I have been very, very, busy with work. Oh, so very busy. But, today I discovered that I had already rendered out a historic video (and possibly some others) that I had not posted the video for.
This video represents the St. George Utah Temple after the 1938 renovation. This was a whole new annex, and appears to have kept nothing of the original. It was more modern, more aesthetically pleasing, and less utilitarian than the previous annex versions.
Along with this annex video being posted, I have made some discoveries about the previous videos that I need to correct. I have pinned down a date for the creation of the original first annex. I discovered that the Annex was not burned down completely by the 1927 fire, but was renovated starting immediately.
I am going to spend some free time today to update all the previous posts, identifying which ones are incorrect, and fixing the temple wiki.
Through yesterday and today, I again had more freetime than anticipated, though ehat is essentially over for the week. I was able to get St. George Utah Temples photo catalog up and available.
I was also to upload photo catalogs for a few other Utah temples. Don’t get too excited though. These are all temples I have visited only once so far, and for half of them, not long enough for more than a couple of photos of the kids (not included) and a snapshot or two.
Resent research has indicated that the annex, burned but not destroyed, was rebuilt starting immediately. Consequently, this video is no longer accurate.
Early one morning in November of 1928, the boiler on the Annex, just fired up for the morning, caused a fire in the temple annex at the St. George Utah Temple. The fire gutted the annex, rendering it useless.
The Decision was made to not just rebuild the Annex, but to redesign the temple layout with dedicated rooms for the endowment, rather than curtained partitions. The redesign planning would take 10 years, during which time the temple functioned without an annex.
This video is guesswork, more so than most of my videos, as I have not been able to identify any photos of the temple post fire.
I have been able to ascertain that the annex was reconstructed starting immediately after the fire that destroyed the annex. As a consequence, I have identified this as the state of the annex after reconstruction. Accordingly, I have moved the date of this video from 1920-1927 to instead be 1927-1938.
So, after posting this video I realized that, chronologically, I should have posted another video first. So that one will come next week instead. I guess.
Changes to the temple in this video include the removal of the parapets at the top of the stone portion of the tower, these were replaced with the fence like structure we know now. Also in this is the painted parapets on the rest of the temple, which were painted to look like sandstone. The annex itself was redesigned both inside and out, though the exterior structure was kept from the burned out original.
Due to recent research, I have revised the date of this video from 1900-1927.
Well, we are back into the changes made to the St. George Temple, of which, there were many. Today’s video is most about changes to the annex.
Right around the turn of the century, the water tower was removed. The water tower had supplied water to the font, and was determined to no longer be necessary. The water tower was removed and the annex, already in place around the temple, was remodeled and expanded into the space where the tower had been.
Due to recent research, I have moved the date of this video from 1888 to 1833, being the time that the tower and annex were both added to the temple.
Today’s video depicts the St. George Temple as it would have looked when the annex was first added. According to my recent research, the new annex was added in conjunction with the construction of the temple’s taller, more stately tower. Few pictures exist of the temple in this state, but those that do clearly show the water tower of the temple sticking up right through the roof of the annex!
Enjoy the video!
The Lightning Myth
Much has been said about how the spire came to be, and the stories are, more often than not, wrong. Tradition holds that Brigham Young hated the short spire, and demanded the spire be replaced with a taller one. The saints, however, were tired of the labor of building the temple, and refused, with President Young eventually relenting. The temple was dedicated 6–8 April 1877, with Brigham in attendance. President Young would then pass away August 29, 1877 Just over four months later.
Then, in a violent storm in October of 1878, just 14 months after Brigham’s passing, the tower is struck by lightning, and burned down to the rock underneath it. The local saints, humbled by the event and mindful of Brigham Young’s desires, rebuild the spire, taller this time.
The Enlightened Truth
Brigham Young was not well as the temple neared completion. For the last few years of his life, He wintered every year in St. George, finding the environment better for his health. During his visits, he spent nearly every day at the temple. With Truman O. Angell, the temple’s architect, in Salt Lake working on the Temple there, Brigham was the first and last word on all things relating to the temple’s construction during his visits, the Temples only on hand architect.
