Granite Ward: Exterior Details

A couple of sculptures by Avard Fairbanks are on the gates of the building.

 

 

Granite Ward

Located in east Sandy, near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, this building is beautiful. Construction began at the turn of the century, around 1900. The exterior was completed by 1905, but the interior wasn't finished until about 10 years later (And paying the building off took much longer). The building is originally red brick, but was painted over in 1950.

In 1964, a new building was built a couple of blocks to the north. The original cornerstone was moved to the new building, and the old building was sold in 1965 to Avard T. Fairbanks, a well-known sculptor who used it for storage. (Among many other things, he carved the baptismal font and friezes in the Laie Hawaii Temple, the Angel Moroni for the Washington D.C. Temple, the Priesthood Restoration Monuments on Temple Square, the Joseph Smith statue in the Joseph Smith Building at BYU, and many other Church works of art.) His son now owns the building and uses it to house his fathers' pieces.