. Brown turning over the first shovel of dirt.
"This temple is being built because the Lord wants it built," President N. Eldon Tanner, stated in the Sept. 12, 1970 LDS Church News.
However, there was one big casualty to the original Ogden Temple – the old Pioneer Tabernacle had to go. To make room for a temple, this historic structure was torn down in late summer of 1971.

The 116-year-old building, on the Southeast corner of the Tabernacle Block, dated back to 1855 and had been remodeled several times, extensively in 1896 and again in 1966.

That pioneer building was it was so close to the sidewalk on the south side of tabernacle Square, that if someone was asked to speak extemporaneously and they happen to be sitting in the rear of that Tabernacle, it was far quicker for them to exit the building, travel on the sidewalk and walk in the southeast door instead to the podium. (Thus, it sometimes such such speakers were fleeing the scene though.)

Fred Baker recalled that the Pioneer Tabernacle was a structural disaster and had to go.

“It was the worst example of a building he said. It had no class.”
Sadly, this historic building had not been as well preserved as the Salt Lake Tabernacle and even if its fate hadn't of been decided until the 21st Century, its preservation still might not have occurred.
This building, being used as a genealogical library at the time, was located just southeast of the parameter of today's Ogden Temple and had to go.
Additionally, an old Third Ward Chapel, also still located on Tabernacle Square was torn down too.
The new Ogden Temple had four floors, 283 rooms and soared 180 feet above the ground.

     A copy of Keith Wilcox's rendition of the Ogden Temple, if it was located  along the east bench.

A public open house for the original Ogden Temple was held from December 16-30, 1971.
The temple, which cost about $4.29 million (or about $25 million in 2014 dollar values), was dedicated on January 18-20, 1972, by President Joseph Fielding Smith. However, President Harold B. Lee finished the remaining one-third of one of the dedicatory prayers, when President Smith became too weak from standing so long.
The first Ogden Temple was dedicated inside the Celestial Room, in six different sessions, over three days, January 18-22, 1972. Closed circuit TV carried the dedication services to six other rooms in the Temple.
The Ogden Temple area only included 24 stakes in 1972.

 Notwithstanding the 125-year wait, Ogden still had the church’s 14^th temple (with the original version), which opened in 1972 and was also the first LDS temple built in the State of Utah – Since others were completed before Utah became a state and the first temple built in Utah territory in 79 years.

However, the Ogden Temple came 95 years after the Logan Temple opened and 79 years after the Salt Lake Temple was completed -- an so Ogden area Saints had to wait a long, long time for a local temple.

Even though the original temple plans had included  a gold-leaf state of the Angel Moroni atop a gold-colored spire, that feature was initially eliminated to save money.

Saving money and efficiency were simply the hallmarks of the Original Ogden and Provo temples.

However, Baker said he, Fetzer and Mark Garff, the other Church Building committee member, agreed to make the towers in both the Ogden and Provo Temples still strong enough to accommodate an Angel Moroni statue anyway.

(It would NOT be until 2002, 30 years later, that the church would add an Angel Moroni to the top of the Ogden Temple. A few years later the Provo Temple also received its Angel.)
Fetzer, the Church's last main "architect," designed the Ogden/Provo Temples. However, Keith Wilcox, another Utah architect, is often erroneously stated as their designer. Wilcox was the agent stake president during the Ogden Temple's construction. Hence the confusion.
 The Ogden Utah Temple was also, of course, constructed as a sister building to the Provo Utah Temple, which was built simultaneously and dedicated only a few weeks later than the Ogden Temple, on February 9, 1972.

(Building the two identical temples together not only saved considerable money, but also shaved off about 18 months in construction time on the second temple, the Provo Temple.)
Brother Baker said, "It was temple quality work," he said of the construction of the Ogden and Provo temples. "But we saved every penny we could. They were 'working' temples."
Baker also admitted the building committee spent far more effort on the Ogden and Provo temple's interior, than on its outside.
When the first week's report of temple work statistics from the Ogden Temple reached the desk of the First Presidency in late February 1972, Brother Baker said the Brethren scoffed at the report. They couldn't believe so much temple work could be performed in one temple in a single week.
The Brethren were especially concerned that the "flagship temple," the Salt Lake Temple was being outdone by Ogden.
Brother Baker said he had to take the report back and re-check all the figures.
Then, when he delivered the first full month's report of temple work in late March of 1972, the Brethren were even more skeptical. He said they simply could not believe the Ogden Temple could do more temple work in a single month than in all four of the other temples in Utah combined.
He had to re-verify those figures too, but they were correct as the Ogden Temple ushered in an explosion of temple work.
In addition, the first (and standard) small envelope of names for vicarious work didn't last long in the new Ogden Temple. After a week or less, a box of names had to be delivered to the temple to keep up with demand.

