St. Louis Missouri Temple
Encyclopedia
The St. Louis Missouri Temple is the 50th operating temple
Temple (LDS Church)
In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints , a temple is a building dedicated to be a House of the Lord, and they are considered by Church members to be the most sacred structures on earth. Upon completion, temples are usually open to the public for a short period of time...

 of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is located in Town and Country, Missouri
Town and Country, Missouri
Town and Country is a wealthy inner ring suburb in west St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, with a population of 10,815 as of the 2010 census. Town and Country has the highest median household income of any city in Missouri with population over 10,000 and also has one of the highest median...

, a St. Louis suburb

In the early days of the LDS Church, when the Church was centered in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

, members had planned to build temples in Far West and Independence
Independence, Missouri
Independence is the fourth largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri, and is contained within the counties of Jackson and Clay. It is part of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area...

, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...

. Severe persecution prevented them from ever doing so. After an Extermination Order was given from Governor Lilburn W. Boggs and Church leaders were arrested, the Latter-day Saints were forced from their Missouri homes at gunpoint in the middle of winter.

Those in the eastern part of Missouri heard of the injustices to the Mormons and offered them refuge for a time. Because of its strong roots in Latter Day Saint history members were excited when the announcement came in December of 1990 that a temple was to be built in Missouri. LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon B. Hinckley
Gordon Bitner Hinckley was an American religious leader and author who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from March 12, 1995 until his death...

 broke ground for the temple on October 30, 1993 and it was dedicated upon completion on June 1, 1997.

The St. Louis Missouri Temple stands as a memorial to the early Mormons
Mormons
The Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, a religion started by Joseph Smith during the American Second Great Awakening. A vast majority of Mormons are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while a minority are members of other independent churches....

 in Missouri and the hardships they went through. The temple has a total of 58749 square feet (5,458 m²), four ordinance rooms, and four sealing rooms. Its has a white granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 exterior and a 150 feet (45.7 m) spire topped with a gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni.

See also


External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK