The St. George Utah Temple

Today I'd like to write a little about the St. George Utah Temple.

St. George Utah Temple (see original)

This temple was the first completed after the Nauvoo Temple (the Salt Lake Temple was started before, but took 40 years to complete) making this the oldest temple owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Kirtland is older but not owned by The Church and the Nauvoo Temple was rebuilt in 2002).

The Exterior
The temple sits on an entire city block, giving it its own temple square including a visitor's center and nice grounds which have Christmas lights in the winter.  The temple is very similar to the Nauvoo Illinois Temple, but shows some new temple characteristics.  The most prominent new features are the crenelations, buttresses, and other castle architecture.  During this pioneer time period the temples used this architecture to represent the literal Kingdom of God on Earth and the protection that our temple covenants and ordinances give us.  The temple is bright white.  This is actually a stucco over red sandstone.  The Logan Temple originally had a similar white finish, but the church let the Logan Temple's finish wear off so now you just see the dark stone.

The exterior has few symbols, but it does have the following:

Beehives on the St. George Utah Temple staircases (original photo)

• Beehives appear on each side of the two front door staircases.  These are a symbol of industry, cooperation, community, Zion, Utah, etc.
• The aforementioned castle architectural features are symbolically used.
• The tower has 16 five-pointed stars along the top, just below the dome.
• The tower also has a weather vane on top.  This was used for practical reasons (like Nauvoo's clock tower with bell) but it can also symbolize how the temple helps us understand life and how to move through life (overcoming storms, knowing which way to go, foreseeing dangers). 

St. George Utah Temple Tower (original photo)

The exterior of the St. George Temple has changed through the years.  Originally it had a short, squatty, poorly proportioned spire that Brigham Young complained about.  Because the temple was already completed he begrudgingly let the spire remain that way.  Several months later Brigham Young died, then the tower was struck by lightning and burned to the base of the spire.  The saints decided that Brigham Young had got his way in the end and rebuilt the spire much taller.  The original temple also had an odd looking round turret towards the back that has obviously been removed at some point.

The St. George Utah Temple shortly after completion

Original plans for the temple called for a different "Holiness to the LORD, The House of the LORD" inscription than the one currently used.  The inscription was supposed to be around the small circular window at the top of the square portion of the tower.  The word "Holiness" would have been written along the top half of the circle and the rest of the inscription, dates, etc. would have filled up the space beneath the window.  So in shape the inscription stone would have resembled the one on the Salt Lake Temple but with a small window where the words "to the" appear.  Instead the inscription looks like this.  I like the original design much better.  If the church is ever redoing the stucco and thinks about moving the inscription, I hope they move it to where it was originally planned.  You can see the original inscription plan in the visitor's center.

The Interior
The interior of the St. George Temple is very nice, but it has changed throughout the years.  Originally it was laid out like the Nauvoo Temple, so it was just two assembly halls, one on top of the other, sealing rooms, and a baptistry.  Later, (1881) one hall was divided into endowment rooms with murals using solid partitions and not the curtains originally used.  In 1937-38 these changes were made permanent.  Other changes due to painting, remodeling, and adding a staircase and annex building have changed the temple.  For the most part it retains its historical feel.


The baptistry used to look like this.

St. George Utah Temple Baptistry

The current baptistry is very similar.  The font is very similar, although the decorative grillwork on the steps appears to have been lost.  A mural of Christ has also been added as well as some chandeliers.  A picture of the current baptistry can be seen here or in the visitor's center.  One nice thing to look at in this baptistry, is the doorknobs to the font room.  They are original to the temple and very ornate brass (or something similar).  They remind me of the original Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake Temple doorknobs.  I don't know if there are other original doorknobs in the temple.  The confirmation rooms weren't anything special and could be improved upon in my opinion, but in general I really like this baptistry.  There is also a model of the temple in the waiting room for some reason.

The endowment rooms have nice murals.  The current murals date to 1937-38 when the lower hall was formally partitioned off into the current endowment room layout (although some division of rooms had been completed in 1881).  The rooms were further altered in the 1975 remodel that changed from the live actor format with progression (moving from room to room) to staying in a single room and watching the acted portions of the endowment on a movie screen.  In my opinion, this lessons the effect of the temple as you only see one mural of the three intended.  It also doesn't make the temple any more efficient.  You could still use film and move from room to room with the same temple capacity as the current setup.  I hope they restore the movement.  I don't have a picture of the Creation room (and have not been in it).  Here are pictures of the Garden and World endowment rooms:

St. George Utah Temple Garden Room

St. George Utah Temple World Room

Currently you stay in one room until the end and then move into the Terrestrial Room for the last part of the ceremony.  The room can be seen below.  It is stunning in person.  The columns are cluster columns and their shape in plan looks like the cross shaped pattern on the exterior of the temple (which is also along the top of this room and the Celestial Room).  There are also five-pointed stars running along the top of this room and the Celestial Room.  The front of the room is semicircular.  Desert pinks and pretty blues color the room in an elegant southwest color scheme.  This is one of my favorite Terrestrial rooms (and the picture doesn't do it any justice).

St. George Utah Temple Terrestrial Room

The Celestial Room is also well done with the aforementioned stars.  It also has cluster columns matching those in the Terrestrial Room.  These are painted to look like stone.  There is a small staircase leading to a sealing room in the tower pictured below.  The ceiling also arches elliptically.  It is a fine example of pioneer architecture, although quite a bit plainer than the Manti or Salt Lake Temples (which isn't a bad thing).

St. George Utah Temple Celestial Room

St. George Utah Temple Sealing Room

 Just outside the Celestial Room there is a staircase that takes you back to the dressing rooms.

St. George Utah Temple Staircase

There are also spiral staircases in the two corners on either side of the tower.  I asked to see these and was shown them.  They have central supports and were fairly simple spiral staircases.  They were also extremely hot.  Apparently they don't bother to air condition them because they aren't used often.

If you go upstairs you can see the original sealing rooms.  Most of these are along the north end of the temple where the middle row of circular windows is.  Many of the rooms are small with a single circular window opposite the door and a beautifully carved altar in the center.  As you walk to the sealing office you might notice that the walls are incredibly thick as you walk through an archway.  There is also a waiting room in the tower.  According to the temple workers, the other half of the sealing room floor is largely empty unfinished rooms.  I guess they have some space to expand.

The top floor of the temple houses the Priesthood Assembly Hall.  This assembly hall is used for special meetings and is similar to those in the Kirtland, Nauvoo, Logan, Manti, Salt Lake, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. Temples.  There are pulpits on each end of the room representing the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods.  You can read more in the link.  This room has cluster columns like those in the Terrestrial and Celestial Rooms and gives you an idea of how the endowment and celestial rooms used to look before they were formally divided.  The same stars and other patterns are also in this room.  There are also stars on the pulpits.

St. George Utah Temple Assembly Hall

St. George Utah Temple Assembly Hall Pulpits

I like the St. George Utah Temple.  It has great pioneer style and fine craftsmanship.  I would restore the endowment room progression, replace doorknobs with replicas of the original doorknobs, redo the confirmation rooms, and redo the inscription on the temple's exterior.  Otherwise I love this temple and am glad we have it.

Please comment and let us know what you think about this temple, how it has changed, and how it is today.

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.