During one of his visits to St. George, President Young took a private tour of the temple with his son and then apostle, Brigham Young Jr. on May 10, 1876. Elder Young recorded the visit in his journal as follows:
“The tower is wooden and very unsatisfactory piece of work,” Young, Jr. wrote in his journal. “Father remarked he would keep the tower locked, that he was ashamed of the framing and the design. It was is some 12–18 feet too low to look well. Prest [Brigham Young, Sr.] says they will have that remided [remedied] some these days,” (Brigham Young Jr., Journal, May 10, 1876, 83).
There is no recorded evidence, anywhere, that anyone other than Brigham Jr. knew of his father’s dislike of the spire. The journal itself would not be discovered by researchers until the 1970s, which, coincidentally, seems to be about the same time the first recorded versions of this myth came into being.
It is also interesting to note that President Young only wanted the spire 12-18 feet taller than the dedicated version (left.) The end result would have looked more like The middle image, and not the final finished spire (right.)
The lower portion of the modern temple is placed at about the same height Brigham wished he had made the entirety of the spire to begin with.
There is evidence that temporary repairs were done to the tower (which was severely damaged, but not burnt completely down) in 1878. Letters between local authorities go into great detail as to the level of damage the tower and other portions of the roof received. They are decidedly absent of mentions of Brigham Young, or any concerns about the size of the now damaged spire.
The New Tower
The decision to make a taller tower would be made about 21 months after repairs on the original spire were completed. Announcements of the pending renovation and change were made both in the local papers and papers in Salt Lake City. None of these articles mention either Brigham Young or the lightning strike of two years prior. However, the tower was not made taller until 1883, 5 years after the strike. News reports at the time of the spire replacement announcement and the construction of the taller tower made no mention at all of Brigham Young.
Origin Of The Myth
Well, as these things sometimes happen, the Journal entry of Brigham Young Jr. was discovered in the 1970s, and someone, somewhere, likely related the story of Brigham wishing the spire was taller along with a reference to the lightning strike. In 1977, the first printed version of this story appeared in The Color County Spectrum and soon a similar story appeared in St. George Magazine, only this time with more details than had been shared in print before. In future print versions, the story would continue to receive even more new details and variations. In what was probably a matter of months, an off handed story along the lines of “wouldn’t it be funny if” became a full on struggle between the prophet and his people over who was going to have the final say in the design of the temple.
Sources
The information from this article came from the following:
The St. George Temple Tower: Evolution of a Design
Darrell E. Jones Journal of Mormon History Vol. 34, No. 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 113-129
All That Was Promised The St. George Temple and the Unfolding of the Restoration
Blain M. Yorgason, Richard A. Schmutz and Douglas D. Adler 2013, Deseret Book Footnote #5, pages 320, 321
Due to recent discoveries I have made, I have found that this particular model is inaccurate. Specifically, this model represents a state of the temple that did not and never did exist. Instead, the next video, depicting the first annex, is the next stage in the evolution of the temple. :https://photogent.com/historic-temple-video-series-st-george-utah-temple-1888-1900/
This is the second historic variation of the St. George Utah Temple, and it features the first appearance of the new, taller, spire for the temple.
The Lightning Myth
Much has been said about how the spire came to be, and the stories are, more often than not, wrong. Tradition holds that Brigham Young hated the short spire, and demanded the spire be replaced with a taller one. The saints, however, were tired of the labor of building the temple, and refused, with President Young eventually relenting. The temple was dedicated 6–8 April 1877, with Brigham in attendance. President Young would then pass away August 29, 1877 Just over four months later.
Then, in a violent storm in October of 1878, just 14 months after Brigham’s passing, the tower is struck by lightning, and burned down to the rock underneath it. The local saints, humbled by the event and mindful of Brigham Young’s desires, rebuild the spire, taller this time.
