Preservation Updates: Salt Lake Chapels and Temple, San Bernardino Chapel

 I just posted about the San Bernardino chapel (no longer owned by the LDS Church) a few weeks ago, but recently learned that the original building burned down last fall. This included a lot of the original stained glass that remained in the building, since only the original icons in the windows were removed. It's really too bad to see it go.

***

The Salt Lake Twelfth Ward is being converted into a community center to serve the homeless population, and new apartments will be built behind. I documented the building while it was still a church in these posts.

***

One of two pioneer-era assembly halls remaining in Salt Lake City, the old Second Ward assembly hall, built in 1883, has a new owner to hopes to preserve it (the other one is at 420 S 800 E). This building is the predecessor to the beautiful Second Ward building with its stained glass window of the First Vision. It was listed on Zillow a couple of years ago, advertised as a "developer's dream," but fortunately the new owner did not go that route. I'm excited to see how this turns out.

***

The Church shared an update about the Salt Lake Temple renovation, not only reminding everyone of the already announced open house dates, but showing some pictures of the renovation progress. This includes the repainting of the beautiful plaster details on the celestial room ceiling.

As a reminder, the temple was not completely gutted. The top-floor assembly hall, the celestial room and adjoining sealing rooms, and most of the terrestrial room have been preserved. It is unfortunate that so much was lost, but we'll cherish what was preserved.

Santa Clara Utah Heights Stake: Lobby Mural

 This stake center in Santa Clara is a pretty typical building of the late 70s/early 80s period.

However, it was the home stake of the artist Robert L. Shephard, who painted several well-known murals for the Church, including the garden room in the Manti and Idaho Falls Temples, the baptistry in Manti, the Idaho Falls Fourth Ward, and more. In the north lobby, he painted the Ascension of Christ:

I would probably date this mural to the early 80s. It's outside of the chapel, so artwork was likely prohibited in the chapel by this time. As he did in the Idaho Falls 4th Ward, he painted the mural to fit the space, making use of the peaked ceiling to show Christ's height above the watching apostles.

It's a unique idea that I wish we'd see more. If we really are against artwork in the chapels, we could commission larger paintings and artwork in other areas of the meetinghouse. In any case, paintings like this aren't common.

San Bernardino (CA) Ward & Stained Glass

I've mentioned on a few of my past posts the stained glass window in the Redlands California Temple, which depicts the first vision:

This piece was originally in a depression-era Latter-day Saint Chapel in San Bernardino, CA. Located at the corner of 9th and F streets, it was built in 1930. 

You can clearly see where the First Vision window was (above the main entrance). The members commissioned this window along with about a dozen smaller windows that showed various Church symbols, which lined the sides of the chapel:

A close-up look shows that the top halves of the windows all had colored panes and a shield, while the bottom halves had the circular icon in the center of colored panes. (The one below is the seagull monument, which we'll show further below in this post.)

 Pres. Heber J. Grant dedicated the chapel in 1935 (and criticized the First Vision window, since the Father and the Son did not look exactly alike, as recorded in the Pearl of Great Price).

In 1960 the Chapel was sold, stained glass and all. Church members in the area tried to buy the stained glass back later. In 1978 the new Church housed in the building agreed to sell the First Vision window. A local member, Charles Eastwood, bought the window and took care of it. It was moved to the Church's new building in San Bernardino in 1979. Meanwhile, other members eventually asked the new church to sell the smaller stained glass icons, and was successful. She kept them in storage. In exchange for both purchases, Church members replaced the stained glass with clear glass. Here's how it looks today:

On the side windows, only the bottom halves of the windows, with icons, were removed. The top halves, with their colored panes and shields, remain in the building.

When the Church announced the Redlands CA temple in 2002, they moved the First Vision window to the temple foyer, and the member brought the smaller icons to be restored and displayed at the open house. Most of my images of the smaller icons are not very good:

The Bible and Book of Mormon, under banners labelling them the "Stick of Judah" and "Stick of Joseph":

The moon, sun, and stars:

The beehive, sitting atop a stone with the word "Deseret":

A Native American:

The MIA (mutual improvement association; forerunner of the YM/YW organizations) logo, including the words "The Glory of God is Intelligence":

A pioneer woman crossing the plains:

A wheat field, with the words D&C 11 in a banner, referring to the section that speaks of "the field is white already to harvest":

Christ with the children:

A cactus and a rose, with the words "The Deseret [not desert] shall bloom as the rose":

A lyre, with the words of D&C, "The song of the righteous is a prayer unto me":

The top of the seagull monument in Temple Square:

The Angel Moroni:

The Salt Lake Temple along with the reference to Isaiah 2:3-4 ("Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord..."): 

I believe all but 2 of the icons are in private possession, and 2 of the icons remain in the chapel in Highland, CA, but can't confirm that quite yet. Either way, the first vision one is in display in the Redlands Temple, but all are unique and give a snapshot of what the saints in San Bernardino valued and cherished.

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.