Pine Valley Branch: Classrooms and Prayer Room

On the lower floor of the chapel is a classroom that can be used as chapel overflow, if needed. The pews here are not original, but were taken from the Beaver Ward chapel during a remodel.

At the front of the classroom is access to a small room that functions as the Relief Society Room. From here, a small staircase can be taken up to the chapel itself.

From the rostrum of the chapel, another small, narrow staircase takes you up to the prayer room on the top floor. This was only accessible by ladder until 1966. Tours mentioned that teachers would hold prayer meetings here prior to teaching their classes. Local leaders may have also held prayer circles in this room.

They have also added access from this room into the attic, so that visitors can see the curved beams that were used to build the ceiling of the chapel, in the manner of a ship's hull.

Pine Valley Branch: Chapel Interior

Because of the sheer amount of visitors that were coming through this chapel (at 10 AM on a weekday), I wasn't able to get very good pictures. This building is fairly well documented, though.

The sacrament table and pulpit were added to the chapel during its 2004-2005 restoration.

Pine Valley Branch

The Pine Valley Branch chapel, despite its rural location, is probably one of the more well-known chapels in LDS Architecture. Pine Valley was discovered in 1855 by Isaac Riddle and William Hamblin, whose cow had meandered into the valley during the night. It immediately became an important source of lumber for the Mormon corridor, even being used to construct the pipes of the organ in the Salt Lake tabernacle.

It is a beautiful location, higher in elevation and providing the waters of the Santa Clara River that weaves its way to the Virgin River. By the 1860s, a group of settlers was already there, and they selected Ebenezer Bryce to design a chapel. A shipbuilder, he designed the roof of the chapel to be built like the bottom of a ship--just inverted.

(Image Source: Church History Library)

The Pine Valley Chapel was completed by 1867, and it now claims to be the "oldest continuously used" Latter-day Saint chapel in use. (The meaning of this term is unclear. The Bountiful Tabernacle was built in 1863, although perhaps they differentiate it based on the term 'tabernacle,' although it was and is still used for ward meetings.)

Sevier Ward: Exterior Details

Some of the windows have some cracks and need maintenance. The architectural details on this building are lovely!

It has significantly faded, but you can still see the original patterns in the stonework, when you get up close.