What Is the Salt Lake Temple? Forty Years of Granite, and Why It Closed in 2019

What it isA house of the Lord, not a Sunday chapel

The Salt Lake Temple is the best-known temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, standing on Temple Square in downtown Salt Lake City. It is not a ward meetinghouse. Sunday worship happens in chapels. A temple is a house of the Lord for ordinances: baptism for the dead, the endowment, and eternal marriage sealing. After a temple is dedicated, entrance is for members who hold a temple recommend. Before dedication, the Church opens the building to the public. That is why a six-month open house is scheduled for 2027.

People treat the building as a skyline icon and then act surprised that they cannot walk in on a Tuesday and take pictures of the celestial room. The distinction is older than Salt Lake. The same rule applied at Kirtland and Nauvoo. See What Is the Kirtland Temple? and What Was the Nauvoo Temple?.

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How it was builtForty years of granite

On July 28, 1847, four days after the first wagons entered the valley, Brigham Young marked the site. In the first Sabbath sermon in the Salt Lake Valley, Elder George A. Smith applied Isaiah’s words to a temple there: “the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains” (Isaiah 2:2–3). Ground was broken on February 14, 1853, by Brigham Young; Heber C. Kimball dedicated the site. The cornerstones were laid April 6, 1853.

Truman O. Angell, a carpenter turned architect, designed the building under Brigham Young’s direction, with symbols of the priesthood, temple covenants, and the plan of salvation, as at Nauvoo. The Saints decided to build of local granite, hauled about 20 miles from Little Cottonwood Canyon. For the first two decades that work was done by wagon teams. Railroads in the 1870s finally made the haul reliable. The Church’s own background statement says the walls are nine feet thick at the base and six feet thick at the top, and that the east center spire rises 210 feet and is topped by a gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni about 12½ feet high.

Work was not a straight line. Weaknesses in the footing required parts of the foundation to be replaced, which cost years. Salt Lake was started first, but it was not the first Utah temple dedicated. The Saints completed and dedicated the St. George Utah Temple in 1877, the Logan Utah Temple in 1884, and the Manti Utah Temple in 1888, and what they learned there changed the interior plans of the Salt Lake Temple. After Angell’s death in 1887, Joseph Don Carlos Young, a son of Brigham Young, finished the spires and the interior, adding a steel frame, electric lighting, steam heat, and elevators.

In the last years of construction, federal antipolygamy laws threatened the Church’s temples. After Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto in 1890, the Saints pushed the work to a finish. On April 6, 1892, crowds gathered for the capstone ceremony, and the Moroni statue was placed on the east center spire. President Woodruff then offered the dedicatory prayer on April 6, 1893, forty years after the cornerstones, in the first of 31 sessions held through April 24, including sessions for children. Before each session, attendees toured the building.

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The 2019 renovationWhat was announced, and what is scheduled

On April 19, 2019, President Russell M. Nelson announced that the temple would close on December 29, 2019, for a major renovation: seismic strengthening and a redesign of the surrounding grounds. The first public estimate was about four years. On March 12, 2021, the Church announced design changes that would increase capacity and lengthen the work, including a base isolation system under the foundation. A January 2026 Newsroom update said scaffolding was coming down and that the project was scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026.

As of late 2026, a public open house is scheduled for April 5 through October 1, 2027. Reservations opened September 1, 2026. The rededication date has not been announced. That is the record. Anyone still circulating a “secret reconstruction” story is not reading the Church’s own press releases.

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The BibleThe mountain of the Lord’s house

Isaiah wrote: “And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (Isaiah 2:2–3). The early Saints in the valley heard those words as a command, not a metaphor they could postpone.

Malachi’s promise is why the work inside matters: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers” (Malachi 4:5–6). See Why Do Latter-day Saints Do Family History?.

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The Book of MormonA people gathered at the temple

King Benjamin’s people “pitched their tents round about the temple, every man having his tent with the door thereof towards the temple” (Mosiah 2:5–6). The Book of Mormon’s temples are not tourist stops. They are where a covenant people gather to hear the word of the Lord. The Salt Lake Temple was built for the same reason, in a valley the Saints believed the Lord had led them to. See Why Did the Saints Settle in Utah?.

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The Doctrine and CovenantsElijah’s keys

The authority exercised in the Salt Lake Temple was not invented in 1893. On April 3, 1836, in the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery recorded that Elijah appeared and said, “Behold, the time has fully come, which was spoken of by the mouth of Malachi—testifying that he [Elijah] should be sent, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord come—To turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the children to the fathers, lest the whole earth be smitten with a curse” (D&C 110:13–16). Sealing, baptism for the dead, and the endowment all rest on that restoration of keys. See What Happens in a Latter-day Saint Temple? and What Is Eternal Marriage?.

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The Pearl of Great PriceWhy the work is done

The Lord told Moses, “For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39). Temples exist for that work. They are not monuments to a pioneer aesthetic. They are houses in which the Father offers His children covenants that lead to eternal life, and He remains, always, their Father. See Who Can Enter an LDS Temple?.

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Check the premiseThe presuppositions baked into the question

Before this question can be answered fairly, the person asking has to justify a few assumptions packed inside it:

1. That the Salt Lake Temple is the Church’s Sunday chapel. It is a house of the Lord for ordinances. Weekly worship is in meetinghouses, which anyone may attend.
2. That it was the first temple in Utah. It was started first, in 1853, but St. George (1877), Logan (1884) and Manti (1888) were dedicated before it.
3. That no outsider is ever allowed to see the interior. The Church holds public open houses before dedication or rededication. One is scheduled for April 5 through October 1, 2027.
4. That the 2019 closure was sudden or secret. President Nelson announced it on April 19, 2019, and the temple closed on the published date, December 29, 2019.

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FAQQuick answers

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Sources

• King James Bible (churchofjesuschrist.org): Isaiah 2:2–3 · Malachi 4:5–6
• Book of Mormon: Mosiah 2:5–6
• Doctrine and Covenants: D&C 110:13–16
• Pearl of Great Price: Moses 1:39
• Church History Topics, “Salt Lake Temple” · Church Newsroom, “Background on the Salt Lake Temple”
• Temple Square Renovation Update, January 2026 · Temple Open House, Dedications and Rededication Dates

• Featured image and in-article graphic: original graphics by thebookofmormon.ai (painterly backgrounds; no photographs or likenesses of real people).