Temple Groundbreakings Done on the Same Day
Contributed By Scott Taylor, Church News contributor
Elder F. Melvin Hammond, center, turns soil in the groundbreaking for the Spokane Washington Temple, held on October 10, 1998. He is joined by, from left, Heber C. Kapp, former Canada Vancouver Mission president; Ardeth G. Kapp, former Young Women General President; and Mayor John Talbott and his wife, Claudia. The groundbreaking for the Detroit Michigan Temple was held on the same day.
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With fewer than two dozen temples built and dedicated in the Church’s first 150 years, the 22 days separating the groundbreakings for the Manti Utah Temple (April 25, 1877) and the Logan Utah Temple (May 18, 1877) was the shortest time difference between the start of two temples for more than a century.
Then came a substantial increase in temples in the early 1980s—17 dedicated from 1983 to 1985 alone. The frequency meant the groundbreakings started coming more frequently and closer together.
In a seven-day stretch in February 1981, President Spencer W. Kimball presided at three temple groundbreakings in the South Pacific. Following the February 13 ceremony for the Papeete Tahiti Temple, President Kimball held back-to-back groundbreakings for the Nuku’alofa Tonga and Apia Samoa Temples on February 18 and 19, respectively.
Two groundbreakings in as many days happened twice in September 1982—with Elder Boyd K. Packer in Lima, Peru, on the 11th, and Elder Richard G. Scott in Guatemala City, Guatemala, on the 12th.
With President Gordon B. Hinckley’s push to have 100 temples by the end of the year 2000, groundbreakings, construction, and dedications increased dramatically. President James E. Faust, then Second Counselor to President Hinckley, held consecutive groundbreakings in Brazil in early May 1998—in Campinas on May 1 and Porto Alegre on May 2.
Later that year came the first time two temple groundbreaking ceremonies were held on the same day—October 10, 1998—with Elder Jay E. Jensen for the Detroit Michigan Temple and Elder F. Melvin Hammond for the Spokane Washington Temple.
Since then, 10 other dates have seen ground broken for at least two different temples on the same day—including three temples each on March 13, 1999, and May 29, 1999.
October 10, 1998
Detroit Michigan—Elder Jay E. Jensen
Spokane Washington—Elder F. Melvin Hammond
December 5, 1998
Hermosillo Sonora Mexico—Elder Eran A. Call
Columbia South Carolina—Elder Gordon T. Watts
January 9, 1999
Villahermosa Mexico—Elder Richard E. Turley Sr.
Ciudad Juarez Mexico—Elder Eran A. Call
March 13, 1999
Oaxaca Mexico—Elder Carl B. Pratt
Nashville Tennessee—Elder John K. Carmack
Kona Hawaii—Elder John B. Dickson
April 24, 1999
Copenhagen Denmark—Elder Spencer J. Condie
San Jose Costa Rica—Elder Lynn G. Robbins
May 8, 1999
Suva Fiji—Elder Earl M. Monson
Baton Rouge Louisiana—Elder Monte L. Brough
May 29, 1999
Veracruz Mexico—Elder Carl B. Pratt
Adelaide Australia—Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone
Louisville Kentucky—Elder John K. Carmack
November 4, 2000
Lubbock Texas—Elder Rex D. Pinegar
Monterrey Mexico—Elder Lynn A. Mickelsen
March 29, 2003
Helsinki Finland—Elder D. Lee Tobler
San Antonio Texas—Elder H. Bruce Stucki
October 17, 2015
Tucson Arizona—President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Concepcion Chile—Elder Walter F. González
March 4, 2017
Rio de Janeiro Brazil—Elder Claudio R. M. Costa
Arequipa Peru—Elder Carlos A. Godoy
Elder Jay E. Jensen, second from right, and Elder David E. Sorensen, four from the left, both of the Seventy, join local leaders in the groundbreaking for the Detroit Michigan Temple on October 10, 1998. The groundbreaking for the Spokane Washington Temple was held on the same day. Photo from the Church News archives.