The Enlightened Truth
Brigham Young was not well as the temple neared completion. For the last few years of his life, He wintered every year in St. George, finding the environment better for his health. During his visits, he spent nearly every day at the temple. With Truman O. Angell, the temple’s architect, in Salt Lake working on the Temple there, Brigham was the first and last word on all things relating to the temple’s construction during his visits, the Temples only on hand architect.
During one of his visits to St. George, President Young took a private tour of the temple with his son and then apostle, Brigham Young Jr. on May 10, 1876. Elder Young recorded the visit in his journal as follows:
“The tower is wooden and very unsatisfactory piece of work,” Young, Jr. wrote in his journal. “Father remarked he would keep the tower locked, that he was ashamed of the framing and the design. It was is some 12–18 feet too low to look well. Prest [Brigham Young, Sr.] says they will have that remided [remedied] some these days,” (Brigham Young Jr., Journal, May 10, 1876, 83).
There is no recorded evidence, anywhere, that anyone other than Brigham Jr. knew of his father’s dislike of the spire. The journal itself would not be discovered by researchers until the 1970s, which, coincidentally, seems to be about the same time the first recorded versions of this myth came into being.
It is also interesting to note that President Young only wanted the spire 12-18 feet taller than the dedicated version (left.) The end result would have looked more like The middle image, and not the final finished spire (right.)
The lower portion of the modern temple is placed at about the same height Brigham wished he had made the entirety of the spire to begin with.
There is evidence that temporary repairs were done to the tower (which was severely damaged, but not burnt completely down) in 1878. Letters between local authorities go into great detail as to the level of damage the tower and other portions of the roof received. They are decidedly absent of mentions of Brigham Young, or any concerns about the size of the now damaged spire.
The New Tower
The decision to make a taller tower would be made about 21 months after repairs on the original spire were completed. Announcements of the pending renovation and change were made both in the local papers and papers in Salt Lake City. None of these articles mention either Brigham Young or the lightning strike of two years prior. However, the tower was not made taller until 1883, 5 years after the strike. News reports at the time of the spire replacement announcement and the construction of the taller tower made no mention at all of Brigham Young.
Origin Of The Myth
Well, as these things sometimes happen, the Journal entry of Brigham Young Jr. was discovered in the 1970s, and someone, somewhere, likely related the story of Brigham wishing the spire was taller along with a reference to the lightning strike. In 1977, the first printed version of this story appeared in The Color County Spectrum and soon a similar story appeared in St. George Magazine, only this time with more details than had been shared in print before. In future print versions, the story would continue to receive even more new details and variations. In what was probably a matter of months, an off handed story along the lines of “wouldn’t it be funny if” became a full on struggle between the prophet and his people over who was going to have the final say in the design of the temple.
Sources
The information from this article came from the following:
The St. George Temple Tower: Evolution of a Design
Darrell E. Jones Journal of Mormon History Vol. 34, No. 2 (Spring 2008), pp. 113-129
All That Was Promised The St. George Temple and the Unfolding of the Restoration
Blain M. Yorgason, Richard A. Schmutz and Douglas D. Adler 2013, Deseret Book Footnote #5, pages 320, 321
I am very happy about today’s video. For the last couple of years I have been working on and off on a new set of temple models. These models represent changes made to temples over time. For example, at the St. George Utah Temple, I am currently working on a total of 9 models that show how the annex, tower, and exterior color of the temple have changed over time.
In the past, as Temples have been renovated and given new exteriors, I have added a special thumbnail to the old version of the temple. Today’s video gets the same thumbnail, but is the first video created officially for this new series.
I hope you enjoy it, this model was a pleasure to work on!
If you are interested in seeing the other videos in the Historic Temples video series, click here.
I have many more of these planned, with multiple videos for many of the early temples. While I will continue to make videos of new temples, a large portion of my focus will be moving into these new models.
Below I have included other videos created for the St. George Temple’s Historic timeline.
