{"id":142,"date":"2015-11-07T05:25:45","date_gmt":"2015-11-07T05:25:45","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-11-09T10:07:50","modified_gmt":"2017-11-09T10:07:50","slug":"brigham-city-lds-temple","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brighamcityhistory.org\/places\/brigham-city-lds-temple\/","title":{"rendered":"Brigham City LDS Temple"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/tr>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
“Infobox religious building”<\/caption>\n
building_name<\/th>\nBrigham City LDS Temple<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
image<\/th>\n300px-LDS_temple,_Brigham_City.jpg<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
image_size<\/th>\n300px<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
alt<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
caption<\/th>\nTemple under construction, 2011<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
map_type<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
map_size<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
map_caption<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
location<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
coordinates<\/th>\n41.505657, -112.016505<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
latitude<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
longitude<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
coordinates_region<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
religious_affiliation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
address<\/th>\n250 South Main<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
region<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
state<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
province<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
territory<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
municipality<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
consecration_year<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
status<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
functional_status<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
heritage_designation<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
leadership<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
website = https:\/\/www.lds.org\/church\/temples\/brigham-city-utah?lang<\/th>\neng<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
architecture<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
architect<\/th>\nFFKR Architects<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
architecture_type<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
architecture_style<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
founded_by<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
funded_by<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
general_contractor<\/th>\nBig-D Construction<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
facade_direction<\/th>\neast<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
groundbreaking<\/th>\n31 July 2010<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
year_completed<\/th>\n2012<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
construction_cost<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
specifications<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
capacity<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
length<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
width<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
width_nave<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
height_max<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
dome_quantity<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
dome_height_outer<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
dome_height_inner<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
dome_dia_outer<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
dome_dia_inner<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
minaret_quantity<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
minaret_height<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
spire_quantity<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
spire_height<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
materials<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
nrhp<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
added<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
refnum<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
designated<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Announcement <\/h2>\n

On October 3, 2009, in the Saturday morning session of the General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Church President Thomas S. Monson announced that a temple would be built in Brigham City, Utah. This news surprised and delighted church members in Box Elder County and Southern Idaho.Box Elder News Journal, \u201cBrigham City LDS Temple\u201d, Aug. 2012. p. 1.<\/ref>
\nWhen asked about her reaction, Beverly Yates of Elwood said, \u201cI was shocked! I would not have thought it would happen because there are so many temples around here. There’s the Logan Temple; there’s the Ogden Temple; there’s the Bountiful Temple. And to have a temple this close was incredible! I feel like we’re the luckiest people in the world to have it so close and such a beautiful building in this area.\u201dInterview of Beverly Yates conducted by Kathleen Bradford<\/a>, Aug. 15, 2012, p. 1.<\/ref>
\nDennis Fife<\/a> was running for the office of Brigham City Mayor<\/a> when he heard the news. He said:<\/p>\n

I was listening to General Conference when it was announced. It was quite a shock because we never thought a temple would be built here when we had such close temples in Ogden and Logan.<\/p>\n

A surprise and just an excitement that I can’t explain came over us \u2013 that we would have a temple here in Brigham City! The election was in November, and then I was sworn into office the first week in January. That’s when I got involved. I knew it would be a positive and sacred thing for the members of the LDS Church, but it would also be an economic boom for the whole community.Interview of Mayor Dennis Fife conducted by Kathleen Bradford<\/a>, June 6, 2012, p. 1-2.<\/ref><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Temple Site <\/h2>\n

After their initial elation surrounding the construction of a new temple in town, people began speculating about where it would be built. Their curiosity was satisfied on Oct. 27, 2009, when church leaders announced that the temple site would be the city block directly across Main Street from the historic Box Elder Tabernacle.Box Elder News Journal, Oct. 27, 2009.<\/ref>
\nIn 1901 the Central School<\/a> had been built on the property now designated for the temple. After the school burned down, a new one-level elementary school was constructed on the same block and was also called Central School. The replacement school was torn down after its closure in 2000, and the property known as Central Square was vacant for many years.Box Elder News Journal, \u201cBrigham City LDS Temple\u201d, p. 6, 12.<\/ref> Jeff Packer said about the original Central School:<\/p>\n

The school was the main elementary school in our community. It was a three-story building, and it was the building where President Boyd K. Packer obtained his elementary education. I was hired as a real estate agent and broker to market the property on behalf of the Box Elder School District. I also was acting as an agent for O. J. Call, founder of the Flying J Corporation. He had developed a substantial business and had determined to move his office to Ogden. The result of that was that he needed to sell his 30,000 square-foot office space, which he had listed with my company as well.Interview of Jeffrey Packer by Kathleen Bradford<\/a>, June 13, 2012, p. 1.<\/ref> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A property exchange between the school district and Flying J resulted in the school district’s administrative office occupying the former Flying J corporate office, the Dale Young Community High School moving to the former district office, and Flying J transferring its business to Ogden.
\nPacker continued,<\/p>\n

