Alternatives to Angel Moroni Statues

I've already written a lengthy post about Angel Moroni statues on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' temples.  This post is about other notable temple toppers.

The original and rebuilt Nauvoo Illinois Temple had(have) a bell tower on the top.  Yes, the original temple had a flying Angel Moroni weather vane and the rebuilt one has a statue of Moroni.  In addition to this, both temples contain(ed) a bell as the tower is a bell tower.  The tower in the completed temple can be seen in the picture on the left.  The original temple bell was taken with the saints from Nauvoo when they crossed the plains and settled in Utah.  It currently sits atop a tower at temple square, south and a little west of the Salt Lake Tabernacle.
I like the idea of a temple bell.  On my mission I remember being in Cambridge at Easter and hearing church bells ring out from Great St. Mary's Church.  It was impressive.  I would love to see a bell added to another temple, although I don't expect to see one.  This is mainly  because we like to build in neighborhoods and bells might annoy neighbors.  Also, now days we (all of society, not just the church) don't tend to use bells very often.

This brings up another temple topper, also from the Nauvoo Temple - a clock tower.  The Nauvoo Temple tower has clocks on all four faces.  This was mainly added because it was popular to add clock towers in the 1840s.  Also, at that time, most buildings were considered a community asset and would have many functions.  Adding a clock would provide one more community service.  You have probably also guessed that the Nauvoo Temple bell was installed for use with the clock.  To this day it chimes the hour at temple square.  It probably wasn't intended, but a clock can act as a symbol of time and eternity and of order.

Weather vanes are another temple topper that has been used a few times.  The Kirtland Ohio Temple was built with a weather vane (the current one is a replica).  The original Nauvoo Illinois Temple had a weather vane angel that would have helped people determine the wind direction (you'll notice that the Nauvoo Temple had a lot of practical features for the community).  The St. George Utah Temple was built next and has a weather vane on its tower.  Similar weather vanes top the Logan Temple east and west center towers.  Today one faces north and the other faces south.  I assume that they originally rotated with the wind, but have since been replaced when the towers were replaced with fiberglass replicas.  The weather vanes on these three temples are all arrows.

The Cardston Alberta Canada Temple has no tower or spire, however its gently sloping pyramidal roof has a light or lantern at its peak, a fitting topper to a temple.

The remaining temples have had some sort of finial or spire when they haven't had Angel Moroni statues but have had towers.

Please comment and let us know what you think about these unique temple features from before Angel Moroni statues became standard.  I like these unique features and hope we keep them intact.

Crenelated Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Perhaps you are wondering what a crenelation is.  It is a parapet with short segments cut out.  They are used in castles and fortress walls.  So I could have also labeled this post "Battlements on Latter-day Saint Temples" or "The Castellated Temple Style".  But crenelation is a fun word, so I'm going to use it.

A major feature of the temples Brigham Young built are the crenelations and other castle style architecture used.  The pioneers were trying to literally build the Kingdom of God and it showed in their architecture.  Even churches were made to resemble castles.  The defensive architecture was also used as a symbol of the protection faithfully living the gospel and attending the temple provided (temporally and spiritually).  It also reinforced the royal imagery of a church with the royal priesthood and as sons and daughters of God destined to be kings and queens.  It reminds us that the temple is the House of the Lord with Christ as the King of Kings, the Prince of Glory.  The castle look also visually unites the four pioneer temples despite their differences.

The St. George Temple was the first to look like a castle.  It is brilliant white and has buttresses and crenelations giving it a look of strength and nobility.

 

The Logan Temple was built next and it again features buttresses and crenelations or battlements.  The current dark stone seems to add to the fortress look of the temple (originally it was painted white).  The corner towers are also octagonal giving a turret look which makes the building look even stronger.

The Manti Temple continued to use castle features despite having towers with French revival influences.  Again buttresses and crenelations are found on the walls.  The middle towers also have pyramidal stones at the tops of the walls that make them look even more defensive.  Another feature is the large stone retaining wall which includes crenelations and adds to the fortified look.  The west end towers are octagonal giving a turret look, while the east towers are all square to make them visually appealing butting into a hill.  This also makes the east towers appear weightier and stronger and larger, which is fitting as they represent the Melchizedek Priesthood.

The Salt Lake Temple is of course covered with castle elements.  Its architecture is often called castellated gothic (I think the name isn't very fitting as the architecture isn't very gothic with no pointed arches or flying buttresses and relatively little glass).  The architecture is very well done and beautiful.  The temple really is a conglomeration of styles, but the crenelations, buttresses, and deeply set windows all give a feeling of strength and a castle look.  The use of normal arches and not pointed arches probably helps it look like a castle as well.  You might also notice that the buttresses extend above the crenelated parapet.  This is because at that level every other buttress is also a chimney.  You can see that half of them are open in this photo. The open ones are chimneys.

These four temples, the pioneer temples, are the only ones to use the castle style with crenelations.  Other temples have mimicked features of these temples including the Brigham City Utah Temple which is currently under construction.  That temple isn't using crenelations.  The San Diego Temple is often compared to a castle and it is beautiful and has a look of strength, but it is not crenelated.  The crenelated castle style is part of what makes the pioneer temples unique.  I would like to see it incorporated into a new temple, but if not, we still have four superb examples of the style.  I should also mention that using a crenelated castle style of church architecture is not unique to Mormonism - I saw many examples of it on my mission in England.

