A Pictorial History of Mormonism | Temples of the LDS Church | Part III

Alas! Part III in my LDS temple series. Read on for pictures and interesting facts about each of the existing 140 temples and their place in the history of the LDS Church. (For other parts in this series, scroll to the bottom for nifty directory!)

41. Frankfurt Germany Temple
Location: Friedrichsdorf, Hesse, Germany
Dedicated: August 1987 by Ezra Taft Benson
Fun Fact: The week that the ground was broken for this temple was very busy for Gordon B. Hinckley, who was then First Counselor to the Prophet Ezra Taft Benson. President Hinckley had dedicated the Freiberg Germany Temple just the day before, and the day after Frankfurt's groundbreaking he had gone to Sweden to dedicate the Stockholm Temple

42. Portland Oregon Temple

Location: Portland, Oregon, USA
Dedicated: August 1989 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The open house for the Portland Temple drew an unprecedented 314,000+ visitors, at the time, a record-setter.

43. Las Vegas Nevada Temple

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Dedicated: December 1989 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The lobby of the Las Vegas Temple has an architectural element known as a "whispering gallery". The ceiling is shaped in a parabola which allows sound waves to travel and spread throughout the area enclosed by the dome. If a person standing directly beneath the edge of the dome whispers gently, another person standing under the opposite edge of the dome (a few meters away) can hear them clearly, as if they were right next to each other.

44. Toronto Ontario Temple

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Dedicated: August 1990 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Due to the cultural diversity of the area, the dedication services were translated from English into six other languages: French, Spanish Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Korean.

45. San Diego California Temple

Location: San Diego, California, USA
Dedicated: April 1993 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Crushing the record for the Portland Oregon Temple's open house, the San Diego Temple's open house brought in  over 720,000 visitors

46.Orlando Florida Temple

Location: Orlando, Florida, USA
Dedicated: October 1994 by Howard W. Hunter
Fun Fact: Along with the Bountiful Temple, one of only two temples dedicated by the Prophet Howard W. Hunter during his brief ministry.

47. Bountiful Utah Temple

Location: Bountiful, Utah, USA
Dedicated: January 1995 by Howard W. Hunter
Fun Fact: Set a new record for open house attendance by attracting 870,000 visitors, who were guided on their tour by 45,000 volunteeers from the Church.

48. Hong Kong China Temple

Location: Hong Kong, China
Dedicated: May 1996 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Standing on a lot where a Church meetinghouse and a handful of other small Church buildings originally stood, the Hong Kong Temple was designed as the Church's first multipurpose temple, housing facilities for those other buildings within its walls.

49. Mount Timpanogas Utah Temple

Location: American Fork, Utah, USA
Dedicated: October 1996 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Mount Timpanogas temple was built to relieve some traffic from the heavily visited Provo Temple. Many members wished to attend the dedicatory service, so the building had to be dedicated over 27 sessions.

50. St. Louis Missouri Temple

Location: St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Dedicated: January 1997 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The establishment of this Temple constituted a moment of healing and forgiveness for the Latter-day Saints, who had fled Missouri in 1838 due to persecution. The temple generated much interest and articles were written about it in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and in USA Today.

51. Vernal Utah Temple

Location: Vernal, Utah, USA
Dedicated: November 1997 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: This is the first temple to be made from an already-standing building. The building was originally a large meetinghouse, or "tabernacle" for the Uintah Stake of the Church, built in 1907. The tabernacle was gutted, the interior was redesigned, and the iconic Angel Moroni Statue was placed on one of the tabernacle's spires.

52. Preston England Temple

Location: Preston, Lancashire, England
Dedicated: June 1998 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The second temple built in England, following the London Temple.

53. Monticello Utah Temple

Location: Monticello, Utah, USA
Dedicated: July 1998 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Monticello Temple originally featured a Moroni statue made from off-white colored granite similar to the stone of the rest of the building. Temple officials soon realized however, that the statue sort of melted into the background on cloudy days, so just a year later, the statue was replaced with a taller, more traditional gold-leafed version.

54. Anchorage Alaska Temple

Location: Anchorage, Alaska, USA
Dedicated: January 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: At 61.10152° N, this is the northernmost LDS temple worldwide.

