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.

Preservation Update: Surprise & Sorrow

The Church released a news story today announcing some changes to the Salt Lake Temple renovation and an update on the Manti Temple renovation. In contrast to the earlier announcement, which promised to preserve the Salt Lake Temple's architecture, restoring earlier styles such as paint colors, this news release announced that the Temple will transition to single-room, film-presentation of the endowment ordinance. Not only does this mean the loss of progression and live endowment, but it sounds like the temple will be significantly reconfigured--walls coming down, including murals, many of which will not be able to be preserved. It's Logan all over again.

Here are the releases of the planned endowment rooms. They are ornate, but fairly simple. No murals remain.

Before:

After:

The terrestrial room never had murals, so it looks largely the same, although the seats now face north instead of east.

The Celestial Room looks largely the same:

Furthermore, the release made it clear that the murals were removed, and not all of them were saved. Sure, pictures were taken before they were removed--as was done in Logan--but we probably won't see them again.

Furthermore, the same changes will be made in Manti--murals removed, rooms reconfigured, and presentation changed to single-room, film presentations. Ironically, the St. George Temple seems to have escaped these drastic changes (for now), in spite of its heavy use. Temples renovated earlier (like Idaho Falls, Mesa, and Laie) also escaped these changes. But Salt Lake and Manti--two of the top three most architecturally significant and preserved temples (the third is Cardston)--did not.

Why did this happen?

I personally had a lot of confidence that the Church would preserve the historic components of these temples. This announcement was surprising and disheartening.

The Church has always faced a pendulum with its historic architecture, swinging back and forth between preserving it and removing it. This is for two reasons:

1) Historic buildings are not built for the modern Church. Chapels and tabernacles were too small and too expensive. Temples are inefficient in terms of the number of sessions you can have and the number of people in each session. Live sessions require significantly more work on the part of temple workers. The Logan Temple was drastically remodeled because it was just inefficient and wait times were long. Plenty of tabernacles and chapels were not big enough for modern wards and stakes.

2) Historic buildings do not fit the Church's desired universal standard. Unlike most religious organizations, the Church is centrally managed. Local wards, stakes, and temple districts have little to no say on what is done with the architecture in their area. With worldwide administration, the Church wants to have a consistent experience across the world. This begs the question--should some members get to attend sacrament meeting in an ornate building with stained glass while 95%+ of the Church attends in plain, utilitarian chapels? Should those in Salt Lake or Manti get a different temple experience from those in other countries where there is no live endowment, no historic murals? Should millions more be expended on the preservation of those features?

I personally think that historic architecture that connects us to our past is more important than either of these concerns--and President Nelson's initial announcement of these renovations seemed to support that--but this sudden switch, announced more than a year into the renovation, seems to indicate that there was some debate or hesitancy among the top councils of the Church on these points. The Church also announced these changes after (it appears) murals have already been removed from Salt Lake. There is no way for local (or worldwide) members to petition these decisions.

This makes me significantly more concerned for historic buildings, temples and chapels alike, moving forward. Are we seeing the pendulum swift more toward a focus on efficiency, present uses, and consistency, as was done in the 60s and 70s? Or is this an aberration?

History shows that the Church goes back and forth on this, but the problem is that we can't ever get back the important architectural features that we lost. The connection of the Manti and Salt Lake temples will be gone, just as it is in Logan. History shows that this loss won't be easy--Spencer W. Kimball, who approved the drastic gutting of the Logan Temple, later said he regretted the loss of the original temple's architecture.

Historic architecture connects us to the past and places us in the context of the Church's timeline and our own family's timeline. These experiences are profoundly spiritual and difficult to replicate.

Salt Lake Temple: Interior

Note: This is one of a series of posts on the interiors and floor plans of historic temples:
1. St. George Temple (1877)
2. Logan Temple (1884)
3. Manti Temple (1888)
4. Salt Lake Temple (1893)
5. Laie Temple (1919)
6. Cardston Temple (1923)
7. Mesa Temple (1927)
8. Idaho Falls Temple (1945)

This post is about the temple's floor plan. For information and updates on the temple's 2019 renovation, see here. 

I was originally not planning on doing a post on the Salt Lake Temple, because it has been extensively covered on many other sites. However, I've found the original source of many of the pictures that float around on the internet (The Salt Lake Temple: A Monument to the People), and so was able to get scans that are much higher quality than other photos. I've also found some photos from various (Church-sanctioned and approved) sources that help to piece together the building for those who haven't been able to attend a session here. Most of those come from stills I've taken from The Mountain of the Lord (a Church film about the Salt Lake Temple) and Temples, a short Church video that describes the use of temples.