                            Fred Baker, 88, at his Ogden home in 2014.

In retrospect, Baker said the only real deficiency with the Ogden Temple's functionality was in that the fact it generally took longer for women than men to dress for endowment sessions was not figured into the design.
In its early years, endowment patrons did not assemble in the temple's chapel first --- they went straight to the endowment rooms.  So, some benches were added outside the endowment rooms to help rectify that shortcoming.
Alvin R. Allred was the original Ogden Temple's first male proxy for a baptism on Feb. 3, 1972. Naomi Wall was the first female baptism proxy. Lowell Knight performed the first baptisms and Gerald C. Naylor was the confirming priesthood holder. 
Temple workers were trained during February of 1972. 
On March 4, 1972, the first endowment work was done at 9 a.m. That session included 22 brethren and 24 sisters.

In September of 1972, during a routine summer closing extra lockers for both men and women -- patrons and workers -- were added to keep up with unexpected demand.
At the same time, grass was removed north of the Tabernacle and asphalt added to try and keep up with peak parking demand.
The operate the temple initially, there were: 251 ordinance workers, 112 receptionists, 26 buildings and grounds staff; and 13 laundry employees.
The Ogden Temple had also boasted escalators for many years, until their upkeep and grease on white attire equaled their removal.
The Ogden Temple was also the site of many miracles over the years.
For example, these sample stories about the Ogden Temple are contained in the Church History Library Archives:
-One woman, LaVon T. Rees performed initiatory work one morning in the Ogden Temple in its early years. She was asked by workers if she would also do an endowment session, but had not yet taken her morning's medication and had also scheduled a golf game with a friend. So, she went to change clothes. In the dressing room she heard a woman sobbing, but there was no one in sight, or in the dressing room but her.
So, she felt impressed to get her temple clothes back on and do that endowment session. She began shaking and sobbing too, but as she got dressed, a yellow light seemed to come up from the floor and envelop her, warm her and comfort her.
As the session started, she saw the last name of the person another woman was proxy for and it was the same last name as her proxy name. She felt the woman she went through for desperately wanted her work done at the same time as another relative.
-A 15-year-old boy from Boise, Idaho, came to the Ogden Temple to perform baptisms for the dead. He had a restless night's sleep the evening prior and said he saw the name "John" appear as if on some sort screen before his eyes.
As he got into the front, he was the name "John" on the temple's display screen appear and felt comforted that this person was relying on him to do his work.
-In still another miraculous tale, Emeron Wall, a confirmation recorded at the Ogden Temple, seemed to suddenly go into a trance, while checking off names. He did not respond to anyone's voice.
When another temple worker touched him on the shoulder, he finally reacted and said he was OK. He said he saw a vision before his desk, of a beautiful women dressed in all white hovering above the ground. "Brother Wall, they had missed me," she said.
Brother Wall double checked his list and indeed one woman's name was not checked off.
Undoubtedly many such unrecorded miracles happened daily in the temple.
Another shortcoming to the Ogden Temple was itslow rate of attracting weddings. The unusual look of the outside of the temple, the lack of photogenic grounds and a dilapidated downtown Ogden likely all contributed to that weakness.
Still, the original Ogden Temple also lacked a wedding waiting room, something the new temple does have.
On February 17, 2011, the Church announced that the Ogden Utah Temple block would undergo a complete overhaul.
That meant short of a temple that had been destroyed by fire or mother nature, the Ogden Temple would be the first temple to be virtually totally rebuilt for other reasons.
This overhaul also meant that the historic Miles Goodyear Cabin -- the oldest building in Utah -- and the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers building both needed to be moved off Tabernacle Square, to a site a few blocks west.

Why the original Ogden Temple need to be renovated at all?

It was an existing temple that had become somewhat outdated,” according to Elder William R. Walker of the Quorums of the Seventy and executive director of the LDS Church's Temple Department.

Regarding the decision to redo the Ogden Temple, Elder Walker also said in a telephone conversation, “The First Presidency decided to do it.”

He also said the temple needed a lot of work and so a superficial remodel soon became turned into a full-fledged rebuild project.

Also, perhaps because of a combination of the downtown location and its space age design, the Ogden Utah Temple also never attracted a substantial number of weddings, like other Utah temples did.

It is hoped this temple will do so.

Sadly, the reason for timing of the tear down of the Ogden Temple was just a few months after Emil Fetzer, the architect had died.
That was the church’s plan to do so all along, independent of anything else – including the completion of the Brigham City Temple first. Once its architect was gone, so was the temple. The Brethren made this decision to tear down the Ogden Temple -- once Fetzer had passed on -- some six years earlier in about 2005, according to Baker.

