Thursday, July 30, 2015

Logan Temple: Interior, Renovation, and Restoration

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)

This is a long post. I apologize in advance. I am going to go through the interior of the Logan Temple, talk about the reasons for its being gutted and renovated, and discuss the possibility of it being restored in the future.

Interior

As with my temple posts on Salt Lake, Manti, and St. George, I decided to make a post on the interior of the Logan Temple because I have some images that I don't think are online at all, and others that are online, but my copies may be higher quality. Because this is a blog on historic Mormon architecture, I will only focus on the Logan Temple as it was before its renovation in 1976. The images comes from The Logan Temple Centennial Commemoration.

This is the floor plan of the main floors of the temple, as it was. It's hard to say what floor this is, because participants in the endowment session began on the first floor and ended on the third. On this map, North is to the left, and East is upward.

1: Creation Room
2: Garden Room
3: World Room
4: Terrestrial Room
5: Celestial Room
In the center is the baptismal font.


Participants entered in through the annex (see the small hole in the wall on the left side of the picture) and ascended this staircase. It's also the staircase they took when they exited the celestial room two floors up. It used to be a spiral one, until a devastating fire in 1917 necessitated a replacement.



They then turned off to the left and entered the creation room. Here's looking toward the back of the room:


And the front. So participants entered in through the white door on the right.


They then ascend into the garden room:


In the floor plan, you'll notice that there is a door and small staircase connecting the garden and baptistry rooms. This is accurate; it was added to the temple in a 1916 renovation. The reason for such a door is beyond me.


You'll notice the seat in the font--up until the 1960s or 1970s, most temple fonts had this, so that one person could be baptized while another was confirmed. Then they'd switch places.


The garden room's mural was painted directly on the wall and could not be saved in the 1970s renovation. Fortunately, the creation and world room murals were preserved, and are in Church storage.


Next was the world room. You'll see how there was no conventional first, second, or third floor. Compare the windows in the creation room with the windows in the world room--they're getting taller as we ascend. The room is also more ornate.


Next was the terrestrial room, with the veil into the celestial room at an elevated level.


At the end of the hallway that houses the veil is this portrait of Christ. At the bottom are the words, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." This is beautiful and appropriate for patrons who are about to enter the celestial room. The painting is now housed in the annex lobby, and all patrons view it as they enter the temple.

This photo really doesn't do the painting justice. It's huge--probably about 15 feet tall--and Christ is wearing pink and blue (which sounds weird, but it looks beautiful). In the corner is the note: "Wm Armitage; Dan Weggeland, 1897." Both of these men are well-known artists who joined the Church; both contributed to murals in this and other temples. I'm not sure if Armitage painted this, and Weggeland touched it up, or if they both painted it--I'd love to know the story.

UPDATE: I found some information on this painting. It was originally painted by William Armitage in 1883. Dan Weggeland, who was also in Logan to provide art for the temple, was so impressed with the painting that he duplicated it in 1897. In the 1917 fire, Armitage's painting was completely destroyed, so the temple purchased the Weggeland painting to replace it.


Patrons then come into the large, rectangular celestial room. It did not have the two murals originally, but they were painted by J. Leo Fairbanks and added in 1929. The one on the west (below) shows John the Baptist giving the Aaronic Priesthood to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery; the one on the east end (see below this one) is Joseph Smith with the plates at the Hill Cumorah.



Update: I found some close-up pictures of the murals! They're not as high-quality as I would like, but I'll take what I can get:



There were also beautiful sealing rooms in the original temple. This one is the gold room, which functioned as the Holy of Holies. The curtain on the left leads to the southeast spiral staircase.




In case you are unconvinced about how detailed this room was, here's another picture, taken when some men were repairing the room after a fire. The details are stunning.

(Image Source: Logan Library)


This was the Presidents Sealing Room (not sure if it had that name for a reason):


And even the regular sealing rooms were beautiful. This is one in the southeast tower. Simple, circular, with a beautiful view.