The Salt Lake Temple is a landmark building, inside and out. Those who have attended other pioneer temples will immediately notice that the Salt Lake Temple is much more ornate and detailed than the temples in St. George, Logan, and even Manti (although Manti is much closer to its level). It, along with Manti, is one of the two temples where a live endowment is performed, instead of film.

The ground floor of the temple is split into two halves, divided by a hallway which patrons enter from the annex. It is fairly evident when you come into this room from the annex--the building is much more ornate than the annex.

(Image Source: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 29 No. 3)

This is the view of the hallway as patrons enter the temple. (The temple is not nearly as whitewashed now; this photo was taken around 1980. A lot of the natural wood color has been returned, which is a relief.) On the west side (right part of the photo) is the baptistry.

The doors and rooms on the sides of the baptistry were originally used for the initiatory ordinances. Now, they've been changed to dressing rooms.

The lower hallway itself has some nice paintings. There is one by Dan Weggeland that shows Christ. There are also two by Alfred Lambourne that you'll see right as you enter the hallway. One is The Hill Cumorah, painted in 1892. (The hill is painted to look much larger than it is in real-life, emphasizing its doctrinal and historical importance.)

The other is Adam-Ondi-Ahman (also likely painted in 1892). Originally, there was some discussion about hanging this painting over the veil in the Celestial Room, but it was instead placed in the lower hallway.

On the south side (left) of the hallway are the creation room and garden room. The creation room is immediately on the left upon entering the temple proper. It originally had no murals, but they were added in 1915 by Fritjob Wiberg. No animals are in this creation room, which is different from most others.

(The chairs are facing toward the garden room in the first photo. They no longer face that way; they face toward the small door that provides access to the northeast tower.)

Patrons leave this room, heading south into the garden room up a small ramp. This is the view of the room as you enter:

Some notes: the 3 doorways lead to small recesses, but there was originally a small greenhouse connected there that had living plants.

The center doorway used to have a small lift that was used by temple workers in the endowment. President McKay apparently thought that it did not achieve its intended effect and was more distracting than anything else, so it was also removed.

The murals here was painted by John Hafen, helped by Edwin Evans. Lorus Pratt helped with the foliage, while Dan Weggeland did the animals. Much of this needed to be re-painted in 1938. Only the right front wall has original paint.

This is the view from the recess on the right of the above photo. The door goes to the southeast tower stairwell, but it's not used by patrons or workers. It could be used as an emergency exit.

The murals in this room are lovely, with vibrant green and blue colors. The ceiling is higher, and there is a type of skylight (lit with electricity) in the center of the room. At the front of the skylight is the all-seeing eye. You can see this in this next picture, which is the view of the garden room as patrons exit to proceed up the grand staircase.

Patrons emerge out onto this landing, and proceed up the staircase. As they do, they pass a stained glass depiction of Adam and Eve being cast out of the garden. The stained glass used to be located near the entrance to the world room, but it was moved when an elevator was placed there.

This is the view as patrons reach the top of the staircase. Straight ahead is the door that leads to the Celestial Room. When patrons are finished with their session, they come out of that door and go down the staircase. On the right is a large painting titled Christ Appears to the Nephites, painted by William Armitage in 1890. Nearly 12 feet tall, it's a beautiful painting that showcases Armitage's European training. Armitage painted another large work titled Joseph Smith Preaching to the Indians, and it hung in the lower hallway of the temple for over 50 years. It's now in the Church's archives.

As the patrons come up the grand staircase, they get this glimpse of the Celestial Room ahead, but they turn left to enter the world room.

(Image Source: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 29 No. 3)

Now on the second floor, patrons enter the world room. Here, the in place of the serene murals of the garden room, the paintings depict animals fighting, rugged landscapes, and other signs of the world we live in. This mural was painted by Dan Weggeland, Edwin Evans, and John B. Fairbanks. The mural was painted onto plaster which began to chip off, so in 1922 John and his son, J. Leo Fairbanks, re-painted the room, using the initial sketches to duplicate the original murals. This is the view as you enter:

Both of the doorways at the front are used during the endowment. When it's time to leave this room and enter the terrestrial room, patrons take the door on the right.

Looking back into the room as you exit:

The terrestrial room is beautiful--ornate carvings, stained glass, and a gracefully curved veil at the front. The windows in this room are artificially lit, as the addition of sealing rooms is now behind the wall.

