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Nauvoo Temple
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THE NAUVOO TEMPLE
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints built its second temple at Nauvoo. The limestone structure, begun in 1841, was erected at great sacrifice by the followers of Joseph Smith. Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints volunteered labor and sacrificed jewelry, china, and heirlooms to purchase the needed building materials. During the winter of 1845-1846, the temple was sufficiently finished for the Mormons to use its uppermost floor for sacred ceremonies, even as they prepared to abandon Nauvoo for the Rocky Mountain West. Although many of the Saints were forced to leave Nauvoo early in 1846, the Temple provided a place to receive sacred ordinances before their departure. When the Mormons left the city in February 1846, a few workers remained behind to finish the temple, which was finally dedicated in May 1846. The citizens, who occupied Nauvoo after the Mormons left, finally razed the Temple’s remaining wall in 1865. The stones used for the Temple’s construction were utilized for other buildings; many of these stones can still be seen throughout the present-day Nauvoo. The Nauvoo temple was one of the most imposing buildings in the state of Illinois then.
It stands on a high bluff overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River. Originally built of locally quarried gray limestone, the Nauvoo Temple required over five years in construction. This majestic building is a faithful reproduction of the original Nauvoo Temple built by Mormon settlers in the 1840s. The original Nauvoo Temple no longer stands. Following the exodus, the temple was gutted by fire in 1848 and was further weakened by a tornado in May 1850. The ruined building was later razed, and its stones were used to construct other buildings. Two other walls were torn down for safety reasons soon after, leaving only its western facade standing. The Mormon Church now owns the site where the temple stood. The Church authorized a number of archeological digs of the temple's foundation, which uncovered significant information about the religious establishment. The site was tastefully landscaped and provided with a monument to the Nauvoo Temple, including a scale model and examples of some of some of its symbolic stones. At the final session of the April 1999 General Conference, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints would rebuild the Nauvoo Temple, to serve both as a functioning temple and as a monument to the early Latter-day Saints who sacrificed so much for the construction of the original Temple.
Featured on the grounds west of the temple is an eye - catching statue depicting the church founder Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum Smith on horseback, both of them were martyred in Carthage Jail during construction of the original temple. Nauvoo is rich in Church history and the destination of thousands of tourists each year. The temple operates an accelerated summer schedule to accommodate demand. Summer is also the season of the popular Nauvoo Pageant: A Tribute to Joseph Smith.
The Nauvoo Temple was designed in the Greek revival style by Mormon architect William Weeks, under the direction of Smith. Weeks' design made use of distinctively Latter-day Saint motifs, including Sunstones, Moonstones, and Starstones. It is often mistakenly thought that these stones represent the Three Degrees of Glory in the Mormon conception of the afterlife, but the stones actually appear in the wrong order. Instead, Wandle Mace, foreman for the framework of the Nauvoo Temple, has explained that the design of the temple was meant to be “a representation of the Church, the Bride, and the Lamb’s wife”. In this regard Mace references John’s statement in Revelation 12:1 concerning the “woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.” This explains why the Starstones are at the top of the temple which characterizes crown of twelve stars, the Sunstones in the middle implying being clothed with the sun and the Moonstones at the bottom which symbolizes moon under her feet. The LDS temple of Nauvoo was announced on April 4, 1999 and it’s groundbreaking on October 24, 1999 was presided by Gordon B. Hinckley, the American religious leader who served as the fifteenth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death. He was also the oldest person to preside over the church in its history. As president of the church, he was also considered as a prophet, seer, and revelator by its church members.