Colorful Temple Exteriors

White has become so synonymous with the temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that we seem to forget the examples of temples that aren't white or any color remotely close to white.

The Kirtland Ohio Temple

Currently the Kirtland Ohio Temple is white (and not owned by the church).  Originally it had sparkling blue walls, a red roof, and green doors (the doors are still green).  Our first temple was clearly not white, but instead quite colorful.

The Logan Utah Temple

Today the Logan Temple is made of a dark brown stone.  Originally it was painted white (much like the St. George Utah Temple which is actually red sandstone stuccoed white).  The paint on the Logan Temple didn't weather very well and soon it looked horrible.  A decision was made to let the paint finish wearing off and to not repaint it.  This is how the temple is now with its dark brown walls.  The stone is really a nice color and contrasts nicely with the white towers (which are now fiberglass and not the original wood, if you wanted to know).  This also explains why the Logan Temple stones are somewhat rough cut and irregularly shaped blocks.  The builders thought the stones would always be covered.  Other temples such as Manti and Salt Lake have neatly arranged, fine cut, smoothed stone blocks because they were never intended to be painted.

The Vernal Utah Temple

The Vernal Temple is remodeled from the Uintah Stake Tabernacle which was made out of red brick.  Because of this the current temple is red.  White towers contrast nicely and add a touch of the familiar white usually symbolizing holiness. 

The Copenhagen Denmark Temple

The Copenhagen Temple is another temple remodeled from an existing building - this time a chapel.  The chapel was red brick, so the completed temple is also red brick and looks nice.  The red also makes details such as the front columns stand out.  I think this temple works, and the fact that it is red helps the temple's appearance in my opinion.

I find that the red is a wonderful symbol of the blood of Christ and the atonement in general.  All this red brick might also remind us that the first endowments were given in the upper floor of Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois before the Nauvoo Temple was completed.  Either way, I think that red is a wonderful color for a temple.

The Johannesburg South Africa Temple is made of brown brick which gives it a different look.

The last really colorful temple is the Newport Beach California Temple which is a nice pink color.  I like the look.  The color was a concession to neighbors that thought a white temple would have been too bright.  The temple is still really light colored, so I hesitate to list it with the above temples.  I suppose that the Albuquerque New Mexico Temple is also a pinkish hue.  There are other temples with slight shades of this color or that.  I don't need to list them all.  Most are kept really light, so the temples listed above are really the colorful ones.

Several other temples have dark accents.  The Fukuoka Japan Temple, for instance, has some dark stone.  The Snowflake Arizona Temple also has its first floor made out of darker stone than the lighter second floor.

That is the list of colorful temples (or temples that aren't white or light colored).  I don't think there are any others.  I like having temples white or light colors.  It is nice symbolism and is a nice look for these holy edifices.  Even so, there is something neat about these bolder temples with dark colors.  Maybe it is because they are so rare and unique.  Maybe it is because the white details on the temple seem so much brighter with darker details adding contrast.  There are probably many reasons.  I like how unique these temples are and wouldn't mind seeing a few more colorful or dark temples, even though I'd still prefer most temples to be light.

Please comment and let us know what you think.

Holy of Holies in Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Holy of Holies is the most sacred part of a temple and is only really in one temple today - the Salt Lake Temple.  Little known is the fact that several temples have had Holy of Holies.

To start out I should point out that the term "Holy of Holies" comes from the Bible and referred to the most sacred part of the Tabernacle, Solomon's Temple, Zerrubbabel's Temple, and the Temple of Herod.  The term "Most Holy Place" is usually another name for the Holy of Holies.  The room contained the ark of the covenant and could only be entered by the High Priest once a year.  It was separated from "the holy place" by the veil of the temple.  In this way, our current temple celestial rooms are somewhat comparable to the Jewish Holy of Holies.  Still, the rooms are quite a bit different.  This should be expected as the Jewish temples were Aaronic Priesthood preparatory temples while ours are Melchizedek Priesthood higher law Christian temples.

The Holy of Holies in our temples have some similarities to their ancient counterparts.  They have limited access - the prophet and occasionally others can enter the room.  They are also used for heavenly visitations.  Anciently, the Holy of Holies was where Gabriel appeared and announced to Zacharias that his wife would give birth to John the Baptist.  In today's Holy of Holies, the prophet may receive similar heavenly visitations and directions on how to run Christ's church.

You might wonder what else "Holy of Holies" is used for.  Apparently it is used for the higher ordinances of the priesthood.  Apostle James E. Talmage said that it is "reserved for the higher ordinances in the priesthood relating to the exaltation of both living and dead".  See his book The House of the Lord for this information. There are several temple ordinances mentioned in the scriptures which aren't performed often or even talked about regularly.  I suspect that some of them might performed in the holy of holies.  Here is one such verse:

Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your annointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.

D&C 124:39

Notice that this verse says "most holy places" which might mean "Holy of Holies".  I suspect that the "memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi" may simply refer to the sacrament served during solemn assemblies.  In another place we read:

And he shall be received by the ordinance of the washing of feet, for unto this end was the ordinance of the washing of feet instituted.

