Box Elder Stake Tabernacle
Original structure
The site for the tabernacle was chosen by LDS Church President Brigham Young, who after visiting a different site selected by local church officers, went atop "Sagebrush hill" the highest point along main street and reportedly stated "this is the spot for your tabernacle." On May 8, 1865, Young and Utah Territorial Surveyor Jesse Williams Fox Sr (1819-1894) laid its cornerstones. On May 27, 1879, meetings began to be held in the partially-completed structure. In 1889, it was voted to "complete" the building by adding its tower, gallery, rear vestibule, capped brick buttresses, and other improvements. The tabernacle was completed and dedicated on October 28, 1890 by Young's successor, Wilford Woodruff.
Fire and rebuilding
The tabernacle was gutted by fire in 1896, just 6 years after being completed in 1890. On Sunday February 9, 1896, as church members began to assemble a fire broke out in the furnace room, the building ignited and was reduced to blackened stone walls. Within a year the tabernacle was rebuilt with elegant woodwork, a distinctive gothic-revival tower and sixteen graceful pinnacles, and dedicated by George Q. Cannon on March 21, 1897.
Renovations
In 1951 an organ from the Reuter Organ Company was installed. On April 12, 1987, LDS apostle Boyd K. Packer, who was born & raised in Brigham City, rededicated the tabernacle after extensive renovations.
In 2012 the grounds were re-landscaped along with the construction of the Brigham City Utah Temple, and a new media center was put in as a kind of visitors center.
See also
References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ "National Register of Historic Places". NPS Focus. National Park Service. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
- ^ "Utah History Resource Center". history.utah.gov. Archived from the original on July 14, 2012. Retrieved January 26, 2022.
- ^ pdfhost.focus.nps.gov/docs/NRHP/Text/71000840.pdf
External links
- Media related to Box Elder Stake Tabernacle at Wikimedia Commons