(May 2019 update: The Church has announced a renovation of the St. George Utah Temple. The temple will close in November 2019, with the work expected to be completed in 2022. Check out the details here:
https://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/church-shares-renovation-plans-st-george-utah-temple.)
For many Latter-day Saints the pioneer era temples are among
the most recognizable and best loved. The oldest of these historic buildings is
the St. George Utah Temple. This temple was dedicated in 1877 and it has been
in use continually since that time (with the exception of relatively short
remodeling closures). For us in 2015 that has been 138 years! While the
building’s stark white exterior has changed little during that time, the
interior spaces—specifically the lower levels—have been heavily remodeled.
The addition of modern conveniences like electricity,
elevators, and—very important to this corner of Utah—air conditioning, have all
played a large part in necessitating the many remodelings. But there have been
other reasons to change the temple’s interior as well. For example, the most
recent major remodeling came in the 1970s when, among other changes, the rooms
used to present the endowment ordinance were modified to allow this
presentation by way of a film. Yet the endowment rooms changed during this remodel
were not 1877 originals. In fact when the temple was dedicated there
were not truly permanent endowment rooms like we see in modern-day temples.
The St. George Temple’s basic design and original
interior were very similar to the 1846 Nauvoo Temple. In fact when archaeological
studies were being conducted on the Nauvoo Temple site in the 1960s, the archaeologists
used St. George Temple plans and photographs to help interpret what they were
finding (Harrington, 5). These two temples in turn shared a basic floor plan with the Kirtland Temple and other unbuilt temples of the restoration.
While I hope to do a more in-depth post on the design similarities of the early
Latter-day Saint temples I will give a summary here:
The Kirtland Temple, whose original layout remains preserved
to this day, includes two large assembly rooms which take up the majority of
floor space on the two lower stories of the temple. These large assembly rooms
include pulpits at both ends where Church leadership would sit during
meetings. Curtains were also suspended from the ceiling and could be lowered to
partition these large assembly spaces into smaller temporary rooms. Above these
two floors is a third story “attic” which is permanently divided up into
small rooms and was used mostly as classroom space. All three stories are accessed from a vestibule on the east end which includes two staircases.
Topping the temple’s east end is a small tower. There is a basement level but
it is little more than a storage/crawl space. Looking at the
HABS drawing below will help you make sense of this layout.
 |
The Kirtland Temple.
Source: Historic American Buildings Survey. |
 |
The Kirtland Temple.
Source: Historic American Buildings Survey. |
The next temple constructed by the Latter-day Saints (Nauvoo) followed this same floor plan, with two important additions. The first was the
addition of a basement level which included a font to be used in Baptisms for the
Dead. These baptisms had yet to be practiced when the Kirtland Temple was
built. The second design change was the addition of mezzanine levels above each
assembly room. These levels were made up of small rooms running the length of
the temple. So in review there was the basement level with its baptistry, the
first assembly room level, the first mezzanine level, the second assembly room
level, the second mezzanine level, and finally the attic level. All six of
these levels were accessed from two spiral staircases located in the corners of
the temple at the west end.
The St. George Temple would follow the same pattern as the
Nauvoo Temple, with the exception of the attic story; there would be no level
above the second mezzanine level. The endowment ordinance which had taken place
on Nauvoo’s attic floor would take place on the basement level of the St.
George Temple (Yorgason, 226). This meant the basement of the St. George temple would be a beehive of activity, with not only the canvas partitioned
endowment rooms and the baptistry, but with changing rooms, the
boiler, and equipment for indoor plumbing (Ibid).
 |
A cross section of the
St. George Temple; circa 1877. |
Above the St. George Temple’s basement level was the first
assembly room, which like the Kirtland Temple could be partitioned with canvas
curtains. This was followed by the first mezzanine level, then the second assembly room,
and finally the second mezzanine level. Just like in the original Nauvoo Temple
both of the mezzanine levels contained numerous small rooms running the length
of the temple. There were eight on each side of the temple, totaling 16 on each
floor. The large elliptical arched ceilings found in the center of both assembly
rooms extended up past the floor line of the mezzanine levels. Today these small rooms are mainly used for sealings, while some contain HVAC equipment, and others are
supposedly empty. Historically the rooms had many uses, I have even heard tell
that some were used as apartments for those from out of town, though I can’t
back this up with a reliable source. All of these levels were accessed by two spiral staircases at the east end of the temple.
It can be difficult to envision the layout of the temple through reading, so I have draw and posted some diagrams to help. These are based upon original temple drawings by Truman O. Angell which were published in The St. George Temple: The First 100 Years by Janice Force DeMille, and upon my personal knowledge/observations and that which has been shared to me by others. Keep in mind these are not professional or 100 percent accurate.