The last operating day of the original Ogden Temple was Saturday, April 2, 2011.

Renovation of the temple was supposed to last just 18 months to two years, but the project required three years and about three months.

Much of the 16-month delay came from underground parking construction that had to deal with a large underground water problem. 

The former head groundskeeper of the original Ogden Temple and others, like veteran subcontractors, who helped build the Original Ogden Temple, had warned the Church and the contractor of that underground water problem, but neither would listen or take that problem seriously.
(So, the morale here is not that mistakes are not made by church members/leaders, but that the miracle is that notwithstanding such mistakes, the Lord's work still manages to go forward.)
It was only when the underground parking construction hit high gear that the underground water problem was acknowledged, and months of delays were faced.

In addition, Elder Walker said “it was a more complicated project than originally thought,” to redo the Ogden Temple.

Like most any home remodeling project, he said it became more complicated and lengthy that originally hoped for.

The revamped temple does feature the same Angel Moroni statue that was there before, refurbished and returned. It also still includes six ordinance rooms, same as before, though some are smaller in size.
The only portion of the original Ogden Temple left intact are the cornerstone and time capsule. Those were disturbed as little as possible.
(The cornerstone of the Ogden Temple's time capsule is a copper sealed box that is 31 X 24 X 8 inches in size. It includes photographs of LDS Church leaders at the time and also of area stake presidents. In addition, it includes a picture of the U.S. President, Richard M. Nixon, as well as newspapers and other historical items of the era.)
It was not any seismic deficiencies that meant the Ogden Temple had to be rebuilt. Sure it was re-built with strong codes in mind, but if the Ogden Temple was so deficit in earthquake readiness, then how can anyone explain the far greater such seismic faults in Utah's historic temples -- Salt Lake, Logan, Manti and St. George?
Elder Walker said the brethren don’t like throwing out dollar figures these days, so he declined to provide any dollar costs.

And, given the scope of the old Ogden Temple being so outdated and needing remodeling, it is likely only a matter of a few years before its sister, the same-aged Provo Temple, receives a major makeover too.
The interior of the rebuilt Ogden Temple is up several notches in fanciness. Instead of carpet, drapes and white walls. The redone temple boasts marble floors, stained glass and more elaborate light fixtures throughout.
The renovation also included energy-saving heating and plumbing systems, underground parking and a complete relandscaping in the temple block -- with a large reflecting pond on the temple's west side.
The temple also now includes two entrances, east and west side.
In addition, from an architectural and art deco style, the new Ogden Temple parallels parts of the design of some of the Ogden City's other historic buildings -- like the old Egyptian Theatre and the old City and County Building.
However, although the original cornerstone of the Ogden Temple was left intact, it was moved. Photographs of the first Ogden Temple show the dedication plaque and cornerstone on the northeast corner.
The revamped Ogden Temple has the plaque and cornerstone on the southeast corner.
Note too that the plaque on the new Ogden Temple is not the original one. A comparison of the two shows the same exact language, but spaced out differently. The new plaque is also much higher off the ground than the original.
The redone Ogden Temple held a public open house from Aug. 1 to Sept. 6, 2014. More than 550,000 people toured the temple during those dates.

A cultural celebration, featuring music and dance by 

young church members, was also held on Sept. 20, 

2014.
The temple was then re-dedicated in three different sessions on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2014.
The re-dedication also included recent parallel work done to the Ogden Tabernacle. That structure had its seating redone, some corner seating on the southwest end removed and other improvements.

  The Ogden Tabernacle during its construction phase and with the steeple removed for good.  


(However, the Tabernacle's steeple was removed permanently, so as not to compete with the Temple's steeple.)
It re-opened for temple work on Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2014. The first few days were said to be somewhat noisy and chaotic, as all new temple workers were manning their sites.
President Parley Baldwin of the Ogden Temple Presidency said at the re-dedication's second session that it was a "magnificent structure" and an "iconic temple."
Elder Holland stressed that the revamped temple is "the centerpiece of Ogden again."
This time around, the Ogden Temple serves 76 stakes of the church. The temple also has about 2,000 workers, as compared to about 1,400 for the original temple.
The original Ogden Temple was simply a landmark in LDS Church temples. Its revolutionary plan exploded a boom for vicarious work for the dead, that continued in future temples.

It was the first temple in the U.S. to feature a film for endowment work, instead of the room-to-room company plan.
At 112,232-square feet, the new Ogden Temple is smaller than the original 115,000-square feet it once had. The temple sits on a 9.96 acre site, between  21st and 22nd Streets  -- just west of Washington Boulevard, at 350 22nd Street.
This temple will serve more than 250,000 church members in northern Utah and portions of Western Wyoming.
What does Fred Baker think of the new Ogden Temple?
"It is wonderful, a fantastic building. It is gorgeous," he said.
Is he disappointing at the temple having to be reconstructed?
No. "The Brethren can do what they want," he said, stressing he supports their decisions.

