St. George Temple to Close in 2019 for Extensive Renovations
Contributed By Danielle Christensen, Church News staff writer
The St. George Utah Temple was dedicated in 1877. Photo by Scott Taylor, Church News.
Article Highlights
- The St. George Utah Temple will close on November 4, 2019, for renovations.
The St. George Utah Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will close on November 4 for renovations.
According to Newsroom, the renovation will be extensive and include “structural, mechanical, electrical, finish, and plumbing work.”
During the October 2018 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to renovate the Salt Lake Temple and other pioneer-era temples as well as build 12 new temples.
In 1871, President Brigham Young announced a temple would be built in St. George, although at the time only 1,100 Latter-day Saints lived there and were in extreme poverty. The St. George Utah Temple was the first temple to be completed in Utah and was originally dedicated in 1877—a decade and a half before the Salt Lake Temple.
Temples in Logan and Manti followed and also preceded the Salt Lake Temple.
According to Elder Bruce C. Hafen, former president of the St. George Temple and an emeritus General Authority Seventy, the building was one of the most important in this dispensation (in addition to the Kirtland and Nauvoo Temples), helping to bring about the restoration of priesthood keys and ordinances. It was in the St. George Temple that temple ordinances were “put into a written form for the first time,” according to a Church News article.
Renovations to the St. George Utah Temple are expected to be completed in 2022.
In July 2018, the St. George Tabernacle was rededicated by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles after a two-year renovation. At the time of the rededication, the building was nearly 150 years old and was originally dedicated 1876, just prior to the temple.
The Cedar City Utah Temple, dedicated by President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency on December 10, 2017, is the nearest temple to the St. George Temple, some 50 miles away.
Read the full article on Newsroom here.
Wilford Woodruff was the first president of the St. George Temple, which was dedicated in 1877. Photo by Kenneth Mays.
