page_title: Salt Lake Temple
section_title: Temple construction and dedication
hierarchical_section_title: Salt Lake Temple / Temple construction and dedication
caption_attribution_description: English: Quarrying granite for the Mormon Temple, Utah Territory, 1872. The ground is strewn with boulders and detached masses of granite, which have either fallen or have been hewn from the walls of Cottonwood Canyon. The quarrying consists of splitting up the stone into blocks that can be transported to the Salt Lake Temple construction site of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Local Identifier 57-HS-932 / ARC Identifier 517451. Source: US Archives American West photographs: image
context_page_description: The Salt Lake Temple is a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. At 253,015 square feet, it is the largest LDS temple by floor area. Dedicated in 1893, it is the sixth temple completed by the church, requiring 40 years to complete, and the fourth temple built since the Mormon exodus from Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1846. On April 19, 2019 the LDS Church announced that the temple would close on December 29, 2019 for seismic renovations that are anticipated to take approximately four years.
context_section_description: The temple's location was first marked by LDS prophet Brigham Young, the second president of the church, on July 28, 1847, just four days after he arrived in the Salt Lake Valley. In 1901 the apostle Anthon H. Lund recorded in his journal that "it is said" that Oliver Cowdery's divining rod was used to locate the temple site.  The temple site was dedicated on February 14, 1853 by Heber C. Kimball. Groundbreaking ceremonies were presided over by Young, who laid the cornerstone on April 6 of that year. The architect was Truman O. Angell, and the temple features both Gothic and Romanesque elements.
  Sandstone was originally used for the foundation. During the Utah War, the foundation was buried and the lot made to look like a plowed field to prevent unwanted attention from federal troops. After tensions eased in 1858 and work on the temple resumed, it was discovered that many of the foundation stones had cracked, making them unsuitable for use. Although not all of the sandstone was replaced, the inadequate sandstone was replaced. The walls are quartz monzonite (which has the appearance of granite) from Little Cottonwood Canyon, twenty miles (32 km) southeast of the temple site. Oxen transported the quarried rock initially, but as the Transcontinental Railroad neared completion in 1869 the remaining stones were carried by rail at a much faster rate.
  The capstone—the granite sphere that holds the statue of the Angel Moroni—was laid on April 6, 1892, by means of an electric motor and switch operated by Wilford Woodruff, the church's fourth president, thus completing work on the temple's exterior. The Angel Moroni statue, standing 12.5 feet (3.8 m) tall, was placed on top of the capstone later the same day. At the capstone ceremony, Woodruff proposed the building's interior be finished within one year, which would allow the temple to be dedicated forty years to the day of its commencement. John R. Winder was instrumental in overseeing the interior's completion on schedule; he would serve as a member of the temple presidency until his death in 1910. Woodruff dedicated the temple on April 6, 1893, exactly forty years after the cornerstone was laid.
caption: Granite for temple being quarried at Little Cottonwood Canyon (1872)
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