He admits a "re-dedication" may not be an accurate word, given the scope of the temple's almost entire rebuilding, though.
The Ogden Standard-Examiner also reported on Sept. 27, 2014, after the temple had only been open four days, that "Ogden Temple filled with brides, grooms and sealings."
That was reported to be because many like the new look of the temple.

--Additional History of the Ogden Tabernacle and Tabernacle Square:

The lengthy history of Ogden’s Tabernacle Square reveals a potpourri of events, even changes in ownership and failed dreams for some never-materialized projects.

-The original Ogden Pioneer Tabernacle, on the southeast corner of the block, was began in 1855 and finally opened on Oct. 10, 1869, seating 1,250 people.

-However, soon after the railroad came to Ogden, work began on a new, larger tabernacle and the old one was to be a concert hall. The sandstone foundation actually reached a height of 4 feet before such plans were completely abandoned, for a lack of funds.

 (The leftover blocks were sold or given to nearby property owners and their use was visible in the foundation or steps of some downtown Ogden homes.)

-In the early 1890s, the LDS Church actually gave Ogden City the deed to the property that is now Tabernacle Square.

A report in the Standard on Dec. 20, 1893 stated: “The city gives it up. City Council gives back the Tabernacle Square to the church.”

-Also, in 1890, classes for Weber Academy students (forerunner to WSU) were held in the Pioneer Tabernacle.

-Next, the Pioneer Tabernacle was completely remodeled in 1896 at a cost of $15,000. A county-wide “Tabernacle Fair” helped raise the funds needed.

-There must have still been plenty of open space available, because “Football on the Tabernacle Square,” was a May 2, 1897 headline in the Standard-Examiner. The Gordon Stake and Weber Stake boys teams played for the pennant.

A week later, the May 9 Standard reported a baseball game being held on Tabernacle Square, with the YMCA beating the Quincy Schools by a score of 11-6.

 -In 1908,  a roadway was planned to go through the middle of the Tabernacle Block and then lots could be sold to finance a new Tabernacle. That never came to pass.

 -Some fencing, flowers and shrubbery were first placed around the Tabernacle in the fall of 1911.

-Despite the presence of sporting events on the Square, it wasn’t until the spring of 1913 that the area was fully leveled and made into a park. Some 4,000 loads of dirt were brought in, as the ground level was still low. Grass was planted and water lines for irrigation were installed.

The Tabernacle building itself was spruced up and an electric blowing apparatus replaced the old water-powered one for the organ. More than $13,000 in improvements were made.

 -The April 28, 1913 Standard report mentioned each area stake wanting its own building on the square and that a $100,000 tri-stake tabernacle should be built at the center of the lot.

In fact, a Dec. 27, 1907 Standard article mentioned earlier plans for a $200,000 new Tabernacle. None of that new construction happened.

(However, the Ogden 3^rd Ward Chapel and amusement hall resided on the southwest corner of the square for many years. In addition, the Relief Building, now DUP Museum, resided on Tabernacle Choir for many decades, as did the Miles Goodyear Cabin, with both now moved to 2100 Lincoln Avenue.)

-The original Ogden Tabernacle was a busy place and often, as early as the 1920s, overflow church members had to go to the nearby Relief Society Building to be seated.

-The next proposal for Tabernacle Square was outlined in the March 11, 1925 Standard, where Weber College wanted to create a first-class 440-yard running track, plus goal posts, bleachers and a football field on the interior. (That proposal never happened either.)

Elder Harold B. Lee finally broke ground on July 24, 1953 for a new Tabernacle on Ogden’s Temple Square. The $723.000 building was dedicated on Feb. 12, 1956 by President David O. McKay.

 -Ogden used to have its own, separate “Tabernacle Choir” for many years too.

-SOURCES:  Recorded/transcribed of interviews with Fred A. Baker on Sept. 8, 2014; other interviews with Fred A. Baker by the Church History Department; Articles in the Church Archives; Ensign Magazine Archives;  Ogden Standard-Examiner archives; telephone interview with Elder William R. Walker; other personal interviews.
OTHER SOURCE: Ensign Magazine, January 1972.


-Note 1: Fred A. Baker passed away on December 10, 2015.

-NOTE 2:  The author of this blog, Lynn Arave, co-wrote the official history of the Ogden Temple for the LDS Church, printed in 2014 and distributed exclusively to only a select group of LDS Church members.