Better colors in this one:

Looking from the veil toward the back of the terrestrial room:

Finally, patrons enter the celestial room on the other side of the veil. The ceiling is high and takes up the floor above; colorful floral paintings grace the walls, and other ornate designs are available to view.

There are 4 major doors that you can see in the photo above. The one on the far left, up the small staircase, used to be an office, but it has since been changed to a beautiful sealing room, flooded with natural light (because it is located in the central east tower). The next one is the sealing room for the living; the one on the far right is the original sealing room for the dead (pictures below). The one in the center, with its doors closed, leads up to the Holy of Holies, a special room reserved for use by the Prophet.

Looking at the Celestial Room from the small staircase that leads up to the tower room:

This is a photo of a small statue above the veil as you enter the celestial room. The explanations for this statue are varied: that it is Christ (albeit a feminine-looking one), that it is Mary and was donated by the Catholic church, or that it is Aphrodite (since it looks like a seashell). Other people say it is Heavenly Mother or the Roman goddess Venus. Which is it?

In An Eye of Faith: Essays in Honor of Richard O. Cowan, one article, titled "The Woman at the Veil," seeks to answer this:

"The true origins stem back to Joseph Don Carlos Young, the architect of the Salt Lake Temple, after the death of Truman O. Angell in 1887.  His great contribution to the temple was a redesign of the interior plan, which included the original interior furnishings.  While in Boston at the advice of his father Brigham, Don Carlos, as he was called, saw a statue made by a young sculptor.  Fascinated by it, he purchased it and busts of two cherubs.  Dubbed the “Angel of Peace,” probably by its sculptor, Young had it enlarged to a full-size, six-foot statue.  The original had wings, because it supposedly represented a female “heavenly being.”  Young took the wings from his original and apparently directed that the copy be made without wings as well.  It is not certain, but the authors believe Cyrus Dallin, the sculptor of the Angel Moroni on the Salt Lake Temple was likely the sculptor of this piece too....It is certain, however, that it does not represent Mary, Venus, or Aphrodite."

Here's a better view of the sealing room for the living. Before the addition of many more sealing rooms on the north side, this room was used for live sealings.

This is the view as you enter. On the opposite side is a door leading to a small waiting room.

This is a view as you stand in that sealing room, looking back toward the door into the celestial room.

Here are some views of the sealing room for the dead. The stained glass shows the Angel Moroni and the Prophet Joseph Smith.

 

 

This temple is truly breathtaking. Few temples can compare to it and Manti.

The endowment rooms only take up the first two floors of the temple. The third floor is all administration rooms. The only way to get to these floors is from the elevators or spiral staircases in the corner towers:

(Image Source: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 29 No. 3)

Here is where the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles meet every week. This floor is not as tall as the others, and much of the floor is taken up by the higher ceiling of the celestial room and Holy of Holies below.

One of the most beautiful stained glass windows in the temple, called the Memorial Window, is found on this floor. It shows the temple flanked by a pair of shields. This is the view of it from the High Council Room.

Finally, taking up the top floor of the temple is the Priesthood Assembly Room, one of the larger ones of the Church, and certainly the most ornate. (Other assembly rooms are found in St. George, Manti, Logan, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Nauvoo Temples. The Santo Domingo Dominican Republic Temple also has a priesthood assembly room--the only international temple to do so--but that probably merits another post.)

(Image Source: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 29 No. 3)

 A full balcony runs along both sides. Pulpits at both ends are found under decorative arches--one labelled Aaronic and the other, Melchizedek.

This assembly hall is used regularly, particularly before General Conferences. It was in this assembly room that the general authorities of the Church were notified of Official Declaration 2, and sustained it unanimously.

This is the view as you enter the assembly hall from the corner staircases.

On each end of the assembly hall are a series of pulpit and an elaborate pavilion; one represents the Aaronic Priesthood; the other, the Melchizedek.

If you want to sit on the balcony, you ascend one of the beautiful spiral staircases in each corner.

I really like the Salt Lake Temple. Some parts of the architecture were whitewashed in the past, but I feel that the Church has been more sensitive to the original architecture in recent decades, and the 2019-2024 renovation looks especially promising. If you attend this temple, don't be afraid to explore the 3 sealing rooms off of the Celestial Room and take a close look at the paintings in the upper and lower hallways. When I've gone, I've never been rushed and there are some great historic things to see.