9/4/2023 0 Comments Hexteria forumsSteep gabled spires, the temple designed by Angell and Ward can comfortably be called “castellated Gothic,” Probert said. With defensive battlements, dramatic vertical proportions and While President young provided the general outline for the temple, it was Angell and Ward who were responsible for interpreting the prophet’s ideas and fleshing them out in full “Gothic Revival detail,” according to Josh Probert, the Church’s historic design consultant on pioneer-era temple renovations. “Five years ago last July I was here, and saw in the Spirit the Temple not ten feet from where we have laid the Chief Corner Stone,” President Brigham young said at the apcornerstone ceremony.ĭecades later, William Ward, Angell’s primary assistant in the early design phases of the Temple, remembered the prophet’s initial description: “There will be three towers on the east…also three similar towers on the west…The center towers will be higher than those on the sides, and the west towers a little lower than those on the east end.” It seems fitting that such a symbol would begin with a revelation received by a prophet. “I think it’s this idea of almost this symbol of where God communicates with us as a Church.” “They knew this (was) going to be the landmark, the center, temple,” said Bridger Talbot, who has run the Historic LDS architecture blog since 2014 and who works for Enrollment Services at ByU. The spires and detail work including the dedicatory inscription are not com- plete and glass has not been placed in all the windows. Savage photo of the temple nearing completion. The history of the Salt Lake Temple’s design - as well as Angell’s discomfort in its modification - reveals the ever-evolving character of the building, which is currently undergoing extensive renovation as it celebrates its 130th anniversary, and the care that must be taken when changing what has become, and what was always meant to be, the Church’s symbolic center. “It seems to me to alter the plans now would make a bad thing of the (temple).”ĭespite his opposition, the alteration, which favored a series of small endowment rooms over the original, dual-assembly hall design, was approved - as was a subsequent proposal to construct the temple’s spires from the same stone as the rest of the building, instead of wood and tin.Īngell passed away shortly after his request for these decisions to be reversed was refused. “The (temple) was designed about 34 years ago,” Angell wrote in an 1885 letter to President John Taylor disapproving of a proposed modification to the temple’s interior. But as Angell’s most important project, and his life, came to a close, the legendary Saint expressed disappointment. The carpenter-turned-Church architect was known for his unceasing zeal, rather than his skill at the drafting table. (CHURCH HISTORY LIBRARY)įor three-and-a-half decades, the design, logistics and construction of the Salt Lake Temple were overseen by one Truman O. Truman Angel’s cross section plan for two of the eastern spires of the Salt Lake Temple.
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