The St. George Temple begins its open house this week, and pictures of the renovation were posted today on the Church Newsroom site. I wanted to share my thoughts on the results. (If you want a more detailed history/layout of the temple, see my other post that includes floor plans.)
First, the historical significance of the St. George Temple (and other pioneer temples) is usually forgotten in favor of the more prominent Salt Lake Temple. This was the first temple in Utah, and really, the only "pioneer" temple in that it was completed entirely before a railroad was available at the temple site. Everything in the St. George Temple came from the local area, with the exception of the glass (which was shipped to Salt Lake and then brought down on wagon carts). The pioneers were ingenious in their use of construction materials.
Second, the temple has undergone significant changes even before this renovation. The ordinance rooms were originally housed in the basement, and were only officially bumped up to the second floor entirely in the 1930s (when murals were also added). The temple's only main staircases, two spiral ones on the east side, are insufficient, and so in the 1970s, a whole addition was added on the west side with a new staircase. In that renovation, murals were also removed, the 4-stage progression was converted to stationary, and other changes were made.
Overall, this renovation is very sensitive to the time period in which the temple was built. Whenever something could fit the time period of the late 1800s, it appears they went with that. In terms of structural integrity, though, the temple had to have some major upgrades, meaning some major parts of the temple are no longer "original." This includes the wood windows. However, on the tour, I did notice that some windows in the assembly hall floor still had the "wavy" or "bubbly" look that used to indicate that it was original glass. So maybe they kept some of the original glass, although it was upgraded to triple-pane windows. The floors and ceilings (which were sagging), and major parts of the walls, especially on the main floor, were also replaced.
The Baptistry
The font bowl and oxen are the originals from 1877. Much of the font railings appear more ornate than they were before (from the 1970 renovation).
Ordinance Rooms
The 1930 murals were removed in the 1970s renovation. In the 1990s, the temple president requested that they be replaced, and each ordinance room received one piece of an original mural.
Unfortunately, these original mural pieces are not in the temple anymore. (In Mesa, original mural pieces were placed in certain hallways; I see no indication of that here, and assume they are back in Church archives). Instead, new murals were painted in the three ordinance rooms. Below is the (former) creation room:
The garden room is in the center of the temple, while the creation and world rooms were on the sides. This meant the garden room had a higher, domed ceiling. This higher ceiling was covered with an unenthusiastic drop ceiling in the 1970s renovation, but the higher ceiling is restored now:
It also appears that the murals were very lightly inspired/based off of originals, as you can see the placement of the swan when comparing the new garden mural (above) to the original:
The world room in the southwest corner of the temple certainly has much more red rock than the original did.
While I'm using the terms creation, garden, and world rooms, progression was not restored in this temple. I did not expect it to be restored, although it is disappointing. Had the St. George Temple been renovated in an earlier time frame (such as the late 2000s or early 2010s) it almost certainly would have been restored, as it was in other historic temples (such as Laie). However, the Church appears to be moving away from progression, even when it could be restored. Therefore, while each ordinance room has a themed mural to the creation, garden, or world rooms, patrons remain in each one for almost the entire session. The terrestrial room continues to serve as the veil room:
The mural on the ceiling of the desert sky was not preserved; likely because it was a later addition, and the ceilings had to be replaced.
The celestial room looks much the same. It used to have a small anteroom on the south side which, for all purposes, was part of the celestial room; it has not just been removed and incorporated into the larger celestial room.
Some small decorative paint on the walls are no longer there, likely keeping in the spirit of the original temple decorations.
Finally, the sealing room off the celestial room, in the east tower, remains.
The assembly room also remains on the temple's fourth floor. It appears that less here was touched, and much of it remains original. They added electrical lights here for the first time--the flower molds were built in anticipation of lights; but it took nearly 150 years to add them!
The image here is taken facing toward the Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits on the east end of the temple (toward the front, with the tower). Here is an original image of the assembly room's west end:
The window behind the pulpits went away in the 1970s with the addition on the west end, but they actually brought back the window behind the west (Aaronic Priesthood) pulpits, although it now looks into the west addition staircase instead of outside. Still, a nice touch.
Overall, I'm a bit disappointed that we couldn't keep any of the original murals and that we lost so much of the historic structure like windows and flooring. However, I also understand the Church's desire to make the building meet all modern codes and make it durable, especially in case of future seismic activity.
I didn't touch on any of the new parts of the temple such as the new annex and rebuilt west addition, but they all look lovely. Overall, I'm very happy with this renovation and wish the Salt Lake renovation had followed this one and not been so drastic in the removal of the original ordinance rooms.
When I actually get to the open house I'll post any more thoughts I have. Have you seen the renovated temple? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
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When you look at the renderings that were released in 2019, the instruction room renderings were labeled as the creation, garden, and world rooms, which hinted that progression was coming back. I wonder what changed...
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that when the Manti Temple plans got reversed, they emphasized that the newer temple in Ephraim would accommodate growth so that the pioneer character of the Manti Temple (murals & progression) would be preserved. You would think that with the Red Cliffs Temple being built near the St. George Temple, that would mean that St. George would get a similar treatment as Manti, but I guess not. Painting new murals for the former creation, garden, and world rooms, but not using progression between those rooms, is like a PB&J sandwich with no peanut butter. Just as peanut butter and jelly go hand in hand, so do murals and progression.
Do you know if progression could still be possible in the future with the way the temple is laid out?
ReplyDeleteIt's not as easy as Mesa would be. In Mesa, the plan changed from progression to stationary so suddenly that there are actually doors between the ordinance rooms (they just don't get used).
DeleteIn St. George the change came much earlier so my understanding (will confirm) is that there aren't doors between the ordinance rooms. They all have doors to the veil room and that's it. That doesn't mean doors couldn't be cut in the future...but unlikely.
There are no doors connecting the Creation, Garden, and World Rooms. They all have doors leading to the Terrestrial Room. The orientation of the Creation Room would have to be reversed to allow for progression. The murals are beautiful. I absolutely love the Garden Room. I am a little sad that they will not be doing progression in this temple.
DeleteThank you for keeping this blog, I love reading it.
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to go on an early tour yesterday before they open it to everyone. It was a wonderful experience to walk through in a smaller group and be able to ask questions of the tour guides.
We started the tour in the baptistry by entering the new side entrance and we exited again through that door to go into the front entrance, which is an interesting sequence. In the baptistry, there are two images of pioneer chapels above the mirrors. The tour guide initially told me they were generic pioneer chapels, but when I told him the one on the right was the pine valley chapel, he admitted he was wrong and was unable to tell me what the one on the left was. Perhaps someone can inform me on that.
The clear glass windows really caught me off guard. Now with nearly all temples having opaque or stained glass, the clear glass in this temple was really unique. If you were in the confirmation waiting area in the basement, you would be able to see people walking outside and around the temple. The views of the red rocks from the windows in the assembly hall are also amazing. The tour guides pointed out that the skylight in the bride's room is the only stained glass in the entire temple. Someone in the group also pointed out that the chandeliers in the bride's room are original to the temple and there are a few others scattered around the temple. In the marriage waiting room, there is a bookcase with some old books behind glass. One was a book by Hugh Nibley, so not as old as the temple itself. Someone will have to inform me if any of the other books are historical or simply for decoration.
In the waiting chapel, there is a painting of The Ascension of Jesus in the front (as photographed) and in the rear of the chapel there is a painting of the city of Jerusalem (not released in the photos). They said they were digital copies of the paintings that were in the chapel of the Salt Lake annex before it was torn down. The painting is indeed a copy of the Jerusalem painting that was in the photo released by the church as they were boxing up all the furniture before they demolished the annex. Someone will have to inform me if the Ascension painting was also in that annex.
Because they wanted to end the tour in the celestial room and a sealing room, the next stop was to go up the grand staircase in the new addition onto the back of the temple and climb all the way up to the assembly hall. Some tour group members recalled that the assembly room had been closed before the renovation because the floor was unstable. The tour guide confirmed that they completely replaced the floor in renovation. Of course, the benches are new, but they feel very much of the time period due to the sloop of the wood underneath your seat. The guide said the room could seat some 640 individuals. The photo released by the church is actually looking east. We entered the room from the new staircase on the west side. The Aaronic Priesthood side still has the window behind the pulpits, even though light does not directly shine through it due to the new staircase being there. The tour guide seemed to think that the acronyms on the pulpits are never recorded anywhere and we don't know exactly what they mean. He seemed to think that PSZ was in reference to the 70s. But thanks to your blog post, I pointed out I thought it was President of the Stake of Zion.