And again, the ordinance of washing feet is to be administered by the president, or presiding elder of the church.

It is to be commenced with prayer; and after partaking of bread and wine, he is to gird himself according to the pattern given in the thirteenth chapter of John's testimony concerning me. Amen.                                 

D&C 88:139-141

This verse refers to the ordinance of washing of feet - particularly in relation to the School of the Prophets.  This ordinance was instituted by Jesus Christ just prior to his crucifixion and is a priesthood ordinance.  Christ gave this ordinance to his apostles and I highly suspect that the same ordinance is given to any apostle, although it is also apparently given to others as well.  It would not surprise me if the Holy of Holies was used for this ordinance, although it may be performed elsewhere in the temple.

Lets leave this chain of thought and instead get to the architecture of the Holy of Holies and when they have been used.

You can consider the Kirtland Temple to have included a Holy of Holies.  The assembly halls could be divided using curtains (essentially veils) and on April 3, 1836 the Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits were curtained off with Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery inside when Jesus Christ, Moses, Elias, and Elijah appeared to them, accepted the temple, and conferred priesthood keys and the sealing power.  For this reason, I think you could consider the pulpits in the Kirtland Temple as an early Holy of Holies.

The original Nauvoo Temple included a sealing room identified as the Holy of Holies.  This was room 1 or the clerk's office.  It was a sealing room, clerk's office, and Holy of Holies.  Apparently it was used so much for the higher ordinances that other rooms had to be used for sealings so the room could be used for the higher ordinances.  See this article for more details.  Here is a drawing of a sealing room in the original Nauvoo Temple from lds.org.  Details of how the room looked are probably guessed, but it gives you some idea of what the Holy of Holies may have looked like.

I don't know if the St. George Temple had a Holy of Holies, but I suspect it at least had a sealing room occasionally used for that purpose.

The Logan Temple used to contain a sealing room sometimes used as the Holy of Holies.  This was the Gold Room.  The room had gold directly applied to the plaster walls using a hot iron.  As you can see, intricate patterns were made on the walls.  The curtain is covering a doorway leading into the southeast tower spiral staircase.  Also, notice the stained glass window.  The windows were removed when the temple was gutted and remodeled in the 1980s.  You can see the windows in the Church History museum (and I think the Manti Temple cafeteria has some of them as well - they looked familiar last time I ate there). 

Logan Temple Gold Room - Sometimes a Holy of Holies

Logan Temple Gold Room - Sometimes a Holy of Holies

The Manti Temple also included a Holy of Holies.  This one is directly off the celestial room and is still in the temple.  It has its door left open so you can see the room and is now officially a sealing room, although one you can't use.  Apparently President Hinckley wanted the room kept special because of its history (according to temple workers at the Manti Temple who said the room is rumored to have been a Holy of Holies.  As you can see, the room is extremely ornate.  I particularly like the arched area above the altar and the intricate detailing used there.  Even small details such as the door handle and the hinges on the door are covered in symbolic details.  This really is a fitting Holy of Holies.

Manti Temple Sealing Room - Sometimes a Holy of Holies

The Salt Lake Temple is currently the only temple with a permanent Holy of Holies.  This room is accessed from the celestial room and is in between two sealing rooms that are also directly off the celestial room.  The room is round with a dome.  In fact, the room directly above the Holy of Holies is called the dome room because the dome ceiling of the Holy of Holies takes up the middle of the room.  As you can see, the room has numerous art glass windows in the dome (lights in the dome room light them up).  There is also an authentic Tiffany Glass window depicting the First Vision (which can be seen on the other side of the window from the sealing office).  The glass window says

IF ANY OF YOU LACK WISDOM LET HIM ASK OF GOD

THAT GIVETH TO MEN LIBERALLY AND UPBRAIDETH NOT

AND IT SHALL BE GIVEN HIM

                                     James 1-5v

THIS IS MY BELOVED SON       HEAR HIM

The room contains other nice architectural details.  Carved faces are found on the arches.  Vines are found on the columns.  Sconces, a chandelier(s?), and art glass windows bring a lot of light into the room.  You can also see that the room has intricate carvings.  Despite all of this, the room is remarkably restrained for a room with so many intricate details. In Talmage's book The House of the Lord he states that the Holy of Holies is

reached by an additional flight of six steps inside the sliding doors.  The short staircase is bordered by hand-carved balustrades, which terminate in a pair of newel-posts bearing bronze figures symbolizing innocent childhood; these support flower clusters, each jeweled blossom enclosing an electric bulb.  On the landing at the head of the steps is another archway, beneath which are sliding doors; these doors mark the threshold of the inner room or Holy of Holies. . . 

Talmage then describes the Holy of Holies:

The floor is of native hard wood blocks, each an inch in cross section.  The room is of circular outline, eighteen feet in diameter, with paneled walls, the panels separated by carved pillars supporting arches; it is decorated in blue and gold.  The entrance doorway and the panels are framed in red velvet with an outer border finished in gold.  Four wall niches, bordered in crimson and gold, have a deep blue background, and within these are tall vases holding flowers.  The room is practically without natural light, but it is brilliantly illuminated by a large electrolier and eight side clusters of lamps.  The ceiling is a dome in which are set circular and semicircular windows of jeweled glass, and on the outside of these, therefore above the ceiling, are electric globes whose light penetrates into the room in countless hues of subdued intensity. . .

