This is the original Seventeenth Ward chapel:
The only other thing of note is the fact that the stake center's steeple is clearly a recent addition--you can tell without looking at an older photo, but here's one, anyway:
(Source: Church History Library)
I guess the goal was to make it look more like a Church--and it sort of does--but it sort of makes it look like the building can't decide which type of architecture it is. In any case, I will provide interior pictures soon.
I've been attending church services in this building since 1985. The steeple was added in Spring 2015 and I think it's atrocious. It doesn't match the style of the building in the least and the bright white color doesn't work either. The painting you're curious about appears to be the late LDS prophet David O. McKay, although I don't know any more than that about it.
ReplyDeleteA few years ago there was talk about building a new chapel on the property immediately to the east, which once housed the Salt Lake Home care center, also owned by the LDS Church. It didn't happen though. The current building is obsolete in its design and is too small to house the three LDS congregations that meet there each Sunday. There is only one hall that runs the length of the building which creates traffic jams. The cultural hall (gymnasium) is on the opposite end of the building from the chapel and so is not available for overflow seating. There are constant problems with the heating and cooling, and the flat roof is prone to leakage.
I'd have to agree, that steeple is just weird. But hopefully, if they do replace the building in the future, they can do better at designing a chapel that lives up to the stained glass! Thanks for the information!
DeleteWhoever chooses the spires to add on to already existing buildings needs to do better. There are many buildings whose architectural integrity are being lessened by the mismatching of building and spire. In my opinion, of course.
ReplyDeleteIt appears to be a Church policy at this time, and it's really not necessary. Steeples are now considered necessary in order to identify a building as a Church.
DeleteThe picture is a picture of David O. McKay, posing in front of his fireplace at his home in Huntsville. The painting he is standing in front of is him when he was young, so this artist actually did two portraits of him. This painting was put up in thanks to President McKay for saving the stained glass window and getting the new building constructed. The shape and size of the chapel is based on the dimensions of the temple in Jerusalem. The steeple sucks.
ReplyDeleteI was a deacon in the old original building in 1964. Played many basketball games in the new cultural hall. Grew up in the neighborhood. Don't understand why the steeple. 89
ReplyDeleteI was elders quorum president in the North 17th Ward in 1963-64, while the new building was being built. Back then, local units had to come up a portion of the cost for new buildings, and we were allowed to meet some of that obligation with donated labor, so I spent many a Saturday at the construction site! In the original building, the stained glass window was actually set in the rear (north) wall of the chapel, so that all the illumination was natural (as opposed to the artificial illumination for the window in the current building). In the photo of the original building, note the structure just to the left (east). That structure (which we called the "activities" building) actually dated to the 1870s; it housed the cultural hall and additional classrooms. The North 17th Ward had been created in 1947 by a division of the 17th Ward; when we moved in 16 years later, it still had its original bishop, Jim Bettridge!
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DeleteThe old 17th Ward building is also very much like the Manti Utah North Ward meetinghouse, no longer extant.
ReplyDeletehttp://ldspioneerarchitecture.blogspot.com/2015/12/those-whove-gone-before-manti-north-ward.html