According to the authors of
All That Was Promised: The St. George Temple and the Unfolding of the
Restoration the basement very quickly proved to be too small and the two
final rooms used in the endowment (the terrestrial and celestial rooms) were moved from the basement to the first assembly floor (Yorgason, 286-288). The exact layout isn’t
publicly known, though it appears it was done with canvas partitions rather
than physical walls. For 60 years the basement would include the creation,
garden, and world rooms (which included beautiful murals) while the first level
assembly room provided space for the remainder of the endowment (Yorgason,
238).
 |
| First assembly room floor plan, circa 1877. Notice the pulpits at either end of the hall and the room in the tower. The temple originally had two of these levels, but the lower one was eventually remodeled into smaller rooms for use in the endowment ceremony. These levels can be identified on the exterior by the long windows. |
 |
| Mezzanine level floor plan, circa 1877. The temple has two of these floors, both of which still retain much of their original decoration and layout. They are located above the assembly room levels; the arched center assembly room ceilings extend up into the center of the mezzanine levels. These levels can be identified on the exterior by the round windows. |
 |
| The different floors of the temple can be identified by the exterior. In the photo above, the different colored bars represent the different floors of the temple. From the bottom to the top, the floors are: basement, first assembly (currently the endowment room level), first mezzanine, second assembly (currently the only assembly room), and finally the second mezzanine. The 1970s western addition can be seen to the left of the colored bars. This addition includes stairwells and an elevator, which is how temple patrons normally access the different floors. The east tower includes additional levels not visible in this photograph. |
Between 1937 and 1938 the temple was closed for a remodeling
project in which the basement endowment rooms were abandoned and permanent creation, garden, and world rooms were constructed on the first assembly room level. The terrestrial and celestial rooms already on that floor were remodeled and moved to fit the new floor plan. At present all the endowment
rooms remain on this level of the temple.
By the 1970s it was decided to remodel the temple once
again. The rooms used to present the endowment would be changed around to allow
for a film presentation. Church architect Emil B. Fetzer, who designed
the Provo and original Ogden Utah Temples would led the remodeling program
(DeMille, 113). On the west end of the temple a large addition was made, which
added two new stairwells and an elevator. This allowed the temple patrons to
skip the old circular staircases at the east end. The first three rooms of the
endowment ceremony (creation, garden, and world) were basically gutted and
turned into stationary rooms with a screen at one end on which to project the film.
Entrance into these rooms is made through doorways placed in the old west
wall windows that are now accessible from the western addition. Doors were
cut from each of these stationary endowment rooms into the present veil room. I believe this veil room was once the terrestrial room, though how much it has changed I do not know. The celestial room was essentially unchanged and today remains fairly similar to its 1938
configuration. At present the endowment begins in one of the three rooms (which are
on a rotating schedule) after which the patron moves to the veil room and then
finally the celestial room.
 |
A cross section of the modern
St. George Temple; circa 2015. |
Today’s basement is used for the baptistry and its
locker rooms, plus locker rooms for temple workers. The entire basement story
must be fairly high, as the at the east end the floor has been split into two separate
stories. The bottom story is the changing rooms for the sisters and the top story contains rooms for the brethren. The baptistry is towards the west end and
includes the original refurbished font, two rooms for confirmations, a foyer with recommend desk, name desk, a small chapel, clothing issue, and locker rooms.
The St. George Temple would be the only Utah temple built with
the “restoration” temple design of two assembly halls. The other pioneer
temples (Logan, Manti, and Salt Lake) were all constructed with permanent
endowment rooms in the lower levels and a single assembly room on the top
floor. This short history ignores many other construction projects seen on the temple, such as its numerous annexes, and the building of a new taller tower. But hopefully this post adds to your appreciation of the St. George Temple and its continual part in the restoration of Christ's Gospel.
Works Cited
DeMille, Janice Force. The
St. George Temple: The First 100 Years. Hurricane, Utah: Homestead
Publishers, 1977.
Harrington, Virginia S. and J. C. Harrington.
Rediscovery of the Nauvoo Temple: Report on
Archaeological Excavations. Nauvoo Restoration, Inc. 1971.
Kirtland Temple (Mormon). Historic American Buildings Survey.
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/oh0043/
Yorgason, Blaine M., Richard A. Schmutz and Douglas D.
Alder. All That Was Promised: The St.
George Temple and the Unfolding of the Restoration. Salt Lake City: Deseret
Book, 2013.