Salt Lake Temple Holy of Holies

In many ways we only need the one Holy of Holies because a major function of the room is for the prophet to go and pray and receive revelation and heavenly visitations relating to how the church should be run.  Yet, it also has its function for higher ordinances and the prophet (or apostles) may wish to use a Holy of Holies when they are away from Salt Lake.  For these reasons, sealing rooms in temples are occasionally used as Holy of Holies.  I was told in the Preston England Temple that one of the sealing rooms in that temple is designated to be used for the prophet or apostles when needed.  When they need the room it is temporarily set apart for that purpose, so essentially it is occasional a Holy of Holies.  This may also explain why many temples have one small sealing room that is really nice, but impractical for large weddings.  It is probably used only for sealings for the dead and also rarely as a Holy of Holies.

I hope you found this interesting.  You may comment but remember that this is on the internet and these are sacred rooms, so let's be restrained in our comments on this one.

Here is a picture of the Dome Room, the room above the Holy of Holies in the Salt Lake Temple.  It is just used to access the ceiling lights above the Holy of Holies and has been used as a dressing room.

Dome Room Above Holy of Holies in the Salt Lake Temple

Talmage describes the Dome Room as follows:

. . . the large Dome Room, thirty nine by forty four feet.  On the south side are three oval windows, and opposite these on the north are semi-discs of pebbled glass looking down into the Celestial Room and set in the arches thereof.  In the center appears a large dome, fifty one feet in circumference at its base and seven feet high.  This is set with seventeen jeweled windows and may be readily recognized as the ceiling of the Holy of Holies . . . In each of these windows electric bulbs are placed, and it is from these the room below derives its beauty of ceiling illumination and coloring.  The walls are hung with portraits of Church authorities.  No specific ordinance work belongs to this apartment. . .

For more information, please read James E. Talmage's The House of the Lord first printed in 1912.

Temple Additions

At the request of The Tolmans who commented on my last post, I'm going to talk a little about temple additions.

The St. George Utah Temple had a stair addition on the rear of the temple.  This didn't alter the symmetry (as other temple additions have) and blends in fairly well with the temple.  It isn't a perfect addition.  Details such as window style give away that it is a 1970s addition.  There is also an annex with dressing rooms, etc. that is white, but otherwise doesn't match the original temple.

The Logan Utah Temple has been completely gutted and rebuilt on the inside.  At the same time a stair tower was added to the center of the north side.  Unfortunately, this ruins the original symmetry of the temple, and the windows don't match the original temple.  The stone is a fairly good match.  The temple originally jutted out slightly in the same location as the current stair tower (I'm not sure if this was from an earlier stair addition).  In that case, the extension had a circular window that looked nice.  The original annex also matched the stone of the main temple and was castellated.  I'm not sure why they replaced that annex with a cream 1970s style annex that obviously doesn't match the time period of the original temple.  But when the Logan Temple was remodeled in the 1970s, little, if any, attention was paid to historical details or matching styles.  This is painfully apparent on the inside which looks nothing like the exterior would suggest.

The Manti Temple used to have a drive through tunnel beneath the east towers.  This has been blocked off now and parts of it can be seen near the current women's dressing room.  Otherwise I am only aware of the current annex addition with dressing rooms.  In this case, it matches the temple stone and the annex interior matches the styles present in the rest of the temple.

The Salt Lake Temple has had a sealing room annex added (on the right side in this picture).  This addition is 2 stories tall and is found on the north side of the temple.  This ruins the symmetry of the original temple, and the windows don't quite match those found on the original temple.  Even so, this addition blends fairly well and was needed to increase the number of sealing rooms from 3 to 14.

The Boise Idaho, Chicago Illinois, and Dallas Texas Temples were overcrowded upon opening.  Each was remodeled within a few years.  The additions present some problems.  In at least Dallas and Boise you go to the chapel and then you go back through the dressing rooms to get to the endowment rooms.  This is awkward and obviously wasn't the original plan for the building.  Boise's addition isn't the most balanced.  I remember Dallas' addition doing a better job of preserving symmetry.  In addition, one of the formerly detached spires is now in a lobby with glass skylights providing a nice view.  I haven't been to the Chicago Temple, so I am not sure how the addition works there.

Currently, the Buenos Aires Argentina Temple is being remodeled.  Two wings are being added that match the original temple architecture and preserve the original symmetry.




The Monticello Utah Temple was originally built with just one endowment room, one sealing room, the celestial room, and a baptistery.  It was so small because it was a test small temple.  Shortly after completion, the temple was expanded and now looks like most other first style small temples, although the window elevations change along the building, giving away that there is an addition.  Similarly, the Anchorage Alaska Temple was originally built small and has since been expanded.  This gives it a different look.

I've surely missed some temple additions.  I've noticed that most additions haven't done the best jobs of preserving the original architecture (they ruin symmetry, windows don't match, rooms and corridors don't flow right afterwords). Still, most aren't overly offensive, and a few work.

Comment and let us know what you think.

Words as Temple Decoration

Several temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints use words to decorate the temple.  For example, at the entrance to the Cardston Alberta Temple there is this verse by Orson Whitney that I found here.  Here is the verse:

Where spreads a feast unknown to festive halls.
Freely partake, for freely God hath given
And taste the holy joys that tell of heaven.