55. Colonia Juarez Chihuahua Mexico Temple

Location: Colonia Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico
Dedicated: March 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: At the time this temple was being dedicated, the surrounding area was experiencing a severe drought. In his dedicatory prayer on the Colonia Juarez Temple, the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley asked God for a rain to fall and quench the dry landscape. After the final session of the dedication, it started to rain.

56. Madrid Spain Temple

Location: Madrid, Spain
Dedicated: March 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: In the same complex as the Madrid Spain Temple, reside a meetinghouse, a missionary training center, and another Church building. The plot is often referred to as the "Temple Square of Madrid".

57. Bogota Colombia Temple

Location: Bogota, Colombia
Dedicated: April 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Because of difficulty in finding a location that was both available and suitable for the temple's needs, nine years elapsed between the time this temple was announced and the groundbreaking ceremony.

58. Guayaquil Ecuador Temple

Location: Urdesa, Ecuador
Dedicated: August 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The first members to perform ordinances in this temple traveled ten hours by bus. They came from two different stakes, and almost filled the temple in one session.

59. Spokane Washington Temple

Location: Spokane, Washington, USA
Dedicated: August 1999 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: To celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Spokane Temple's dedication, Mormons in the surrounding area strove to fill every seat of every ordinance through the entire day.

60. Columbus Ohio Temple

Location: Columbus, Ohio, USA
Dedicated: September 1999
Fun Fact: The white marble used to construct the Colombus Temple was quarried in the vicinity of Sharon, Vermont, the birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' founder Joseph Smith Jr.

Other parts in this series:
Part I
Part II
Part III
More to come...

A Pictorial History of Mormonism | Temples of the LDS Church | Part II

Hello, and welcome to the second installment of my temple series! My goal with this saga is to share the history of the Mormon church with members and non-members alike through pictures and interesting tidbits about each of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' many temples. (For other parts of this series, scroll to the bottom of this post)

21. Atlanta Georgia Temple
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Dedicated: June 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Many high-profile people were in attendance of this temple's open-house, among them Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves.

22. Apia Samoa Temple
Location: Apia, Tuamasaga, Samoa
Dedicated: August 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: In 2003, the Apia Samoa Temple, while closed for maintenance, was destroyed when a fire broke out. About a week later, the Prophet Gordon B. Hinckley announced plans to rebuild. The new temple was finished in 2005, still possessing most of the original architectural details of the original, though updated with a more practical floor plan. The statue of the Angel Moroni which stood atop the original temple's steeple survived the blaze, and was used on the new temple as well.

23. Nuku'alofa Tonga Temple
Location: Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
Dedicated: August 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Nuku'alofa Temple was under construction around the same time as the Apia Samoa Temple, and the two shared an arhcitectural layout until the Apia Samoa Temple was redesigned.

24. Santiago Chile Temple
Location: Santiago, Chile
Dedicated: September 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: This was the first temple built in a Spanish-speaking nation.

25. Papeete Tahiti Temple
Location: Papeete, Tahiti
Dedicated: October 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Before this establishment of a Tahitian temple, members of the Church would have to travel 2,500 miles if they wished to attend the nearest temple (Hamilton, New Zealand).

26. Mexico City Mexico Temple
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Dedicated: December 1983 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact:  The Mexico City Temple is the largest temple outside of the United States, and recieved an international award for its artistic use of precast concrete. The University of Mexico's school of architecture has praised the temple, and given it much study.

27. Boise Idaho Temple
Location: Boise, Idaho, USA
Dedicated: May 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: For the year following its dedication, the Boise Idaho Temple operated at 102 percent of its capacity, showcasing the local members' pride in temple work.

28. Sydney Australia Temple
Location: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Dedicated: September 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: When the Temple was built, the Australian government originally ruled that it had to be without the statue of the Angel Moroni. Members of the Church gave the matter much prayer and fasting, and a year later, the decision was overturned and the statue found its place atop the spire of the temple.

29. Manila Phillipines Temple
Location: Manila, Metro Manila, The Phillippines
Dedicated: September 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: A typhoon was headed directly for Manila the day before the groundbreaking was to take place. Prayers were said by the members, and the next day, the storm changed course, allowing the groundbreaking to happen as scheduled.

30. Dallas Texas Temple
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Dedicated: October 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Dallas Temple shares an architectural design with its counterparts in Boise, Idaho and Chicago, Illinois.

