Plan of the House of the Lord, 25 June 1833

  • This house of  the Lord for the  Presidency is  Eighty Seven  feet Long and  Sixty one feet  wide and ten  feet taken of[f] on  the east end for  the stairway  leaves the inner  court 78 by 61  feet which is  calculated and  divided for seats  in the following  manner viz—  the two Aisles 4  feet wide each  the middle block  of pews are 11 feet  10 inches wide  long and three  feet wide each  and the two lines  drawn through the  middle are 4 inchs  apart for which  a curtain is to  drop at right  angles and divide  the house in to four  parts if necessary  the side block  of pews are 16 feet  <10 inches> ◊6 inches long and  3 feet wide the  side <Block of> pews opposite  the above are 14  feet 6 inches long  and 3 feet wide  the 5 pews in each  corner of the house  are 12 feet 6 inches  long divided into  5 the open spaces  between the corner  and side pews are  for fire plac[e]s those  in the west are 9  feet wide and  the East ones are  8 feet 8 inches  wide and the  chimney carried  up in the wall  where they are  marked with a  pencil

    The pulpit in  the west end of the  house is to be occu pied by the high  priest hood as foll ows No 1 for the pres ident and his council  No 2d for the Bishop  & his council No 3d  No 3 for the High  priest[s] and No 4  for the Elders each  of these are 8 feet  long containing 3  coves or stands  for the respective  speaker and their  seats opposite of  them are for visi ting officers who are  to occupy the seats  according to their  respective grades  the 2 spaces in the  middle are stairs  2 feet wide, the  middle pulpit is  to be ellevated  the first seats  one foot the 2d  two feet the 3d  3 feet & the  4 feet for the fourth [p. [1]]

Once western Missouri was identified as the site of Zion in 1831, preparations for its establishment proceeded. In summer 1833, church leaders prepared a carefully drawn plat for the city and an architectural design for a temple complex around which the city would be built. The plat called for the construction of not just one but twenty-four temples, as the center of a master plan to accommodate a municipality of 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants.

The temples were designed to facilitate church operations, including structures for worship, educational instruction, office space, and meeting places for various orders of the priesthood. The church’s presidency selected one of the twenty-four temple sites marked on the plat and indicated that there a “house of the Lord” was to be “built first in Zion.” The accompanying text provided specifications for that temple. See also the August revisions to the plan.

JS and his counselors in the presidency of the high priesthood sent this plan from Kirtland, Ohio, to Edward Partridge in Jackson County, Missouri. It was prepared by Frederick G. Williams for JS. The church obtained the document from the Edward Partridge family in 1865.

Facts

Editorial Title
Plan of the House of the Lord, 25 June 1833
ID #
4055