Here learn of Him who triumphed o’er the grave,
And unto men the keys, the Kingdom gave;
Joined here by powers that past and present bind
The living and the dead perfection find.

 In other temples a verse of scripture is used.  In the Mesa Arizona Temple, above the celestial room doors (seen from the grand staircase) is part of D&C 93:36:

THE GLORY OF GOD IS INTELLIGENCE

I think it was also in the Mesa Temple (but may have been elsewhere) that the beatitude found in Matthew 5:8 is inscribed on a wall:

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD

The Idaho Falls Temple has  Habukkuk 2:20 on the wall in a foyer area:

BUT THE LORD IS IN HIS HOLY TEMPLE: LET ALL THE EARTH KEEP SILENCE BEFORE HIM.

Of course most temple exteriors contain the words:

HOLINESS TO THE LORD
THE HOUSE OF THE LORD

The Salt Lake Temple contains a scroll stone engraved with the words:

I AM ALPHA AND OMEGA

The original Nauvoo Temple had inscriptions in the lower assembly hall.  Above the Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits, following the arch of the ceiling in gilded letters were the words:

THE LORD HAS SEEN OUR SACRIFICE - COME AFTER US

Both the Kirtland Ohio and Nauvoo Illinois Temples had assembly halls with three initials on each of the 24 pulpits.  The Kirtland Temple had the Melchizedek Priesthood pulpits engraved with the following from top to bottom:

M.P.C. (Melchizedek Presiding Council)

P.M.H. (Presiding Melchizedek High Priesthood)

M.H.P. (Melchizedek High Priesthood)

P.E.M. (Presiding or Presidency Elders Melchizedek)

On the eastern Aaronic Priesthood side the initials are from top to bottom:

B.P.A. (Bishop Presiding over Aaronic Priesthood)

P.A.P. (Presiding or Presidency Aaronic Priests)

P.T.A. (Presiding or Presidency Teachers Aaronic Priesthood)

P.D.A. (Presiding or Presidency Deacons Aaronic Priesthood)

 This website claims that in the Nauvoo Temple the initials were, on the Melchizedek Priesthood side:

P.H.P. (President of the High Priesthood)
P.S.Q. (President of the Seventy Quorums)
P.H.Q. (President of the High priests Quorum)
P.E.Q. (President of the Elders Quorum)

 And on the Aaronic Priesthood side there were the initials:

P.A.P. (President of the Aaronic Priesthood)
P.P.Q. (President of the Priests Quorum)
P.T.Q. (President of the Teachers Quorum)
P.D.Q. (President of the Deacons Quorum)

The assembly hall in the Salt Lake Temple contains inscriptions above the pulpits on each end.  They are:

Aaronic Priesthood

and

Melchizedek Priesthood

The Manti Temple doorknobs contain what is claimed to be stylized Arabic (stylized to the point where the inscription cannot be interpreted today), a common art form used by Masons (the doorknob maker was a mason).  For more information, read the book The Manti Temple.  This book was printed to commemorate the centennial of the Manti Temple.

In Islam since images are often considered idol worship, their mosques and other buildings are often decorated with verses from the Koran, usually extremely stylized.  So using text to decorate religious architecture is not even unique to Christianity (which has many examples of using scriptures to decorate churches).  I also read a newspaper article a few years ago that featured an old Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chapel with scriptures written on each of the roof trusses visible in the chapel.

The Oakland California Temple has relief sculptures of Christ in the New Testament and The Book of Mormon on the temple exterior.  On the New Testament Side the inscriptions are:

BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART FOR THEY SHALL SEE GOD -Matt 5:8
SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS -Matt 6:33

On The Book of Mormon side it reads:

BEHOLD, THEY SAW A MAN DESCENDING OUT OF HEAVEN AND HE WAS CLOTHED IN A WHITE ROBE
BEHOLD, I AM JESUS CHRIST WHOM THE PROPHETS TESTIFIED SHOULD COME INTO THE WORLD- 3 Ne 11:2&10

There is also a large plaque quoting 3 Nephi 17 in the courtyard of the Oakland Temple.

Surely there are many more examples of words being used to decorate temples.  Words can remind of of scriptures and easily put us in the right frame of mind.  Also, they are easier to understand than the hidden symbols frequently used in temples.  Scriptures can bring the spirit and remind us of things we should be focused on.

Although not decorative, when the Logan Temple was gutted they found a wall full of engravings in the plaster hidden beneath the surface.  The inscriptions (with spelling errors galore) had names, mentioned that they were being persecuted, and gave other historical information.

I hope some of you know of engravings on temples and can add a comment telling us how words are used to decorate temples.  We can also discuss how words could be used in future temple architecture, or what you think of the inscriptions I have highlighted so far.  Please comment.

Latter-day Saint Temple Murals - Pt 1 - The Beginnings of Temple Murals

Many temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have murals painted on the walls of the endowment rooms and occasionally in other areas of the temple such as the baptistery.  I'm going to discuss the development of temple murals in a series of posts, beginning with this one.