31. Taipei Taiwan Temple
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Dedicated: November 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Church officials made efforts to be respectful of the surrounding community in there design of this temple. The blue tile roof complements the nearby Chiang Kai-shek Memorial hall.

32.Guatemala City Guatemala Temple
Location: Guatemala City, Guatemala Department, Guatemala
Dedicated: November 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Some 3,700 free copies of the Book of Mormon were given to visitors of the temple open-house, and most of these books contained handwritten testimonies of Church members in Guatemala.

33. Freiberg Germany Temple
Location: Freiberg, Saxony, Germany
Dedicated: June 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: Having been built in East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall, the temple in Freiberg holds the distinction of the first, and so far only, temple built in a communist nation.

34. Stockholm Sweden Temple
Location: Stockholm, Södermanland, Sweden
Dedicated: July 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: In 1995, King Carl XVI and Queen Silvia visited the temple grounds, welcomed by the Prophet Thomas S. Monson.

35. Chicago Illinois Temple
Location: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dedicated: August 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Chicago Temple became the second to be built in the state of Illinois, the first being the Nauvoo Temple, which was destroyed by arson in 1848 and eventually rebuilt in 2002.

36. Johannesburg South Africa Temple
Location: Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa
Dedicated: August 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: This was the first temple built on the continent of Africa.

37. Seoul Korea Temple
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Dedicated: December 1985 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The Church and the people of Korea have a common passion for family history. It is an old tradition in Korea to remember and keep records of ones ancestors, and the LDS Church stresses family history to perform temple ordinances for ancestors that didn't have a chance in life to be exposed to the gospel, but would have accepted it had they been given the chance. Thanks to this shared interest, one Korean Mormon was able to offer his own ancestral records dating all the way back to 927 AD.

38. Lima Peru Temple
Location: Lima, Lima Province, Peru
Dedicated: January 1986 by Gordon B. Hinckley
Fun Fact: The temple in Lima is known for being extremely busy, crowds of Saint often waiting in lines that stretch outside the building.

39. Buenos Aires Argentina Temple
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dedicated: January 1986 by Thomas S. Monson
Fun Fact: Built with similar architecture to the Lima Peru Temple, the Buenos Aires Temple was dedicated just one week after its sister in Peru.

40. Denver Colorado Temple
Location: Denver, Colorado, USA
Dedicated: October 1986 by Ezra Taft Benson
Fun Fact: At first, residents of the neighboring community were opposed to the idea of the Temple being lit with floodlights all night, so the Church agreed to shut the the lights off at 11:00PM. Over time however, the community grew to enjoy the beauty of the Temple, and requested that the lights be left on all night.

Other parts in this series:

Part I
Part II
Part III
More to come...

A Pictorial History of Mormonism | Temples of the LDS Church Part I

Scattered across the globe, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has constructed 168 temples, each one a beautiful house of the Lord where worthy members can come to worship and bind themselves and their families to God. Below I have included pictures of the first 20 of these beautiful houses of worship and included some interesting facts about each, and how they fit into the storied history of Mormonism. (More installments in this series to come)


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.

2. Logan Utah Temple
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.

3. Manti Utah Temple
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.

4. Salt Lake Temple
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.

5. Laie Hawaii Temple

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.

6. Cardston Alberta Temple

Location: Cardston, Alberta, Canada
Dedicated: August 1923 by Heber J. Grant
Fun Fact: First temple built outside of the United States.

7. Mesa Arizona Temple

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.

8. Idaho Falls Idaho Temple

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.

9. Bern Switzerland Temple

Location: Zolikofen, Bern, Switzerland
Dedicated: September 1955 by David O. McKay
Fun Fact: First European temple.

10. Los Angeles California 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

11. Hamilton New Zealand Temple

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.

12.London England Temple

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.

13. Oakland California Temple

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.

14. Ogden Utah Temple

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.

15. Provo Utah Temple

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.

16. Washington D.C Temple
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.

17. São Paulo Brazil Temple

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.

18. Tokyo Japan Temple

Location: Tokyo, Honshu, Japan
Dedicated: October 1980 by Spencer W. Kimball
Fun Fact: This was the first LDS temple built in all of Asia.

19. Seattle Washington Temple

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.

20. Jordan River Utah Temple

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...