On the top floor was (and is) the priesthood assembly hall. This floors was also gutted, but I believe they saved the woodwork and reused much of it. This floor is now carpeted, too. There are pulpits on both side--some for the Aaronic Priesthood, some for the Melchizedek Priesthood. Here's a good view of the pulpits as they were on the Melchizedek Priesthood side:


And the view of the staircases on the corner towers from the assembly hall:


Renovation

This temple was stunning. It was one of the oldest temples built. And in 1976, it was gutted and rebuilt on the inside. Which leads to the question: Why renovate it so drastically?

We can get glimpses of this answer in some histories. In 1959, when President O. McKay was president, David O. McKay noted that "the Logan and Salt Lake Temples are very busy, and are usually crowded...some of the people have been obliged to wait three hours for an opportunity to go through the Temple when they go to Logan or to Salt Lake" (Prince and Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, 268). 

A three hour wait time is not pretty. But President McKay was still waffling on the idea of building a new temple in Ogden, saying that "there are many places in greater need of a temple...no doubt the crowded conditions reported in [Logan]...can probably be overcome by introducing the new procedures," i.e., the film presentation of the endowment (Ibid).

But of course, the Ogden Temple was built and dedicated in 1972, just over a decade later. Apparently, this did not remedy the problem in Logan, because in 1974, Emil Fetzer (Church architect) was asked by the First Presidency "to propose plans for remodeling the Logan Temple...so that films could be shown as part of the endowment ceremony" (Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball, working draft, Ch. 35 p. 22).

The source continues: "Over weeks, [Fetzer] failed to conceive a suitable plan. Finally he considered the radical solution of removing all the interior divisions, leaving only the exterior walls and the fourth floor assembly room. Freed from constraints of the earlier arrangement of space, he quickly came up with a practical plan. When in February 1975 he presented it to the Presidency and others they appeared dismayed at the drastic proposal and took it under advisement" (Ibid). (I'm glad to see that there was at least some hesitation.)

"Late summer [1975], Fetzer happened to meet with President Kimball. They chatted and [Kimball] asked how he was coming with the Logan temple remodeling. Fetzer reminded him that the proposal was under advisement. Spencer said, "Yes, I remember now. We must arrange to meet with you again on this...it is imperative to have this work go forward as soon as possible." Approval followed in August [1975]" (Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride, Ch. 35 p. 23).

The record goes on to note that the building's footings were in sore need of retrenchment, which Fetzer arranged. Also, Fetzer did not plan to demolish the assembly hall level, but it also had structural defects that apparently required that level to be demolished. The roof also had problems that required it to be removed:


"Everything but the exterior walls and the four corner towers was gone. As Fetzer for the first time stood in the dirt of the basement level and looked up to see open sky through the skeleton roof trusses, he says, '"I was horribly shocked, . . . shaken at the boldness and audacity that I had in proposing such an extreme and drastic manner for changing a temple...yet, I knew that it was right"" (Ibid).


 Of course, one thing is evident from all of this: some type of remodel was needed. This rebuilding method increased the temple's capacity by 75 percent (Lynne Hollstein, "Tours begin in Logan Temple," Deseret News, Feb 10, 1979). And a lot of leaders were apparently just fine with this type of renovation. When complaints came from the National Register of Historic Places (of which the temple was a part), a regional representative of the Church responded, "Personally, I don't see any difference on way or another. The temple serves a religious purpose whether it's an historical site or not" ("Historical register status or not, Logan Temple will serve function," Deseret News, May 7 1979).


That is not to say that nobody cared. Presidents Kimball and Benson are both reported to have expressed regret about the remodel, even while they said it was necessary. A more sensitive remodel would have been more expensive, taken longer, and not as efficient as the gutting was--but, in the minds of many preservationists, it would have been better.