The first Latter-day Saint temples didn't have murals.  The Kirtland Ohio Temple was mainly a place for revelation to be received and heavenly messengers (angels and Jesus Christ) to come and give instruction and priesthood keys necessary for future temple ordinances.  The Nauvoo Temple was the first temple where the endowment ceremony was performed.  In this temple, endowments were performed in the attic level partly because as the structure was built members didn't know the endowment was going to be performed there.  To administer the endowment, the room on the top floor was divided using curtains.  Each divided off room section was then used to represent the various parts of life - creation, the Garden of Eden, the current world, the terrestrial world, and finally the Celestial Kingdom of God (Heaven).  Potted plants may have been used to give the rooms some connection to what they were to represent.  The rebuilt Nauvoo Temple contains murals as a tribute to what the early saints may have eventually added if they had stayed in Nauvoo.

When the saints arrived in Utah they started building temples.  While these were under construction, the endowment was given in several places.  The council house (now across the street from the Utah State Capitol Building) was used with curtains dividing a room into endowment areas.  Then the Endowment House was built on temple square and it included potted plants and murals in various rooms.

The next temple built was the St. George Utah Temple in 1877.  It lacked endowment rooms.  One of the two assembly rooms was simply divided into the various rooms for the presentation of the endowment.  In 1881 proper walls were added and murals were painted.

St. George Utah Temple Garden Room

St. George Utah Temple World Room

The first temple with true planned endowment rooms with murals was the Logan Utah Temple.  The Logan Temple was planned with progressive endowment rooms with a lot of movement from room to room during the endowment ceremony.  This movement strengthened the teachings of the endowment.  Patrons would see murals depicting the various parts of the endowment and would move higher and higher in the temple as they moved through the endowment ceremony.  Unfortunately this also meant there were a lot of stairs in the Logan Temple and this partly led to the temple being completely gutted and rebuilt in the 1970s.  This remodeling destroyed (or sometimes simply removed) intricate pioneer craftsmanship, fine detailing, the pioneer murals, and the progressive setup of the endowment rooms.  The Logan Temple inspired the use of progressive endowment rooms with murals in the Manti and Salt Lake Temples, as well as many more temples until the 1950s when presenting the endowment on film temporarily ended the use of endowment room murals.  It is extremely sad that the Logan Temple remodel didn't include progressive endowment rooms or murals in the new endowment rooms currently being used.  Hopefully it will someday be re-remodeled with progressive endowment rooms, murals, and fine detailing - even if the exact room layout cannot be restored.

Original Logan Temple Creation Room

Original Logan Temple Garden Room

Original Logan Temple World Room

Original Logan Temple Terrestrial Room

The murals in these early temples were painted by the pioneers.  Many of these had experience and training from their native countries.  In a future posting I will talk about how the church encouraged the development of better murals and art in temples through the Paris Arts Mission.

Please comment and let us know what you think.

This is an addition to the original post:

The Logan Temple original celestial room also had murals painted on either end of the room.  One was of Joseph Smith going to the Hill Cumorah to receive the gold plates The Book of Mormon was translated from.  The other mural shows Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery receiving the Aaronic Priesthood from John the Baptist.  These murals were added to the room in 1929. (See The Logan Temple The First 100 Years by Nolan P. Olsen).  They weren't wrap around murals, and were essentially just huge paintings, but they are still murals and added to this temple.

Original Logan Temple Celestial Room With Mural

Unique Sealing Rooms

Today I'm just going to show some pictures and short commentary about what I consider are the most unique or interesting sealing rooms in Temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  These rooms are used for temple marriages where a man and woman are married for time and all eternity and where children can be sealed to them for eternity.

The pioneer temple sealing rooms:

The St. George Utah Temple has a number of unique sealing rooms.  One is up a small staircase in the celestial room (in the tower).  Most of the sealing rooms are on an upper floor and have a single round window going into each room.  To me, the round window just makes the room feel unique.

Orig. Logan Temple Sealing Rm

The original Logan Utah Temple interior had a sealing room (shown to the left) with gold leafed walls and a stained glass window.  It is extremely unfortunate that when the temple was remodeled the room and wall covering was lost.  I think the gold leaf was lost because it was applied to plaster walls and so it couldn't be removed and brought to the new temple (I know that is what happened to at least most of the Logan Temple murals).

Manti Temple Sealing Room

The Manti Utah Temple has many wonderful ornate sealing rooms.  My favorite is a small one off the celestial room (that isn't used any more).  I've been told that this room was the Holy of Holies until the Salt Lake Temple was completed.  Then it was a sealing room for decades.  Apparently President Hinckley wanted to preserve the room and thought it was extra special so he had the room stop being used for sealings.  This could be a rumor, although I think it was a sealer that told me this.  The room is beautiful with an arched ceiling and intricate gold patterns and detailed woodwork.  The door is left open, but roped off so you can see it but not go all the way in now.  It is also very small, with maybe room for 5 or 10 people to witness the sealing.

Salt Lake Temple SE Sealing Room

Salt Lake Temple SW Sealing Room

The Salt Lake Temple has many nice sealing rooms.  Originally it just had 3 sealing rooms.  Two were on either side of the Holy of Holies, just off the celestial room.  The last was up a small staircase on the east side of the celestial room.  The intricate craftsmanship in these rooms is wonderful to see.  The sealing rooms flanking the Holy of Holies have stained glass windows.  Still, my favorite of the three is at the top of the stairs off the celestial room, in the east center tower of the temple.  I love that the staircase leading to this room has a cupid statue on the bottom rail post.  This is a fitting symbol for the room where a man and a woman are married for time and all eternity.  These rooms definitely are unique.

