A History of LDS Temple Architecture: Part 2 - Endowment Development

Note: This is Part 2 in a series on the history of the development of LDS temple architecture. This series is based on my personal research and is a looser, less detailed, and less formal version of a paper that was presented at the 2015 BYU Religious Education Student Symposium. For a complete list of posts in this series, click here.

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When the Saints left Nauvoo and the hastily completed temple behind, they were also leaving behind the last permanent temple structure that they would be able to use for 30 years. The needs of moving thousands of Saints across the prairie, settling on the rim of the Great Basin, and colonizing the Mormon corridor were simply too consuming to be able to focus on building another temple for quite a while.

Temple ordinances were still administered during this time, but temporary locations were used. Ensign Peak, just north of Salt Lake City, was where Addison Pratt received his endowments on July 21, 1849. Little is known about the details of this unique event of administering the endowment ordinance in an outdoor setting. How were the garden of Eden, the lone and dreary world, or the terrestrial and celestial kingdoms represented? No information is known.

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The same goes for the Council House in Salt Lake City, which was also used to administer endowments. We don't know if separate rooms were used, or if the entire ordinance was given in one room. One thing is for certain; since these were temporary locations, it is likely that much less emphasis was placed on the architecture and setting of the endowment in these places.

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This means that a mere decade after the ordinance was introduced, its relationship with its surrounding architecture was already threatened and minimized, more out of necessity than anything else. Fortunately, the construction of an Endowment House on the same square where the Salt Lake Temple was being built reemphasized the importance of this relationship, and ultimately cement it for decades to come.

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Ensign Peak was used once, and the Council House was used from its construction until this building was completed in 1855. It was designed by Truman O. Angell, church architect, who would also design the St. George and Salt Lake temples. Originally designed just for endowments and sealings, it would later have a baptistry added on a year later.

The Endowment House was the first building to have specific rooms to represent the story of the Endowment. (For more information on the Endowment House, its history and floor plan, see here.) After a room designed to administer initiatory rites, patrons entered a combined creation/garden room with a pastoral mural by William Ward, added about a year after the building's completion. Many sources indicate that this was one of the most visually impressive features of the building. One patron described it later:

"The four sides of this room were painted in imitation of trees, flowers, birds, wild beasts, etc. . . . The ceilling [sic] was painted blue, dotted over with golden stars; in the centre of it was the sun, a little further along the moon, and all around were stars. In each corner was a Masonic emblem. In one corner is a compass, in another the square; the remaining two were the level and the plumb. On the east side of the room, next [to] the door, was painted an apple tree."

The room also had potted plants and fruit hanging from the plants, thus combining visual ideas from the Red Brick Store and the Nauvoo Temple.

The remaining rooms were not nearly as decorated: the world room was unpainted and dark, with heavy curtains on the windows. The prayer circle room (which likely also served as the terrestrial room) was similarly not decorated.

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At this point, patrons then ascended a staircase, a clear symbol of progression that had not been present in any iteration of the endowment up to this point. An instruction room (really, a "veil room") was at the top of this staircase, followed by the celestial room. This room was decorated similar to its predecessor in the Nauvoo Temple, with carpet, furniture, and paintings on the walls.

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The Endowment House differed greatly from the St. George Temple, which seemed to have been built without any thought for the endowment rooms at all, in spite of the fact that both buildings were designed by the same person. Like the Nauvoo Temple, the St. George Temple had two assembly halls on its ground and second floors. This meant that rooms in the basement had to be used for the endowment, which included some type of murals on its walls. Not very long after the temple's dedication, the main floor was used for the terrestrial and celestial rooms. Not until the 1930s would the temple's main floor be partitioned into smaller rooms that could hold the entire endowment ceremony, rooms that still remain today.

Meanwhile, the endowment house would not last past 1889, when, as recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants' first Official Declaration, it was torn down after it was the setting of a polygamous marriage that caused bad press for the Church, just as its leaders were beginning to move away from polygamy altogether.

Still, the endowment house and the St. George temple both had an enormous influence on the future of temple architecture. The Endowment House solidified the relationship between the Endowment ceremony and its surrounding setting, after a decade where the relationship was weakened. This included the use of murals, potted plants, and stairs to symbolize progression. The St. George Temple marked the return of permanent temples where the endowment ordinance could be administered. Ultimately, in terms of interior design, the Endowment House won out over the St. George Temple. Future temples would mirror the Endowment House in their floor plan and layout, but they would be accompanied by an increase in quality and beauty. Some of the Church's best temples were yet to come.

Next Week: Part 3 - Expansion & Progression