Latter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function

Abstract: This essay traces the modern-day usage and understanding of temples from the Kirtland Temple to Nauvoo and the Salt Lake Temple. Architecture was used to teach principles. While the Kirtland Temple was preparatory (think of the vision of Christ and the conference of keys by Abraham, Moses, Abraham, Elias, and finally Elijah), the Nauvoo Temple was dedicated to ritual usage. In 1879, the Church reduced temple usage to rituals, and thus assembly rooms are missing from later temples. Through his paper, Cowan shows how temples have changed according to revelation and how prophets have seen models in vision that then have been incorporated in the temples God’s people built.

[Editor’s Note: Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article is reprinted here as a service to the Latter-day Saint community. Original pagination and page numbers have necessarily changed, otherwise the reprint has the same content as the original.

See Richard O. Cowan, “Latter-day Houses of the Lord: Developments in Their Design and Function,” in Temple Insights: Proceedings of the Interpreter Matthew B. Brown Memorial Conference, “The Temple on Mount Zion,” 22 September 2012, ed. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely (Orem, UT: The Interpreter Foundation; Salt Lake City: Eborn Books, 2014), 203–218. Further information at https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/temple-insights/.]

[Page 92]I am honored to participate in this conference, which pays tribute to Matthew Brown, and to talk about temples, a subject he loved. Elder James E. Talmage spoke of “a definite sequence of development” in understanding the purposes for which temples are built and that these changes are reflected in the buildings themselves.[1] The piecemeal restoration of temple understanding in the latter days is reflected in the design of temples built during this dispensation.

Some basic patterns were set in earlier dispensations. The layout of the tabernacle and its grounds emphasized its sacredness and separation from the world. The tabernacle tent was divided into two rooms. The larger outer room was known as the “Holy Place,” and the innermost room was regarded as “The Most Holy Place” or “Holy of Holies.” The tabernacle was surrounded by a courtyard secluded by a fence of fabric panels. As the Israelites pitched their camp, the twelve tribes were arranged around the tabernacle as if to provide a protective shield from the outside world. Only those who were worthy could enter the courtyard, only priests were admitted into the tabernacle’s outer room, and only the high priest could enter the innermost room — The Holy of Holies — once a year on the day of Atonement. This illustrated the principle that the more holy the area, the fewer the number of people who could enter there.

Since Old Testament times, temples have served two major functions. They have been places of contact between heaven and earth — revelation between God and man. They also have been places where sacred ceremonies or “ordinances” have been performed by which the faithful enter into covenants with God. Both of these functions would need to be restored as part of the “restitution of all things” (see Acts 3:19–21) “in the dispensation of the fullness of times” (Ephesians 1:10).

The Kirtland Temple

The first of the functions mentioned above was restored at the Kirtland Temple. In 1833, the Lord promised to endow the Saints “with power from on high.” He specified that the temple was not to be built “after the manner of the world,” but according to a plan that He promised to reveal to three whom the brethren would appoint (see Doctrine  & Covenants 95:1-4). Heeding the Lord’s admonition, a conference that convened just two days later appointed the three members of the recently organized First Presidency to obtain a draft (or plan) for the building.[2]

“Joseph not only received revelation and commandment to build a Temple,” President Brigham Young later testified, “but he received a pattern also, as did Moses for the Tabernacle, and Solomon for his Temple; [Page 93]for without a pattern, he could not know what was wanting, having never seen [a temple], and not having experienced its use.”[3] Truman O. Angell, one of the Church’s supervisors of temple construction, later testified that the Lord’s promise to show the building’s design to the First Presidency was literally fulfilled. On an occasion when Joseph Smith invited his counselors to kneel with him in prayer, the building appeared before them in vision. “After we had taken a good look at the exterior, the building seemed to come right over us,” testified Second Counselor Frederick G. Williams. Later, while speaking in the completed temple, he affirmed that the hall in which they were convened coincided in every detail with the vision given to the Prophet.[4]

Even though the temple’s exterior would look much like a typical New England meetinghouse, its interior had some unique features. The revelation specified that the building’s “inner court” should include two large rooms, one above the other, each measuring 55 by 65 feet. The lower hall was to be a chapel used for praying, preaching, and administering the sacrament. The upper hall was for educational purposes (see D&C 95:15–17).