Those sites sat for literally six or seven years without us being able to find a buyer after we had invested well over $600,000 in improvements. It was a very discouraging time. I took care of the property wondering why we couldn’t find a buyer that would locate a business in downtown Brigham City, believing that it was just a superb site for such a location. Well, in May of 2009, I was contacted by a Brother Davies of the LDS Church. He asked me to start sending him information about the site.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although Packer didn’t know it at the time, that contact was the first step leading to the eventual sale of the property to the Church as the site of the Brigham City Temple.Interview of Jeffrey Packer by Kathleen Bradford<\/a>, June 13, 2012, p. 1.<\/ref><\/p>\n

Groundbreaking <\/h2>\n

The temple groundbreaking on July 31, 2010, was preceded by much planning and work by local church and city leaders. Box Elder Stake President Ronald Frandsen related how he was assigned to oversee the event:<\/p>\n

I got a call from Elder William Walker, Managing Director of the Temple Department, who said,\u201c Brother Frandsen, are you the President of the Brigham City Utah Box Elder Stake?\u201d<\/p>\n

I said,\u201cYes, I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said,\u201cI’d like to read a letter to you that was just approved by the First \tPresidency.\u201d So he read this letter that said,\u201cYou are hereby appointed to serve as the local coordinator for the groundbreaking of the Brigham City Temple.\u201d<\/p>\n

That kind of took me by surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise. I had hoped that I’d be able to do something as we began this project. I just wanted to be a contributing factor.<\/p>\n

I asked him, \u201cWhat exactly is the temple district?\u201d Because I wanted to know how far I could go to get resources for the groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cWell, that’s not been approved yet, but basically it’s all of Box Elder County and Malad, Idaho.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was particularly pleasing to me because I had been interested in the history of this stake for a long time. In 1977, when our stake celebrated its anniversary, the centennial, I learned that the Box Elder Stake was the 20th stake formed after the exodus from Nauvoo and had basically the same boundaries as the new temple district. So it’s really a pioneer stake, and establishing it was the last official act that Brigham Young performed on the 19th of August 1877 because on the 29th he passed away. He didn’t take any other official actions. The groundbreaking went well because we just had so many people who were helpful to us.Interview of Ronald Frandsen by Kathleen Bradford<\/a>, June 21, 2010, p. 3, 4.<\/ref><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jim Buchanan, Director of Brigham City Emergency Services, and Lieutenant Mike Nelsen of the Brigham Brigham City Police Department were assigned to provide security and law enforcement services and to be involved in the planning and preparation for the groundbreaking. Jim said,<\/p>\n

After the site was announced, many people would drive by, and you’d see them taking family pictures right out on the ground of the Temple site, which was basically a vacant lot with weeds. They were picking up rocks and taking the rocks home. The more Mike and I saw that, the more we realized that we were going to have a good turnout.<\/p>\n

On the morning of the groundbreaking, people started showing up about 5:30 with lawn chairs, their coolers and blankets. They were on the Tabernacle lawn, and they also had come over to the Temple grounds. Even though we didn’t let them into the seating before 8 o’clock, they were there.<\/p>\n

I said to Mike, \u201cIf you’ve got people here at 5 in the morning, you’re going to have a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

By 8 o’clock to 8:30, we were packing them in like sardines. We estimate with the Police Department, that somewhere between 8,000 and 10,000 people attended the groundbreaking. We had all the chairs filled. The space behind the chairs that we had roped off, so that they didn’t fall off the little inclines there, was full. The grounds of the Tabernacle were full, with families with blankets and picnics making an event of it.<\/p>\n

Because we knew that we would impact the business community, Mike and I had personally gone and talked to Smith’s. We talked to South Fork. We talked to the businesses and said, \u201cDuring this time frame, you’re going to be disrupted.\u201d<\/p>\n

We felt they needed to know because it would impact their economic intake for that day. All of them were great. Smith’s brought in extra deli help. They brought in donuts, drinks — those kinds of things \u2013 to cater to the people that would be coming to the groundbreaking. The ground was all leveled; we chalked off where the chairs were going to go. Chairs were brought in an orderly fashion and were all set up. The sound system was put in, and streets were closed. So there was a great coordination between the Church Groundbreaking Committee and the City in making things happen.Interview with Jim Buchanan by Kathleen Bradford<\/a>, Aug. 7, 2012, p. 1-3.<\/ref><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

