Historic Box Elder Tabernacle

by Donna Kennedy

Title

Historic Box Elder Tabernacle

Artist

Donna Kennedy

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Original Fine Art Photography by Donna Kennedy...

For many years the residents of Brigham City worshiped in a log meetinghouse and in the local courthouse, but in 1865, Brigham Young directed Elder Snow and other community leaders to build a tabernacle for conferences of the Box Elder Stake. According to tradition, Brigham Young overrode the selection of a site already chosen by local leaders, situated on the corner of Main and Forest Streets in the center of town. President Young selected "Sagebrush Hill," the highest point on Main Street, and said, "This is the spot for your tabernacle." Building the tabernacle on this site meant that the building would be visible for miles across the valley. President Young and Territorial Surveyor Jesse W. Fox laid the cornerstones on 9 May 1865.
Local manpower was needed to complete the transcontinental railroad, so work on the tabernacle progressed slowly but picked up in 1876. Local craftsmen used quartzite, sandstone and lumber from the nearby mountains. Women donated produce from their gardens and eggs laid on Sundays to sell for the needed cash for glass and other materials that could not be produced locally. The first meeting in the partially completed building took place on 27 May 1879.
In 1889 a tower, a gallery, a rear vestibule, brick buttresses with decorative caps, and other improvements were added to beautify the structure. Church President Wilford Woodruff dedicated the finished building on 28 October 1890.
On Sunday, 9 February 1896, as people began to assemble for afternoon services, a fire started in the furnace room. No one was injured, but despite frantic efforts, only smoke-blackened stone walls remained an hour later. Stake President Rudger Clawson supervised reconstruction over the next thirteen months. The new tabernacle was even finer than the old, with elegant woodwork, a distinctive gothic-revival tower, and sixteen graceful pinnacles. On 21 March 1897, George Q. Cannon, first counselor to President Woodruff, dedicated the rebuilt structure.
In 1971, the tabernacle was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, one of the first buildings in Utah to be so honored. Beginning in 1985, an extensive restoration program replaced the mechanical and electrical systems, reinforced the structure, and carefully renewed both the exterior and interior to guarantee the continued preservation of this magnificent landmark. The 106-year-old tabernacle was rededicated on 12 April 1987 on by Elder Boyd K. Packer of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, a native of Brigham City, who recently passed away on July 3, 2015 at the age of 90.

Thank You to the Administrators that Featured this photo in the following Groups:
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July 10th, 2015

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