The dark wood sealing rooms:

Cardston Alberta Temple Sealing Room

The Cardston Alberta Canada Temple is the first temple I know of with dark wood sealing rooms.  This temple used extensive woodwork with intricate inlays using woods imported from around the world.  As you progress in the temple the wood becomes more expensive, lush, an more intricately inlaid.  This means that the celestial room is covered in really nice dark woods.  The sealing rooms also end up dark with really involved inlays. I like this.  It is so different from the usual white sealing room, while still being nice.

Cardston Alberta Temple Sealing Room

I know of only one other temple with dark woodwork in the sealing rooms.  This is the Oakland California Temple.  At least one (although not all) of the Oakland Temple sealing rooms is done in dark wood as seen in the picture below.  I like the dark wood and think it would contrast nicely with the white clothing worn in the temple.  I also like how here the altar glows in a bright contrast to the darker walls.

Oakland California Temple Sealing Room

I have not been in any of the dark wood sealing rooms.  If any of you have, please comment and tell us what they are like and what you think of them.  Also, if you know of any dark wood sealing rooms that I haven't mentioned, please write and let us know about them.

San Antonio Texas Temple Tree of Life Sealing Room

I was going to write about barrel vaulted ceiling rooms, which would also include the Las Vegas Nevada Temple sealing rooms, but I decided to just focus on the best of the group.  The San Antonio Texas Temple sealing room with a stained glass window of the tree of life is inspiring.  The brightness and whiteness of the room seems to be enhanced by the colors of the tree of life window.  Utah artist Tom Holdman did the stained glass windows for the entire temple and did a wonderful job in my opinion.

Washington D.C. Temple Oval Sealing Room

Washington D.C. Temple Sealing Room

Since I am talking about unique sealing rooms I have to mention this sealing room in the Washington D.C. Temple.  I love the oval shape of the room, the metallic wall covering (wall paper or metallic paint or something) that makes the walls shine.  I also find the oval altar interesting.

Washington D.C. Temple Sealing Room (another view)

So that is my list of the most unique sealing rooms.  There are so many more nice sealing rooms that you can tell us about in the comments.  I'll leave you with a picture of one of the Hong Kong China Temple sealing rooms.  I like it mainly because it has elliptical windows, which is just cool.

The Logan Temple - Then and Now

The Logan Utah Temple was the 2nd temple built in Utah, the first with progressive endowment rooms and multiple towers (there are 6, although the octagonal corner towers are usually overlooked making people think that there are only 2).  It is a beautiful temple.  I received my bachelors and masters degrees from Utah State University in Logan so I have spent a lot of time at the Logan Temple and enjoy it.  The one thing I don't like is how the church gutted the building from 1977-1979 and replaced all the intricate hand carved ornamentation with incredibly simple decorations that don't match the exterior.  In some cases the church removed original pieces and instead of returning them they simply replaced them with downgraded components.  This seems crazy to me.  I should note that Spencer W. Kimball was the prophet at the time.  He said he regretted having the temple gutted.  Interestingly, a few years later the Manti Temple, a fraternal twin of the Logan Temple, was carefully restored instead of gutted.  The gutting the Logan Temple at least saved the Manti Temple.

I am hoping for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to restore the Logan Temple's beauty.  At minimum they could add moldings, door handles, etc. that match the style of the original temple.  I think they should really go further and completely restore it, or as close as possible.  The Nauvoo Temple was restored in this way.  While it is technically not the same floor plan as the original (originally endowments were performed in the attic and an assembly hall was on the 2nd floor where endowment rooms now are) it is close and follows the spirit of the original structure and the architecture matches the original architecture.  The Logan Temple could similarly be restored.

Here are pictures of the original Logan Temple Interior:

Original Baptismal Font

 The original baptismal font was a lot more ornate than the current version.  It is sitting in the Church Museum of History and Art.  I think it should be returned to the temple.









The original Logan Temple endowment rooms featured murals by pioneer artists.  Some were destroyed during the remodel.  Others still exist

Original Logan Temple Creation Room

Original Logan Temple Garden Room

Original Logan Temple World Room

Original Logan Temple Terrestrial Room

Orig Logan Temple Terr. Room Painting

Original Celestial Room

 The original celestial room was also nice with elegant arches and windows!  Chandeliers and art also graced the room.  The endowment rooms also had murals (which couldn't be saved as some were painted directly on the walls and not on canvas).  The endowment rooms were progressive for the first time in this temple with patrons going from the creation room to the garden room to the world room to the terrestrial room and finally to the celestial room.  Previously the endowment had been acted out in a large room divided by curtains.

Assembly Room

The original assembly room (which I am 95% sure is still on the top floor) echoed the style of the Kirtland Temple.








The original sealing rooms were very ornate.

Original "President's" Sealing Room

Original "Gold" Sealing Room

The Gold room was also called the Holy of Holies and may have been one at one time.  That is real hand applied gold leaf on the walls and not a wallpaper design.  Several fires damaged the room, but each time the gold leaf was re-done.  The stained glass window behind the sealer's and witnesses' chairs is one of several stained glass windows that were originally in the Logan Temple.  Several are now in the Church Museum of History and Art.  The rest are in the Manti Temple cafeteria (at least I'm fairly sure they were the same windows when I ate there).

Original Tower Sealing Room

The towers also originally contained small sealing rooms.

Original Door Knob

The original door knobs were ornately sculpted brass similar to those in the St. George, Manti and Salt Lake Temples.  The photo is one I took in the Church Museum of History and Art.  Why can't we put these on at least some doors of the Logan Temple?  Or at least make replicas to place on the doors.  We have recently added very detailed sculpted door knobs to new temples so I think we should add them back to the Logan Temple.  The current temple door knobs are smaller and have no ornamentation whatsoever.  They are extremely plain and pale in comparison to the original door knobs.  I think the current temple door knobs are even plain when compared to other temples built at the same time as the remodel such as the Jordan River Utah Temple.

Temple Window Arch in Museum

The original window arch moldings were carefully saved by the church and added to the Church Museum of History and Art.  The current moldings do not match the temple.  I think these moldings could easily be replicated and added to the temple during a remodel.

Original Ceiling Medallion

The original ceilings had exquisite hand carved details similar to those found in the Salt Lake Temple.  Here is a detail showing fruit and flowers sculpted into the ceiling medallion above a chandelier.  Yes, replicating these would cost money, but we just added this kind of detail to the Manhattan New York Temple so it is clearly in the church's means.




So there you have it, that gives you an idea of what the Logan Temple used to look like.  It had ornate pioneer craftsmanship that was painstakingly and carefully placed as an offering to God.  Unfortunately, that craftsmanship was torn out and given to museums and replaced with very boring and simple downgraded replacements. I don't like that the new temple is less nice than the original.  I think we should always leave things better than we were given them.

Current Celestial Room

Current Baptismal Font

Here is what they replaced the original nice temple interior with - a late 70s Celestial Room (which I like, but not in this context) and a late 70s fiberglass baptismal font.  This makes me sad.  The historical architecture of the building has been lost.  The new interior lacks the sacrifice for the beauty of the temple that made the original building so grand.  The hard work of the pioneers who built this temple has largely been undone.

Current Logan Temple Sealing Room

The current sealing rooms are OK but nowhere near as nice.  Also the whole current sealing floor uses too much cream color for my taste and doesn't have windows.  It seems dark.  I don't know why the church doesn't put the original stained glass windows back in the sealing rooms.  The sealing room pictured is the nicest in the current temple, with the rest less detailed.


One of my biggest desires is to hear one day that the Logan Temple is going to be remodeled to restore its former beauty.  Precedents have been set for this.  The Nauvoo Temple was rebuilt and restored despite the lack of many drawings and the remoteness of the temple.  As I recall, someone donated the money for the church to build the temple.  I suppose if someone gave the church a few million dollars specifically to restore the Logan Temple they probably would.  Also recently we have seen remodels of numerous temple - Santiago Chile, Atlanta Georgia, Ogden Utah.  These remodel projects are taking temples from a period of time when the church struggled financially and replacing their original plain interiors with new ornate, nice, detailed, temple quality interiors (and exteriors).  The Logan Temple was built around the same time as many of the temples currently being remodeled so seeing its interior re-gutted and restored to its original glory is certainly possible.  I even think that it is likely in the next 10 years, especially as the economy recovers.

As a bit of trivia - the Logan Temple is currently made of exposed dark stone in a random pattern.  Originally the temple was painted white (with a little red in the paint so I guess really light pink).  So originally the Logan Temple would have looked similar to the St. George Temple in color.  Logan's weather took its toll on the exterior paint and within a few years the whole exterior was peeling and looked horrible.  A decision was made to just let the paint wear off and so that is why we have the current exterior.  The stones are randomly placed because they were intended to be covered and never seen.  Otherwise they would have been carefully placed like those on the Manti Temple and Salt Lake Temple.  I'm fine with the current brown exterior with white towers.  It is actually interesting.  This does show one of many changes to the original temple.  I'd love to see it coated in white, but think that the brown look is probably a better look (and easier to maintain).  This does make me wonder how it would be if we did more temples with dark colors and light accents.

I know from my experience that the Logan Temple is well used with endowment sessions frequently crowded.  The Brigham City Utah Temple is being built to handle this overcrowding.  Likely, other temples will be needed to handle the Logan Temple crowds.  As these other temples are constructed, it will allow the church to restore the Logan Temple (which would decrease its capacity) while still meeting the needs of the saints.  The Logan Temple was carefully made into a beautiful holy edifice with careful craftsmanship intended to inspire the souls of the patrons.  It really is time to have that inspiring interior re-built.  I will concede that it will probably occur when a remodel is needed for other reasons (which could easily be now) or when someone donates the money to have it re-done.

Of course the primary purpose of the temple is to provide a place to perform saving ordinances for the living and the dead and the current temple does that.  But architecture plays a role in conveying the ideals taught in the temple to the patrons and inspiring them to live those ideals.  The original temple did this in a great way and was a powerful force for good (more powerful in my opinion than the current) amplifying the teachings of the temple through architecture, murals, symbolism, and beauty.  Hopefully this will be restored to the Logan Temple some day.