A Place of Gathering

A Place of Gathering. . The Meetinghouse (left) and the Utah Stake Tabernacle (right) as they appeared circa 1885. The baptistry is located in front of the meetinghouse. , Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have gathered on this block since the 1850s to worship and make sacred covenants. The transformation of the Utah Stake Tabernacle into the Provo City Center Temple continues this sacred heritage. , After President Brigham Young selected the site, construction began on a meetinghouse in 1856. It was designed by Church architect Truman O. Angell, and Church members worshiped in this building until it was razed in 1919. Members of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers and the Sons of Utah Pioneers preserved the lintel stone (adjacent to this marker) from the original meetinghouse. , In the late 1870s, a baptistry was built to the west of the meetinghouse. Uncovered during an archaeological dig in 2012, the font reveals this site as a place where Latter-day Saints historically made sacred covenants with the Lord. , As the community outgrew the capacity of the meetinghouse, Church leaders commissioned William H. Folsom to design a new, larger structure. Initiated in 1883, construction of the Utah Stake Tabernacle ended in 1898. For more than one-hundred years the tabernacle housed worship services, community gatherings, and cultural events. Early in the morning of December 17, 2010, a fire consumed all but the outer shell of the building. Ten months later, President Thomas S. Monson announced that the building would be restored and used as a temple. , Today Church members continue to gather to this historic place. They, like their predecessors, make sacred covenants with God through the ordinances offered in the House of the Lord.