The Salt Lake Tabernacle was a center for cultural in the Salt Lake Valley and houses the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir still broadcasts its radio and television program Music and the Spoken Word from the Salt Lake Tabernacle each Sunday morning. The Tabernacle was once also home to the Utah Symphony Orchestra, until Abravanel Hall was constructed for that purpose.

Because the building was so old, it went under extensive renovations for two years, from January 2005 to March 2007, which were intended to earthquake proof the building and to restore things which needed restoring.

The now iconic roof of the Salt Lake Tabernacle was constructed in an Ithiel Town lattice-truss arch system which is held together by dowels and wedges. The foundation is made of sandstone, and the dome is supported by forty-four sandstone piers. Civil engineer Henry Grow oversaw the initial construction of the Tabernacle and engineered the 150-foot by 250-foot roof. Many insisted the roof would collapse when the scaffolding was removed, by the nine-foot-thick structure has held for more than 100 years now.

The seating capacity of 7000 (which includes the choir area) was once ample, but as the Church continued to grow, a larger building became essential. The Salt Lake Tabernacle was first used for General Conference in October 1867.

The organ, possibly the most famous feature of the Tabernacle, has 11,623 today, though it was originally constructed with 700. It is one of the largest pipe organs in the world. The current organ was constructed by G. Donald Harrison and was completed in 1948.

The structure of the Tabernacle was truly a wonder of its day. While it had some critics, Frank Lloyd Wright, viewed it as “one of the architectural masterpieces of the country and perhaps the world.”

What many people do not appreciate is that the Tabernacle is a functioning building. It has incredible acoustic qualities. Built in a time of no electric audio amplifiers, the building was designed to allow the entire congregation to hear the sermons. A current Mormon Tabernacle Choir member noted that all the wooden surfaces in the tabernacle resonate with sound, effectively making the entire building an instrument. This allows the congregation to both feel and hear the music.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir continues to rehearse in the Tabernacle, and most Thursday rehearsals are open to the public. There are also many other activities and performances open to the public. Admission is free. The beautiful building is a testament to the early Latter-day Saints who sacrificed a great deal, trekking across the plains to build up a kingdom to God.

Additional Resources:

Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Temple Square

dwhite

Doris White is a native of Oregon and graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English and a minor in Editing. She loves to talk with others about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Before departing Illinois with the first group of Saints, President Brigham Young had seen a vision in answer to his prayer seeking guidance about where to lead the Saints. In this vision, he saw an angel standing on a “conical hill.” The angel was Joseph Smith (martyred prophet), and he was pointing to where the Saints’ city and temple should be built. Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young recognized Ensign Peak as that conical hill.

The name given to the hill, Ensign Peak, comes from Isaiah 11:11–12:

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left . . . And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

From the time the first brethren climbed the hill, Ensign Peak has held special significance for the inhabitants of the Salt Lake Valley. Many festivals and celebrations have been held there, and in 1934, a monument was erected memorializing its significance. The 18.47-foot monument (the Saints arrived in 1847) was built of stones collected from stakes (organizational units of congregations) along the Mormon Trail.

Decades later, the Salt Lake City Public Services Department and the Ensign Peak Foundation (a non-profit organization of private citizens), and the Mormon Historic Sites Foundation banded together to raise money to build a historic trail up the peak and a nature park of 66 acres surrounding it. This immense project, which included hiking trails, historic signs, two vista points, and the reclamation of eroding soil, was completed in 1996. President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Ensign Peak Nature Park on July 26 of that year, setting it apart to be “a place of pondering, a place of remembrance, a place of thoughtful gratitude, a place of purposeful resolution” (“Park at Ensign Peak Dedicated,” LDS Church News, (August 3, 1996).

Latter-day Saints believe their pioneer forebears were led to the Salt Lake Valley by God. Brigham Young had the vision of Joseph Smith standing in the valley where they were supposed to go, but the Saints had no other pilot or guide. None of them had ever been to the Utah wilderness or knew anything about it, but they were led by a living prophet of God who knew the place when he arrived because he had been shown it previously. After climbing Ensign Peak with those eight men, he said, “This is Ensign Peak. Now, brethren, organize your exploring parties, so as to be safe from Indians; go and explore where you will, and you will come back every time and say this is the best place” (Journal of Discourses, 26 vols. London: Latter-day Saints’ Book Depot, 1854–1886), 13: 86). These men did explore many other areas in the Utah Territory, but all returned to declare their original stopping point the “best spot.”

Ensign Peak also served as a temple for at least one of the early Saints. Because the Saints had left their temple in Nauvoo, and it took several years for them to complete another temple, Addison Pratt had no temple to go to in order to receive his endowment before leaving to serve a mission. He “was taken to the summit of Ensign Peak and given his endowments, that he might return to those islands of the sea in which he had labored, with greater spiritual power” (Brigham H. Roberts, Conference Report, April 1915, 130). Brigham Young specially consecrated the peak for this purpose.

Additional Resources:

“A Defense and a Refuge,” Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, October 2006.

“A Banner Is Unfurled: Mormonism’s Ensign Peak,” Ronald Walker, Dialogue—A Journal of Mormon Thought.

Ensign Peak Park

Mormon Historic Sites

dwhite

Doris White is a native of Oregon and graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in English and a minor in Editing. She loves to talk with others about the gospel of Jesus Christ.