Preservation Update: Washington D.C. Chapel to become apartments?

A few days, ago, the Salt Lake Tribune reported that the Washington D.C. Chapel has a proposal from a developer to be converted into luxury apartments. (Kind of sounds like the University Ward chapel's unfortunate outcome.)

Built 1931-33, the building was distinctly Latter-day Saint. The marble is birds-eye marble from Utah. An Angel Moroni (now in the Church History Museum) was on the tower. A mosaic of the Sermon on the Mount is over the front door. Stained glass windows show LDS symbols, including sego lilies, the Hill Cumorah, Rocky Mountains, Church immigrants, and more.

The building was discontinued in 1975 and sold in 1977, eventually ending up in the hands of the Unification Church, which still owns it. 

The developer's plan would add some additions that fit the building. All in all, I think it's a great idea. The building is not in spectacular shape and needs a major renovation. I guess I could always dream about the Church repurchasing the reusing the building, but that seems incredibly unlikely. We'll see if this one goes anywhere.

Riverdale Idaho Ward

 Riverdale is just north of Preston. The chapel there follows the same colonial twins pattern as other chapels in the area--with two wings, a chapel on the right, and a cultural hall on the left.

Unfortunately, this building has been heavily remodeled. The cultural hall is now behind the chapel, and the old cultural hall wing has classrooms and offices. The only part of the building that has kept much of its original feel is the decorations in the lobby.

Mink Creek Ward: Relief Society Room

 This room is now the primary room, but it was the relief society room.

In this room, Harold Helgesen painted 3 pieces. Above the (defunct) fireplace, he painted 2 images: One of a mother, with a popular poem from the time period; the other, a landscape painting of a Norwegian castle. (He had also painted a vase with flowers, but this has since been painted over.)

At the rear of the room is a larger mural of a handcart family entering the Salt Lake Valley. Above his signature, Harold wrote the mural's title: This is the Place!

He apparently also did a mural of a snowy river scene in the Bishop's office. I wasn't able to verify if it's still there. In any case, it's a unique building, and a unique room, with some beautiful paintings.

Mink Creek Ward: Cultural Hall

This cultural hall has some features I've seen from other buildings of this era--the benches along the perimeter, original to the building; a small stage. But Harold Helgesen, who was commissioned to paint the mural in the chapel, also did landscape scenery here, lining both walls. It's very unique!

I'm impressed that there were murals here, and still impressed at how they've been preserved. But this is not all--more murals are to be found in the basement. I'll show those in my next post.

Mink Creek Ward: Chapel Interior

The chapel used to be quite ornate, especially for a small community. Apparently, local Church leaders were scolded for building such an ornate (and expensive) building here.

(Image Source: Church History Library)

The building has been very, very well preserved, but the chapel has been remodeled, and it was flipped. The mural remains on the same wall, but it's now at the back of the chapel, instead of behind the pulpit.

The mural was painted by Harold Helgeson, depicting Temple Square at that time. He did other murals for chapels in the area, including Riverdale, Idaho (the Susquehannah River); Preston (one was painted over; another was taken to Church archives)

The chapel is the same size it was in 1929. The Church has looked into extending the chapel (to increase capacity). If that is ever done, this mural will be moved to another wall. While a lot of the interior details have faded over time, many of them are still present in this beautiful building.

But Harold did many more paintings in this building besides the chapel. We'll look at more of this very unique building in the next few posts.

Mink Creek Ward

Mink Creek is a small farming community northeast of Preston, Idaho. It has a nice chapel that was built in 1928-1929. I originally visited it way back in 2016, but I revisited it recently, and documented the interior.

(Image Source: Church History Library)

 

There are some changes to the building, of course, but the basic floorplan has remained intact.

It's a beautiful chapel in a gorgeous setting. This is the Church's backyard: a small cemetery, and pastures.

Beaver Dam Ward: Window Detail

This ward recently had an open house celebrating the history and architecture of their building. For more images, see the other posts I have on this building.

Bancroft Idaho Ward (Interior & Murals)

Like many chapels of the 1950s, Bancroft had commissioned paintings that were donated by someone in the local area. In this case, Iva Nelson and Moses William Rigby--who lived in Logan--donated these paintings done by Everett Thorpe. (The Rigbys commissioned other paintings done by Thorpe for local chapels in this same time period, including the one in Newton, Utah.)

A print of Salman's Head of Christ, a very popular painting in the post-WWII era, also hangs in the chapel.

The mural on the north side depicts Joseph Smith receiving the plates, as well as pioneers crossing the plains.

On the south side, the mural depicts the Miracle of the Gulls.

Let's hope these paintings stick around for a long time!

Bancroft Idaho Ward

Located in southeastern Idaho, a bit to the east of Lava Hot Springs, Bancroft isn't a place I was aware of until recently. 

The building's pretty typical of an early 1950s floor plan which I have seen repeated lots of times throughout the Mormon corridor, but there are some nice paintings that I visited to document. I'll show them in my next post.

Salt Lake Temple Renovation Update

We're still about 2 years away from the Salt Lake Temple renovation being completed, and we got another update this weekend that confirmed a few things, for better or for worse. 

Of course, Church leaders are trying to balance many different considerations when overseeing new and existing temples, and historic preservation is just one of those factors. This blog, though, focuses on historic architecture, so I'm mostly going to focus on what is being kept and what is not.

What is being preserved:

• Almost all of the second floor of the temple, including the terrestrial room (which will now be a veil room, but will be mostly preserved), the celestial room, the original sealing rooms off of the celestial room (not the one in the east tower, which was a later addition, but the sealing room for the living and the sealing room for the dead),
  
  
  

• The assembly hall on the top two floors of the temple, which includes really beautiful woodwork and spiral staircases,

• The spiral staircases in the four corner towers,
• The temple's stained glass.

One exciting part of the newsroom release (for me) was the first color image I've seen of the memorial window, which is installed on the temple's third floor (where administrative offices are).

What is being removed/heavily reconfigured:

• Basically, tne temple's entire basement floor will be new. The creation and garden rooms, as well as the original baptistry, are all being replaced with stationary rooms. Even the grand staircase was removed and is being recreated.

• The world room on the second floor will be replaced with a stationary room, as well.
• The woman at the veil in the celestial room, and presumably the sealing room in the east tower, will be removed.
• The temple's entire third floor (administrative offices) is likely being gutted and redone, and probably reconfigured a bit to better meet modern Church administrative needs.
• Murals, progression, and the live endowment are all being discontinued.

This is not to say that "redone" areas of the temple will feel like, say the interior of the Logan Temple (a complete mismatch). They are recreating the late Victorian-era design of the temple everywhere, in redone areas as well as new ones, including the annex. (The former Salt Lake Temple annex did not try to be Victorian at all.)

What are my feelings on this? To be honest, at this point, I take what I can get. After 2021 I feel like things I took for granted would be preserved have been thrown out the window. We saw progression taken away from the Mesa Temple at the last minute (even though it was renovated to accommodate it!), and it wasn't even bothered in St. George. While I can understand efficiency concerns, I do struggle to see how this shift will actually result in the accomplishment of more temple work. The Salt Lake Temple rarely hit capacity, where people were turned away because there was no room in endowment sessions. Most likely it was certain evenings and weekends. In the case of Mesa and St. George, does having endowment sessions every 45 minutes (stationary) instead of every 60 (progressive) really result in more temple work? Or does it just...spread the same number of patrons into more sessions? Who knows.

I am very grateful that key areas of the temple are being preserved, and that this puts to rest some ridiculous rumors that started last year that the temple was completely gutted, top to bottom.