Manti Temple: Interior

Note: This is one of a series of posts on the interiors and floor plans of historic temples:
1. St. George Temple (1877)
2. Logan Temple (1884)
3. Manti Temple (1888)
4. Salt Lake Temple (1893)
5. Laie Temple (1919)
6. Cardston Temple (1923)
7. Mesa Temple (1927)
8. Idaho Falls Temple (1945)

The Manti Temple is probably the best-preserved example of pioneer architecture. Dedicated in 1888 and located in rural Sanpete Valley, it has remained relatively untouched from modern renovations.

I pulled a basic floor plan of the temple from Thomas Carter's Building Zion. This floor plan is based on how the temple was originally built, so there are some inaccuracies and changes. I've kept his first floor plan here, but there have been some changes to the baptistry layout, the tunnel that originally went through the bottom of the east tower now holds locker rooms, and there have been some sealing rooms added. I've drawn my own plans of the second and third floors.

Bottom floor:

Second floor:

Top floor:

Like the original Logan Temple, the Manti Temple's endowment rooms begin on the first floor and end on the second, meaning that the Garden and World rooms are kind of "in-between floors," something you can't notice from the outside. But first, you come in through the annex.

Here's a old and a newer photo as you are looking in toward the temple:

A newer photo looking back toward the annex entrance:

The annex has seen many renovations since it was originally built, but it still matches the actual temple's architectural qualities very well--in its doors, door knobs and hinges, moldings, and other characteristics.

The annex also has interesting artwork on its walls--a Nauvoo-era temple apron belonging to Isaac Morley just past the recommend desk (visible at the end of the hall in the image above), a sketch of John Taylor by John Hafen in the men's locker room, and a couple of C.C.A. Christensen paintings.

Christensen (the same artist who painted the creation room mural) painted two murals of the temple hill in 1889. One of them shows the temple hill how it looked when pioneers first arrived in the Sanpete Valley. This one is located at the second stairway, where patrons go up or down for the locker rooms:

The other shows the temple completed. This one used to be located in the lobby, located directly above the old sacrament table that used to stand in the Logan Temple's assembly hall. In the 2020s renovation, it was replaced by an painting of Christ as the Good Shepherd, and moved to the back of the annex chapel. It turns out that when they found this painting, green had been crudely painted over the temple hill to make it look like the grassy knoll what the temple actually sits on. When preservationists removed the green, they were able to uncover the grant stairway leading to the temple, which was in the original plans.

The annex chapel that patrons sit in while waiting for a session to begin also has a beautiful, large painting of Christ with children at the front, painted by John Hafen in 1906 (it's a copy of Benard Plockhorst's Jesus Blessing the Children, which you can view here).

At the end of the annex hallway is the entrance into the temple proper. Going to the right leads to sealing rooms, the spiral staircases, and the baptistry. 

The cast-iron baptistry font and oxen were made in Salt Lake City in 1885-6, by the same mold based on the St. George Temple and used for the Logan Temple. Like St. George, these oxen don't have hooves, it just ends with legs.

The baptistry has some wonderful murals, done by Robert L. Shepherd in 1948, when he was also painting the Garden Room. On one wall, murals show the baptism of Jesus Christ and Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery baptizing each other. Directly above the font, doves and stars are painted.

On the opposite wall, a mural shows baptisms from the Book of Mormon.

Finally, scriptural quotations with landscape backgrounds on the other two walls were added by Wes Wright in the 1980s renovations. Overall, it's a colorful baptistry. In the baptism's lobby is George Ottinger's large painting, The Baptism of Limhi, painted in 1888 as the first image for George Reynolds' The Story of the Book of Mormon. Whether it's a copy or the original, it's a monumental piece to look at.

Patrons attending an endowment session, as they enter the temple proper, immediately turn left to enter the creation room.

The creation room is the oldest surviving mural present in an LDS temple. It was painted by C.C.A. Christensen in 1886. (The St. George temple murals came in the 1930s, the Logan Temples murals were removed in its 1970s gutting, the Garden and World room murals in Manti had to be redone in the 1940s, and the Salt Lake Temple came 5 years after Manti). This mural is the hardest to care for, because Christensen painted it directly on the plaster--it can't be removed. In the early 1980s, conservationists noticed that this mural was in the worst shape of the three, and took measures to preserve it. In the 2020s renovation, they painstakingly went over the mural one inch at a time, removing an old varnish that was mixing with the paint and putting on a new varnish to preserve it. I believe they originally planned to redo the mural before deciding to go to the effort of preserving it. It looks great!

The book C.C.A. Christensen: Mormon Immigrant Artist provides some detailed pictures of this beautiful mural.

The back of the room has two windows that originally looked outside, but an expansion of the annex covered them up. So the windows don't go anywhere.

At the front of the room, on the left side, begins the creation story--the formation of the earth.

As you progress clock-wise around the room, each day of the creation is told in the mural. Here is the second day; the separation of the seas from the waters. The third day (the creation of heavenly bodies) is visible in the wide shot of the room above, just left of the door. The portion of the third day has been heavily painted over by later artists in attempts to restore the original.

On the right side of the door is the fourth day; the creation of plants. (The line down this photo is in the original book; I believe this is where the walls come together in a corner.) Christensen used hollyhocks (common in Utah and his home country, Denmark) in the foreground; in the back are lombardy poplars (a common tree planted by pioneers in Utah).

Finally, the back of the room and the left (east) side shows the creation of animals. This begins with some depictions of Jurassic-era creatures and ferns. I love that Christensen included these drawings. For an interesting look at the context of these creatures, see this article.