Restoration

The next question usually is, Will the temple be remodeled/restored? I believe that it will, but it's hard to say when, for a few reasons:
  • So far, of the temples that were significantly renovated in the 1970s, only one (Laie) has been remodeled and restored. The other temples that were insensitively renovated during this time period (Mesa, St. George, Logan) have yet to be done. If Scott Haskins is right about a remodel coming in 2019 for St. George, we could see that one done soon. Still, those temples will need to be renovated eventually, and probably soon.
  • The temple still has a fairly large district of 42 stakes. The new temple in Brigham City helped reduce its load, and the temple in Star Valley may take away a couple of stakes--maybe.
  • Temple renovations are expensive. A restoration type of renovation, in Logan, would be especially so.
I don't think the Church would make the temple exactly as it was (though it would be nice!), but they could change the endowment session to be progressive, return/redo the murals and other historical artifacts of the temple, and bring back the stained glass that used to grace the sealing rooms (and the gold on the walls of the gold room wouldn't be bad, either!). The current annex doesn't really go well with the temple proper, but I'd be willing to bear it for a restored interior. If it happens--when it does--it will be fantastic. It will be a true tribute to our pioneer ancestors and their works, and an implicit agreement that architecture has a tremendous effect on our spirits, our worship, and our lives.

That's what I'd love to see.

34 comments:

  1. I'd love to see this take place, too!

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  2. Thank you for all of this information! I would love to see the temple renovated. It was fascinating to see how it originally looked. Thanks again!

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    1. Thanks! I'm glad the information was useful to you!

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  3. I am very interested in your last statement, "It will be a true tribute to our pioneer ancestors and their works, and an implicit agreement that architecture has a tremendous effect on our spirits, our worship, and our lives." I am actually trying to complete a study of visual rhetoric centered around this very idea. Any other information about the symbolic nature of architecture in the church would be very helpful.

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    1. Susan, I would be happy to share with you some examples of common symbolism found in LDS religious architecture. Please send me a message using the Contact Form on the right side of the blog--there's more information I want to include than I can fit in a comment.

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  4. I would love to see a restoration. Maybe they could pull something off similar to the old/new Provo City Center Temple where digging deeper for the baptistry, keeping original design elements, and building dressing rooms and offices underground and under the lawn, freeing up space. Just thoughts.

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    1. I think they could do a fairly good job. I'm doubtful that they'd restore some things--like, so many stairs, so often--but I think they could do a fairly good job of restoring murals, furnishing and designs, etc. I'm not sure that they'd be willing to gut the temple all over again, so they'd probably keep the same floor plan and adapt it as best as they could. I just wish it would happen! :)

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  5. I am a direct descendant of Cache Valley pioneers who built the Temple at Logan. Thank you for sharing the wonderful photos of the temple before the "renovation." I had to Look long and hard to find these pics some years ago. Frankly it physically sickens me as I think of the pioneer craftsmanship which has been lost in Logan (and in Coalville and many other places). Yes, there was damage from 1917 fire which was never fully corrected (water damage, then rot to structural members etc) and the roof always leaked, among other faults. Also the original design was in some respects wasteful of the space (note the framed unused spaces between floors/rooms in the demolition photos). And yes, the primary purpose of the structure was and is to facilitate the work done therein. BUT, when one thinks of the physical labor and real sacrifices of the pioneers in the area who gave most generously and consecrated their time, talents, possessions and really all they had- many as dirt poor immigrants- the destruction of their consecrated labors is especially upsetting. The Nolan P. Olsen book states that before the temple interior was destroyed that "the BYU motion picture department...made a moving picture of the entire building and ita contents...and the church photographers took pictures of every scene, chandelier, wall and furnishings to preserve how the building looked" (Logan Temple p. 216) So hopefully somewhere there is extant that documentation that should be used to restore the interior as the pioneers fashioned it. Perhaps even if only the Gold Sealing Room,ordinance room murals and Celestial Room.

