page_title: Nauvoo Temple
section_title: Destruction
hierarchical_section_title: Nauvoo Temple / History / Destruction
caption_attribution_description: an illustration of the burning of the Nauvoo Temple.
context_page_description: The Nauvoo Temple was the second temple constructed by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The church's first temple was completed in Kirtland, Ohio, United States, in 1836. When the main body of the church was forced out of Nauvoo, Illinois, in the winter of 1846, the church attempted to sell the building, finally succeeding in 1848. The building was damaged by fire and a tornado before being demolished.
  In 1937, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reacquired the lot on which the original temple had stood. In 2000, the church began to build a temple on the original site whose exterior is a replica of the first temple, but whose interior is laid out like a modern Latter-day Saint temple. On June 27, 2002, a date that coincided with the 158th anniversary of the death of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, the temple was dedicated by the LDS Church as the Nauvoo Illinois Temple.
context_section_description: After the fire of October 9, 1848, only the four exterior walls remained standing.  The Icarian leader Cabet was fascinated by the temple and planned to reconstruct it, and a considerable amount of money was spent in the endeavor.  However, on May 27, 1850, Nauvoo was struck by a major tornado which toppled one of the walls of the temple.  One source claimed the storm seemed to "single out the Temple", felling "the walls with a roar that was heard miles away".  Cabet ordered the demolition of two more walls in the interests of public safety, leaving only the façade standing. The Icarians used much of the temple's stone to build a new school building on the southwest corner of the temple lot. By 1857, however, most of Cabet's followers had left Nauvoo and over time many of the original stones for the temple were used in the construction of other buildings throughout Hancock County. In February 1865, Nauvoo's City Council ordered the final demolition of the last standing portion of the temple—one lone corner of the façade. Soon afterwards, all evidence of the temple disappeared, except for a hand pump over a well that supplied water to the baptismal font.  Three of the original sunstones are known to have survived and are on display—one is on loan to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Visitor Center in Nauvoo, one is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C, and the third and only one that has not been restored is displayed, along with the only moonstone on display, at the Joseph Smith Historic Center of the Community of Christ.
caption: Nauvoo Temple burning
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