Finishing up the west wall is the creation of the fowls, non-domestic animals, domestic animals, and water creatures.

From the creation room, patrons proceed up a small staircase to the garden room. 

Here, the garden room is seen from the front, looking back--so the door you see in this photo is the one patrons come through.

Paintings of trees, animals, and landscapes fill this room.

Here's an older and then more recent photo of the room's front:

As mentioned previously, the garden room and world room murals had to be redone in the 1940s. I believe that Christensen did the garden room mural while Dan Weggeland did the world room, but there might have been some collaboration between the two. The garden room is on the side of the temple is built into the hill, and apparently the garden room mural suffered some severe water damage. All we have left is an early image of the garden room showing Christensen's mural in his trademark style, along with a sketch C.C.A. Christensen left of what appears to be the original garden room mural for the Manti Temple.

 

 

From the garden room, patrons head up a larger staircase into the world room. 

Here's a reminder of the floor plan at this point in the temple. While the world room shows on the same level, it is considerably lower than the terrestrial room and especially celestial room.

This mural was added in 1947 by Minerva Teichert. I have absolutely no information on the original world room mural, other than it was probably done by Dan Weggeland.

 

 

This tremendous mural shows the history of the world. I have a separate post just on this mural, including more pictures, here. To give a summary: the back wall shows the tower of Babel under construction. The north wall (the one visible on the right half of this photo) generally follows the history of the gentiles; one can see crusaders, monarchs, explorers, and the poor and destitute (the silhouettes near the bottom). Along the south wall (not pictured) is the history of Israel, with paintings of Abraham, Joseph (and his coat of many colors), Moses, and Pilgrims. Both of these histories meet at the east wall (left half of the photo), on the American Continent, where a Native American figure stands at the center. Above him and the tops of the trees is a picturesque mountain valley, complete with a small city and a temple. The city represents Zion, not any place in particular, but it looks a lot like Manti (especially the temple).

 

This room was really well preserved in the 2020s renovation, although the only difference I've seen is that they moved the altar from the small balcony below the Native American to the floor in front. The altar isn't used in this room anymore, but I'm happy it stayed. From this room, patrons enter the doorway on the right of the Native American and enter the terrestrial room. (The doorway on the left was used by temple workers in presenting the endowment.)

The terrestrial room of this temple is one of my favorites. The benches here have small flowers carved into the sides. The details in the ceiling and moldings are particularly beautiful.

With the conversion to a filmed endowment, two large monitors were added to this room in the 2020s. (The other rooms have a screen that comes down from the ceiling.)

Last is the Celestial Room:

This sealing room, sometimes called the blue or persian room, is connected to the south side of the Celestial Room. It is definitely one of the most ornate sealing rooms in the Church. It serves as the temple's holy of holies, and served as such for the Church before the Salt Lake Temple was dedicated in 1893. The details are incredible. A frosted window in this room looks over the world room. It was likely placed there to provide natural light.

3 other sealing rooms are on this floor, off of the Celestial Room, along with the sealing office. This one is in the corner in the southeast tower.

One of the most stunning parts of the temple are the two wooden spiral staircases in the west towers. 

All of the pioneer temples, including Nauvoo, have spiral staircases. However, only Manti has an open design. In St. George, Logan, and Salt Lake, there is a central column. (The rebuilt Nauvoo Temple doesn't have one, so you get a similar view.)

I've included the description included in the Manti Temple Centennial book, which is similar to the one that temple workers read to you upon showing you the stairs:

"There are only three stairways in the United States constructed with no central support and of a large size. Two are in the Manti Temple, and the other is located in the Octagon, headquarters for the American Institute of Architects, in Washington D.C.

"Each staircase in the Temple contains 151 steps each supporting the other and wide enough for four men to walk abreast. Each staircase also contains 204 intricately fashioned spindles. The black walnut railings, where the joints cannot be felt, are the work of superb 19th-century craftsmen. The 6 June 1985 Manti Messenger quotes Mr. Emil Fetzer, Church Architect, as saying, "It would be difficult to match the workmanship today, even with the improved tools available." The black walnut used in the railings were imported from the East. 

"The staircase on the north circles clockwise--the one on the south circles counterclockwise. Each staircase makes six complete circles and rises vertically 76 feet, 2 3/4 inches." (The Manti Temple Centennial, 1888-1988; 104.)

The staircases are still used regularly. There are sealing rooms in the east tower on the second floor (same level as the world/terrestrial room, pictured below) and on the fifth floor (above the assembly room). They can only be accessed via the spiral staircases. They are used for living sealings, but they are very small and can't hold very many guests.

Finally, the staircases provide access to the priesthood assembly room on the top floor of the temple.

Like other assembly rooms, there are two sets of pulpits: one on the west end and one on the east end, representing the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood, respectively. The east pulpits have a microphone and small organ.

 

Here are a couple of pictures of the west pulpits (although they basically look identical):

Everything in this room, apart from modern sound equipment and upholstery, is original. The benches are original. The pine boards on the floor are worn with age. The windows are mostly original, and the wavy glass panes provide beautiful views of Manti on the south and the farms of Sanpete Valley to the north. The beautiful details and colors on the mouldings and ceiling match those of the Celestial Room. It's really a lovely room that really helps you feel the spirit of the pioneers who labored to build it.

Here are some older pictures. At some point they painted the central area behind the pulpits blue.

Behind each set of pulpits is a reception room. The west one has a beautiful view of the valley.

I love visiting the Manti Temple, and consider it well worth the drive. If you are visiting this temple, I would recommend doing a session, and asking to see the spiral staircases afterward (you can ask a temple worker in the annex hallway). It is a wonderful place.