1. St. George Utah Temple
Location: St. George, Utah, USA
Dedicated: April 1877 by Daniel H. Wells
Fun Fact: The St. George Temple is the oldest operating temple of the LDS Church. Other temples had been built before it, but these were either destroyed by arson or natural disasters or had to be abandoned when the Saints fled westward.
Location: Logan, Utah, USA
Dedicated: May 1884 by John Taylor
Fun Fact: The exterior walls, made of rough-hewn, dark limestone, were originally painted off-white to give the building a smoother texture, but in the early 1900's the paint was allowed to weather away and show the temple's characteristic rough stone.
Location: Manti, Utah, USA
Dedicated: May 1888 by Lorenzo Snow
Fun Fact: Every year, a pageant celebrating the history of the Church is performed on the hillside on the temple grounds.
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Dedicated: April 1893 by Wilford Woodruff
Fun Fact: The Salt Lake Temple is perhaps the most well-recognized of all LDS temples. It was built over a forty-year period and was the first Mormon temple to have a public open-house before its dedication. By square-footage, it is the Church's largest temple and its distinctive architecture makes it an international symbol of the Church.
Location: Laie, Hawaii, USA
Dedicated: November 1919 by Heber J. Grant
Fun Fact: Construction on this iconic tropical temple came to a screeching halt when builders realized they were running short on lumber. The members were asked to pray for an answer to this predicament. In just a couple days, a freighter was found stranded on a nearby coral reef. The captain of the ship offered the Church all of his cargo if they would help unload it. He was carrying lumber, and enough of it to finish the temple.
Location: Cardston, Alberta, Canada
Dedicated: August 1923 by Heber J. Grant
Fun Fact: First temple built outside of the United States.
Location: Mesa, Arizona, USA
Dedicated: October 1927 by Heber J. Grant
Fun Fact: The Mesa Arizona Temple became the first to perform temple ordinances in a non-English language when Spanish ordinances were offered in 1945.
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA
Dedicated: September 1945 by George Albert Smith
Fun Fact: The outside of the temple was completed in 1941 with completion of the interior planned for the next year. However, World War II shortages prompted the construction to wait until after the war.
Location: Zolikofen, Bern, Switzerland
Dedicated: September 1955 by David O. McKay
Fun Fact: First European temple.
Location: Los Angeles, California, USA
Dedicated: March 1956 by David O. McKay
Fun Fact: Construction was also delayed for many years by World War II
Location: Hamilton, Waikoto region, North Island, New Zealand
Dedicated: April 1958 by David O. McKay
Fun Fact: For many years, this temple offered over-night ordinances to accommodate weekend visitors who had traveled long distances.
Location: London, England, United Kingdom
Dedicated: September 1958 by David O. McKay
Fun Fact: The open-house for the London temple drew an unprecedented 76,324 visitors.
Location: Oakland, California, USA
Dedicated: November 1864 by David O. McKay
Fun Fact: The Oakland temple's exterior features two 35 foot panels with relief sculptures of Christ preaching in Jerusalem on the north panel, and Christ preaching in the Americas on the south.
Location: Ogden, Utah, USA
Dedicated: January 1972 by Joseph Fielding Smith
Fun Fact: This temple holds the distinction of the first to be dedicated in Utah after Utah became a state. The other four were dedicated while Utah was still a territory.
Location: Provo, Utah, USA
Dedicated: February 1972 by Joseph Fielding Smith
Fun Fact: Many consider this valley temple to be one of the busiest temples of the whole Church.
Location: Washington, District of Columbia, USA
Dedicated: November 1974 by Spencer W. Kimball
Fun Fact: The open-house of this temple was extremely successful, with over 750,000 visitors, among them then First Lady Betty Ford. The extensive open-house yielded more than 75,000 inquiries by non-members to the missionaries.
Location: São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
Dedicated: November 1978 by Spencer W. Kimball
Fun Fact: Prior to this temple's construction, the nearest temple for Brazilian Saints was the Washington D.C. Temple, nearly 5,000 miles away.
Location: Tokyo, Honshu, Japan
Dedicated: October 1980 by Spencer W. Kimball
Fun Fact: This was the first LDS temple built in all of Asia.
Location: Seattle, Washington, USA
Dedicated: November 1980 by Spencer W. Kimball
Fun Fact: The Seattle Temple was built close to the Bellevue Airfield, and because of this, the Church was asked to reduce the planned height of its steeple, and place a warning strobe light on the Angel Moroni statue. In 1983, the Bellevue Airfield shut down, so the strobe light was permanently shut off.
Location: South Jordan, Utah, USA
Dedicated: November 1981 by Marion G. Romney
Fun Fact: At the groundbreaking ceremony for the Jordan River Temple, Prophet Spencer W. Kimball gave some remarks, offered a prayer, and then personally operated an enormous Caterpillar tractor to move the first large shovelful of dirt. The groundbreaking of temples is normally conducted with hand shovels.
Other parts in this series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
More to come...
Very informative and interesting. Couple of things. The Oakland Temple, I think you meant 1964, not 1864. Also, you said the Cardston Temple was the first one built outside of the USA, but right before that is Hawaii which was built in 1919, but didn't become a state until the 50's, I believe. Also, All the Utah Temples that were built before Utah became a state. Just saying...
ReplyDeleteLove the pages!