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    1. Thanks, unknown. It is really upsetting, but it was also a time when the preservation movement really hadn't caught on, and I think the Church was feeling some pressure in terms of temple capacity (and didn't think that another temple was the best answer). I don't think any of the Church leaders really looked back on that decision with pride (except Fetzer, who firmly felt that it was needed). I would love to see that film, though!

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  6. I attended the Logan Temple this summer and one of my biggest questions was whether the original temple had murals. Thanks for answering this for me. One of my ancestors ran the sawmill for the building of the original temple and served as a "temple doctor," so I have strong ties to this beautiful edifice.

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    1. Glad I could help, Wendy! That's a really neat connection to have to the temple!

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  9. The oral tradition in our family is that our father, Frankland J. Kennard (1903-1995), served by invitation as the artist's model for Joseph Smith in the two murals in the old Celestial Room. So, we have a keen interest in those two murals. Raeburn G. Kennard

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    1. Interesting story, Raeburn! I'm assuming the Joseph Smith in the mural looks similar to your father? :)

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  10. I have written a book on the Logan Temple called How Beautiful: A pictorial history of the Logan LDS temple.

    I have also produced two documentary films on the history and construction of this grand edifice.

    I have a lot of other photographs and information that are not included in this presentation of the Temple. If you're ever interested you can contact me at darrinkaysmith@gmail.com.

    I think you did an excellent job in doing your research and sharing the history of Utah's Beacon of the North!

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    1. Are the documentaries hosted to watch online?

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    2. Yes they are but only in part. I have made two DVDs about the Logan Temple. Feel free to contact me via the email address that I left you.

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  11. From what I have heard, several years ago leaders looked into restoring the temple, and it would cost the same amount as building 3 modern temples. President Hinckley said he would rather build 3 new temples since the Logan temple fulfills it's need.

    I do wish that the interior still had all of the artwork, but I'm glad to have a temple within 10 minutes of my house.

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    1. This story is sort of true. It was actually in the 1960's, and President McKay asked the building departmentto look into doubling the capacity of Manti and Logan. The conclusion was that so much of either temple would need to be redone to bring plumbing, wiring and accessibility up to code that it was cheaper to build new temples instead. Specifically, the suggested that building a temple in Provo and another in Ogden could be done cheaper than refurbishing either of the two aged temples. More about this story can be read here:
      https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1972/01/two-temples-to-be-dedicated?lang=eng
      And a more colorful telling here:

      https://nighuntokolob.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-detailed-story-of-old-and-new-ogden.html
      And here:
      https://nighuntokolob.blogspot.com/2016/02/why-were-first-ogdenprovo-lds-temples.html?showComment=1475422315766#c6684809367773381972

      In the two above articles, some of his details seem to be off (Oakland was the first domestic temple to use film, not Ogden) but most of it I have been able to find hints or at from other sources.

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  12. After the recent GC announcement about restoring the pioneer-era temples, the return of Logan's former glory seems even more hopeful- perhaps imminent.

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    1. It definitely seems like it's in the works--the main question will be what they end up doing in the renovation/"major restoration."

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  13. I like seeing the original pioneer craftsmanship in these old photos, but they also reveal the problems with the original layout. I don't think it would be worth it to try and bring back the original and also make it ADA accessibility. I would hope that if and when the Logan Temple gets another remodel, it will incorporate the pioneer details (like they did when the Vernal and Provo Tabernacles were converted into temples) while implementing a room layout that makes sense and also feels appropriate to the period, like they did with the Nauvoo Temple. With such a layout, I'd like to see the exterior elevator shaft and stairwell they added on the north in the 1970s be removed, and a new annex that fits with the temple's original look. The completed remodel of the St. George Temple might calibrate our expectations.

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    1. I agree Jason, I don't think a restoration would bring back this layout. They would likely restore the progressive endowment and the murals that have been preserved (and anything else they've kept) but still do the floor plan however it would work today.

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    2. (And based on the St. George Temple's new annex, I do think a new annex is in order.)

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    3. Religious buildings don't have to be ADA accessible. (However the Church generally tries to make its buildings accessible).