DeleteNext, we went back down to tour the endowment rooms. Each room fits about 90 people. It's true that the rooms are only connected through the veil room. It would be theoretically possible to restore progression if you exit towards the back of each room and then reenter the next room through the hallway. The murals in the garden room do cover the front wall. The two fruit trees in the garden have been reproduced in the paintings. The tree of the fruit of knowledge of good an evil even has a snake on the branches. Seeing the murals in these stationary rooms gives me hope that they will revise their plans and decide to reproduce the murals in the Salt Lake Temple.
The sealing room in the celestial room is labeled Sealing room 3, but the guides called it the east sealing room. After being in the celestial room, we ended the tour in the large sealing room that was pictured in the rendering that they released earlier. There is one other large sealing room near that one. I wish I could have seen some of the smaller sealing rooms; there are 17 in total. The tour ends by exiting through the new bride's exit on the north side of the historic foundation of the temple.
I hope many of you will be able to tour the temple. Although many things have changed, it was a unique experience compared to the modern temples that are built in Utah. After touring the Saratoga Springs temple, the contrast of this temple is very enlightening. I'm sure that touring the Red Cliffs temple will be a similar experience for many.
Thanks for the update, Cory! I knew that painting looked familiar in the chapel...
DeleteIt sounds like you don't really visit the smaller floors (floors 3 and 5)? Not sure if that's accurate.
I am going down in October.
Floors 3 (Initiatory) & 5 (some sealing rooms) are not included on the public tours unless that has been changed in the past week.
DeleteYou're correct, one mirror has an image of the Pine Valley Chapel. The other mirror looks to have an image of the Grafton Chapel/Schoolhouse. Grafton is ghost town, just outside of Rockville, Utah.
DeletePine Valley was built in the 1870s and Grafton in the 1880s, so they're both kind of contemporaries of the temple.
DeleteOne thing we tend to forget is that early temples didn't have stained glass. St. George, Logan, and Manti all had clear glass windows. I think Salt Lake did too, originally--now they're frosted. Cardston did use stained glass in keeping with the prairie style. Mesa did not.
I had the opportunity to go through the temple a few times before the open house began. It is beautiful. Here is a Church link that shows some of the beauty found there: https://www.thechurchnews.com/temples/2023/9/6/23861287/inside-renovated-st-george-utah-temple-media-day .
ReplyDeleteI visited the open house recently and these were my observations—
ReplyDeleteBaptistry: In terms of the original temple proper, this floor has saw the most changes during the renovation. Before the building closed in 2019, the western 2/3 of this floor contained the baptistry and the eastern 1/3 was the female workers’ locker room. In fact, I believe the eastern part of this floor was actually split into two floors for the workers (with female rooms below and male rooms above). I know for sure the female workers’ locker rooms were to the level of the baptistry, and I seem to remember a door halfway down the stairway from the Celestial Room to the annex/patron dressing rooms, which led to the male workers’ locker room (and the only way for that to work, would have been a split level). To the west of the font were the confirmation rooms, clothing area, and a small chapel; dressing rooms for the baptistry were to the north and south of the font (all of the baptistry felt very cramped at this time).
Now, following the renovation, the area east of the font (former space for the female workers’ locker room) has been replaced with the entry/recommend desk, a foyer, chapel, and confirmation rooms (and I assume clothing as well); the baptistry dressing rooms are still to the north and south of the font. Everything about the baptistry is much more open and brighter! Additionally, I think the entire floor level as been raised. One used to enter the baptistry from a door in the now-replaced western addition and immediately took a right, then had to go down several stairs into the temple proper. Once in the baptistry area, the ground-level windows were higher up on the walls, about the level of one’s chest or head. The new entrance for the baptistry was created by converting two of the ground-level windows, near the southeast corner of the temple, into doors. You don’t go down any stairs upon entering these doors, so the entire floor level must have been raised. (If the floor was indeed high enough to have a split level for the workers’ locker rooms, as I mentioned earlier, it makes sense that there was enough space to raise the baptistry floor). After passing through the font room, one takes a staircase down and into a hall that turns and leads into the annex basement, which again leads me to believe the floor level was raised.
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Annex: The annex was a complete tear down and rebuild, except for an underground portion containing mechanical equipment (and the concrete floor of the basement was saved). Not much to say here other than the annex contains lots of finishes to mirror the temple. The new annex chapel is larger and more temple-like, the old one was small and dark. And, as another commenter stated, in the chapel, there are copies of the murals that used to be in the Salt Lake Temple’s main chapel (not the endowment chapel).
DeleteWestern addition: Also a complete tear down and rebuild, the west addition is much larger than before, with an open, beautiful staircase. The prior addition had two staircases and an elevator, but everything was small, dark, and cramped (as you can tell, that’s a theme for everything from the 1970s renovation).
Assembly Hall/Priesthood Room: Lighting and benches have been added. The floor was clearly replaced, as I remember what seemed to be a lighter, pine floor that creaked as you walked. The pulpits seemed too pristine that I almost wonder if they were replaced with replicas? (I hope not!) The west center window has been restored and looks into the western addition.
Endowment Level: The floorplan is almost exactly the same, although I believe the elevator and staircase down from the Celestial Room to the annex/patron dressing rooms had some modifications. Biggest change on this floor is the addition of woodwork and the murals. (To note, you have an image identified in this post as the world room, but it is the creation room; specifically, it shows the door into the creation room. The creation room has the windows on one’s left as they sit in the chairs. The world room has the window on one’s right.)
One additional thought about the changes, while the 1970s addition tried hard to make the temple seem as “one building,” following this renovation, it’s very easy to tell when one transitions from the original temple, into the additions (especially the annex). There’s now a hall between the temple and the annex, and one can clearly see/touch the buttresses and exterior windows that are part of the temple’s north face while in this hall.
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Another comment about the Assembly Hall/Priesthood Room. There used to be an enclosed elevator shaft on the north side. This was for the elevator that transported people between the Celestial Room and the annex/patron dressing rooms (and maybe it came to this level too?). Housing the elevators equipment used to be visible on the temple's roof as well. It appears a new elevator type is being used, that didn't require the roof housing or shaft in the hall.
DeleteThanks for details Jacob! I'm excited to go through.
DeleteThe north elevator did stop at the assembly hall--I know because once when attending the temple I used the elevator and it had that option as a stop.
The recent Salt Lake Temple video showing steel beams being replaced on the 4th and 5th floors, what areas are they referring to? From the video the interior looks completely gutted, which looks like meeting rooms floor.
ReplyDeleteThe 4th and 5th floors both refer to the assembly hall. The temple has a basement (baptistry/creation/garden rooms), main floor (endowment and celestial rooms), 3rd floor (church leadership rooms), and 4th floor (assembly hall), but the assembly hall has a balcony so can be considered two floors.
DeleteThere has recently been some rumors about the temple being gutted basement to top, but that is not the case. Watching that, it appears the works are on the outside of the temple. They will likely replace some ceilings/floors/walls in this renovation but it hasn't been gutted.
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ReplyDeleteI recently went through the Open House for the 5th time and focused on the artwork. I discovered a painting on the 2nd floor in the hallway outside the endowment rooms. It was incredibly detailed and reminded me stylistically of Carl Bloch. I did not recall ever having seen this painting before, so I noted the name of the artist and date in the lower left corner. As soon as I left the temple, I looked up the artist and discovered this article in the Deseret News:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.deseret.com/2017/10/30/20622338/2-historic-paintings-of-christ-recently-found-have-ties-to-the-reformation.
After reviewing this article and returning to the temple open house, copies of both of these painting are hanging side by side on either side of the door into the "Garden Room". They are beautiful and very fitting in this setting. What a nice addition to the temple decor.
Thank you for all your work on these pioneer era buildings. I have been enjoying your posts from the years.
ReplyDeleteI came here looking for information on how the St George temple used to be...as it is such a drastic change from the many times I went in the 90's and early 2000's. I LOVE these changes.
What I would love to find is a floorplan of the the temple over the decades. I know the font was moved, as it is not as low as it once was, but was it moved more east/west?
So looking forward to the completion of the renovations of Manti and Salt Lake.