General Authorities of the Church were among more than 9,000 people gathered on the grounds of the temple and tabernacle and those in Stake Centers who watched the proceedings on television. The day’s program included remarks from Boyd K. Packer, President of the Church’s Quorum of Twelve Apostles, and his wife Donna Smith Packer, both of whom reminisced about growing up in Brigham City. President Packer said, \u201cI am home.\u201d He talked of coming up Main Street with his brothers to attend the Central School, which had stood in the middle of what would soon be the temple block. He continued, \u201cThere was no grass around the school. There was just gravel. Can you imagine what it would take to have a block like this in the central part of the city and preserve it for 150 years to wait until a temple could be built?\u201d
\nPresident Packer spoke of the significance of peaches in Brigham City and of their inclusion in the design of the temple. \u201cI can see in my mind’s eye a temple sitting here,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be gorgeous, and it will be white. It will be a beacon from all over the valley. It will be a symbol of who and what we are.\u201d
\nSister Donna Smith Packer said, \u201cIt is a pleasure to be with you today, to feel of your spirit. We were born and raised here, and seven of our 10 children were born in your midst. So Brigham City is a special memory in our hearts, and we often return here to admire the tabernacle, to visit our forebears in the cemetery, and to pay tribute for all they have given us.\u201d
\nAfter President Packer dedicated the temple grounds, he joined other Church Authorities and City leaders in turning the soil. Children were then invited to help in breaking the ground.
\nAt the advanced age of 85, President Packer said he would be present for the dedication of the temple itself. \u201cI’m getting a bit rickety,\u201d he joked, \u201cbut I feel confident in promising you that I’ll be back for the dedication of the temple. And I think I have enough authority to get me assigned to be here.\u201dBox Elder News Journal \u201cBrigham City LDS Temple\u201d p. 8-10, 22-23.<\/ref><\/p>\n

Temple Construction <\/h2>\n

The architects for the Brigham City Temple were FFKR Architects, and the contractor was Big-D Construction of Ogden, Utah. Dale Satterthwaite, senior vice President of Big-D, talked about his company’s building history,<\/p>\n

It’s always been commercial and industrial buildings, everything really from office construction to manufacturing buildings, food plants, dairies, and distribution. And for the past 7 or 8 years we have been able to be involved in temple construction. We got an opportunity to do some remodeling work during a shut-down period in the Salt Lake Temple. That was our start. We went in one summer during their shut down and did a good job for them. As a result of that, I think, we got an opportunity to go to Twin Falls and bid and won that project. That was the first ground-up temple that we did. Since then, of course, the Brigham Temple was completed just recently. We are in the process of the renovation of the Ogden Temple and its complete grounds \u2013 the tabernacle and parking there. We continue to do work every shut down in the Salt Lake Temple while there are no patrons there.<\/p>\n

Every building starts with a foundation, and so you excavate for the foundation, and it all builds upon that \u2013 whether it be a steel structure, a concrete structure, or masonry. All those components were used in the Brigham Temple, and then they just came together into a finished product.<\/p>\n

In the temple it was a structural steel frame with some concrete core walls at the ends where the elevator shafts are, which gives it the rigidity in the structure. Then, of course, once the steel structure was up and in its framed condition, what you saw going on were the precast exterior panels, which are precast concrete. The concrete is built in plants. They make it in a controlled environment with concrete and crushed stone. For some of the glitter you see in there, there is stone in the Brigham precast, which gives it that stony, glittery look. It’s cast in a controlled environment with anchors on the back so it can attach to the building.<\/p>\n

In Brigham City I think there were a lot more eyes on the project than the normal, and it was a very special project for Brigham.<\/p>\n

The construction missionaries there on site, Elder and Sister Peck, did a special thing for the workers. They rotated the opportunity for different families and youth groups to bring lunch to the workers every Thursday. This gave the people of the temple district an opportunity to feel part of the project, and the workers were very appreciative of that.Interview with Dale Satterthwaite<\/a>, Oct. 26, 2012 by Kathleen Bradford, p. 3-5.<\/ref><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Describing his personal feelings about the temple, Satterthwaite said,<\/p>\n

It was a very special project here at BIG-D. It takes a full orchestra of team to pull off a project like this. I hand it to all the people that were involved from our managers on down to the craftsmen that made it all happen because it turned out to be a very beautiful temple. I think it’s one of a kind, and it will be special in my mind and heart for a long time as I’m sure it will be to all of those in the temple district.\u201d Interview with Dale Satterthwaite<\/a>, Oct. 26, 2012 by Kathleen Bradford, p. 10.<\/ref><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Additional facts about the temple structure were provided to the media as follow:
\n
\nExterior features<\/strong><\/p>\n