An unusual feature of the temple’s two main rooms would be multiple pulpits. At both ends there would be a stair-stepped stand with three pulpits on each of its four levels. Those on the west were for the use of the Melchizedek Priesthood, while those on the east were for the Aaronic. Initials on each pulpit would represent the specific priesthood office held by the individual occupying it. These arrangements would help Church members to understand the relative authority of various groups of priesthood leaders.[5] Elder Erastus Snow later declared that the Kirtland Temple was built “to show forth the order of the Priesthood, Aaronic and Melchizedek.”[6] Thus, the Kirtland Temple was a multipurpose building designed to accommodate a variety of functions.

The Saints built the temple despite poverty and persecution. A popular Latter-day Saint hymn declares, “Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.”[7] The Saints’ sacrifice in building the Lord’s house truly was rewarded. The weeks before the temple’s dedication were a Pentecostal season, as the Prophet Joseph Smith put it, “long to be remembered.”[8]The climax came one week after the temple’s dedication. On April 3, 1836, which was Easter Sunday, Moses, Elias, and Elijah restored priesthood keys, and the Savior Himself appeared to accept the temple. Joseph Smith recorded: “We saw the Lord standing upon the breastwork of the pulpit, before us; and under his feet was a paved work of pure gold, in color like amber. His eyes were as a flame of fire; the [Page 94]hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun; and his voice was as the sound of the rushing of great waters.” The Lord promised to manifest Himself there if “my people will keep my commandments, and do not pollute this holy house” (D&C 110). Clearly, therefore, the Kirtland Temple was a place of revelation — the first function listed above.

The Nauvoo Temple

Sacred ordinances, the other major function of temples, were unfolded while the second temple was being built at Nauvoo, Illinois. In 1840 Joseph Smith taught the Saints that they could be baptized in behalf of the dead (compare 1 Corinthians 15:29). They eagerly went into the Mississippi River to perform this ordinance, thus making gospel blessings available to their loved ones who had died without this opportunity. In 1842 the Prophet presented the endowment, which was a “course of instructions” describing the path that leads back into the presence of God and “setting forth the keys” by which this can be achieved.[9] Soon couples were also being “sealed,” or married with solemn covenants “for time and for all eternity” (see D&C 132:7–20).

The revelation directing that the Nauvoo Temple be built reflected that it was to accommodate both of the two main functions of temples. First, the Lord promised to manifest Himself there and restore “that which was lost unto you.” Second, the temple was to be the place for baptisms and other sacred service that “belongeth to my house” (see D&C 124:27-30). When completed, the Nauvoo Temple repeated the Kirtland Temple’s pattern of two large meeting rooms but added a baptismal font in the basement and facilities for other ordinances on its uppermost floor.

Specific parts of the temple were completed and dedicated piecemeal so that ordinance work could begin as soon as possible. During the summer and fall of 1841, the Saints eagerly pushed the temple’s construction. In July, William Weeks began preparing plans for a baptismal font to be located in the temple basement. On October 2 when the Prophet preached on salvation for the dead, he emphatically declared: There shall be no more baptisms for the dead, until the ordinance can be attended to in the Lord’s House; and the Church shall not hold another general conference, until they can meet in said house. For thus saith the Lord!”[10]

“Just five weeks later, the basement rooms were enclosed by a temporary frame building sided up with split oak clapboards.” Its roof [Page 95]was so low that it fit under the beams of the ground floor.[11] A wooden font, carved by Elijah Fordham under Weeks’s direction, measured twelve by sixteen feet. It rested on the backs of twelve oxen, four on each side and two at each end. These were patterned after the most beautiful five-year-old steer that could be found in the country.”[12] Joseph Smith dedicated these facilities on Monday, November 8. The first baptisms were performed there two weeks later.

Then, on November 30, 1845, Brigham Young and twenty others who had received their endowment from Joseph Smith gathered to dedicate the attic story for ordinance work. During the next 10 days, Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and others were busy preparing the attic’s central “council chamber” for the presentation of the endowment. It was divided by means of canvas partitions into separate areas representing distinct stages in man’s eternal progress. Saints contributed furnishings for these rooms. Potted plants, for example, were gathered for the area representing the Garden of Eden. The east end of the room had a large gothic window and was furnished with fine carpets and wall hangings. This most beautiful area represented the celestial kingdom. When Joseph Fielding entered this part of the temple for the first time, he felt as though he had truly gotten out of the World.[13]

The early Saints commonly referred to the Kirtland Temple as the Lord’s “house.” The Nauvoo edifice, on the other hand, was more consistently called a “temple.” Perhaps this change in designation reflected the fact that the latter structure was associated with sacred priesthood ordinances while the first was not.

Doctrine and Covenants

History of the Church

Temple

House

Temple

House

Kirtland

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