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  14. Is there an actual floorplan interior layout available of the Logan temple anywhere ? (The entire thing )

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    1. No, there is not; temple floor plans are rarely available.

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  15. A friend from the Church Historical Department told me that the pulpits from the assembly room were torn out and left to deteriorate outside in the weather before being hauled away. Fetzer had new adapted pulpits made that weren't so cramped and uncomfortable.

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    1. I actually learned that these were saved by the Church Historical Department, but yes, they were torn out and left outside before they got there and saved them. :(

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  16. I suspect the stairs off the celestial room in the old floor plan was to a holy of holies like the one found in the Salt Lake Temple. I believe all pioneer era temples had one and understand that each temple has one sealing room that can be converted to that purpose when needed.

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    1. Yes, every temple has a ceiling room that can and occasionally does function as a Holy of Holies. However, my understanding in the Logan Temple is that the Gold Room served this function, and it was located on the southeast corner of the building (not adjacent to the celestial room at all). I don't know a ton about this though, and come to think of it, every other pioneer temple has sealing rooms adjacent to the celestial room. Which makes me wonder if Logan did have any, or if it was the exception.

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  17. As someone who was directly affected by the Logan remodel (my first Temple Baptisms occurred there when I was a Freshman at USU; my husband proposed to me on the grounds of the Temple; he had been endowed there in 1964; and he and I were married there in December of 1967, so pretty much all of my Temple experiences until the renovation happened in that Temple). Thus, the gutting of the Temple was particularly heart wrenching for me. It was really difficult to be able to see clear through that structure for the two years the renovation was ongoing, but that was not nearly as difficult as walking through the renovated Temple during the Open House. I had to go through Open House about 20 times before I could walk through without weeping all the way through! NOTHING was the same. The beautiful stained glass (especially from the President’s Sealing Room off the Celestial Room where my husband and I were sealed) as well as the murals had been removed and replaced with sterile walls. The furniture was changed, and even the two chandeliers in the Celestial Room were sent to two other Temples. The only furniture items which were put back into the Temple were two vases that had been in the Celestial Room! Not only that, all of those replaced furnishings, etc., were removed and sold in the Provo Deseret Industries location without telling anyone in Logan that that was happening!! (Doing that was extremely insensitive to those who had called that Temple “home” for many years and would have loved to have even had a light switch plate to remember their experiences in the Logan Temple!!) The only thing that made the Dedication bearable for me was that I had been in the Assembly Hall once before it was demolished and, because it was redone in an identical manner, I actually thought it hadn’t been re-done when I and my family attended the Dedication in that room as I was a member of one of the Dedication choirs. Because we had attended the Ogden Temple while the Logan was being remodeled, I felt like, once we began attending the newly remodeled Logan Temple, that we were then just worshiping in a newer version of that Temple, except that the color scheme used in the Ogden Temple was more pleasing to me than the new one in the Logan Temple! Fortunately for me, we only lived in Logan for two years after that Dedication, so my personal despair over that remodel didn’t have to be revisited on a weekly basis for longer than that! In saying all of this, I know that, because of structural and access issues, changes had to be made in that Temple, but all of the interior details, which COULD have been replicated in the remodel — at least somewhat, were left out. Again — that was insensitive to the emotional and even spiritual needs of those who had previously worshiped there. Finally, my ancestors helped build the Manti Temple, so I didn’t want the same thing to happen to that Temple (and to the people who had loved it as much as I had loved the original Logan Temple) that had happened to the Logan; and so I am happy that those plans were changed to try to retain as much of the murals, etc., as possible! I think it is extremely sad that the Salt Lake Temple lost all of its pioneer murals in the current extensive remodel as well — especially when the reason for doing that was supposedly that it was needed to make the experience in that Temple the same as the experiences in all other Temples — as if most of the other Temples in the Church don’t have murals in them!!! In all, efficiency is important, but so is history! Those who do not take both into account when making sweeping changes on such important edifices really need to remember that!

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