In its 148-year history, the St. George Utah Temple has undergone many changes.
Since 1877, the historic structure has had more than 10 renovations. The cupola was replaced in 1883 following a lightning strike. The first temple annex was added the same year. Other renovations occurred in 1917, 1938 and 1975. The baptistry was renovated in 1999.
During the October 2018 general conference, President Russell M. Nelson announced plans to renovate the Salt Lake Temple and other pioneer-era temples. “With the passage of time, temples are inevitably in need of refreshing and renewal,” he noted.
In January 2019, it was announced that the house of the Lord in St. George would close to undergo the process of being “refreshed” and “renewed.”
The latest overhaul was completed earlier this month, with the public being welcomed to tour the sacred house of the Lord prior to its rededication on Sunday, Dec. 10.
Andy Kirby, director of the Church’s historic temple renovations, anticipates these updates to last 50, 60, “maybe even 75 years without a major renovation,” he said in a news release published on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
So what exactly has changed during this sacred, historic edifice’s most recent renovation? Here’s a brief look at the renewed St. George Utah Temple.
Changes to the outside of the St. George temple
The temple fact sheet explains that the exterior walls of the temple were originally built from red sandstone that was stacked and grouted together by the early Saints. In the 1940s, a 2-inch layer of a mixture of sand, cement and water, known as gunite, and steel was applied to reinforce and hide cracks on the temple’s exterior. A layer of white epoxy paint was then applied.
The new north addition of the temple has exterior walls covered with a light sand and white epoxy paint to match the color and texture of the historic building.
Unlike more modern temples that have decorative stained glass, all the windows of the St. George temple have historically been clear glass. That was retained in the update. While keeping the historic details and shape of the original windows, they were upgraded to thermally insulated triple panes of glass. The only decorative art glass found in the temple is a new skylight in the bride’s room.
The grounds for the temple were also revamped. A new quatrefoil-shaped fountain was added to the north entrance in addition to a new fountain found in the east plaza. More than 250 trees were planted around the grounds with new shrubbery and native plants. The fence that surrounds the temple site, originally added in 1977, was also sand-blasted and painted a dark bronze to match the new site elements.
Changes to the inside of the St. George temple
The renovated temple has been updated with an all-new heating, air conditioning and cooling system as well as LED lighting and state-of-the-art systems, making its operations more efficient and environmentally friendly. Elevators were also added, and the stairs, walkways and hallways widened or renovated to make them more accessible.
In addition to updating the temple’s modern amenities — such as plumbing, air conditioning and electrical and mechanical systems — care was also given to preserve the original temple’s pioneer designs.
The fact sheet on the temple explains how a comprehensive historic structure report was commissioned by the Church prior to the renovation in order to understand the history and design of the original building. Previous renovations had created inconsistencies in architecture and style. Part of the purpose of the update was to eliminate those design irregularities.
“This building was built by hand by people who were living in poverty, at the edge,” explained Emily Utt, historic sites curator for the Church History Department, soon after the renovation was announced in 2019. “So what is most exciting for me with this renovation are our efforts to preserve those things — we don’t want to take the saw marks out of the wood floors, we don’t want to take the little waves out of the walls. We want to leave this building as it was in the 1870s.”
The new metal decorative light fixtures and chandeliers, for example, resemble designs found from a catalog of the World’s Fair from the year the temple was dedicated. Other decorative light fixtures are period-accurate antiques consistent with what would be found in the 1800s.
The millwork found in the altars, recommend desks and cabinets in addition to the baseboards and casings are also close matches to their historic profiles. The font bowl and oxen are the originals from 1877 as well as are some of the doors, which were refinished.
The motif of alternating gold, five-point star and quatrefoil has been preserved and used in subtle ways throughout the temple, including on door hardware and altars.
The original ordinance rooms of the St. George temple had murals — in the creation, garden and world rooms — that were removed in the 1970s when the temple converted from a live presentation to film. They were partially restored in the 1990s. New murals were commissioned in the recent renovation — once again suggesting the sequence of creation, garden and world rooms — by local artists who incorporated the natural beauty found throughout southern Utah.
One of the murals removed during the renovation of the Salt Lake Temple depicting the Savior appearing to the early disciples, was reproduced in the chapel of the St. George temple.
While much of the original artwork, furniture, fabric and other details from the 1877 temple have been lost, those features in the 2023 update “really harken back to those early Saints,” commented Benjamin Pykles, director of the Church History Department’s Historic Sites Division, during the St. George temple’s media day. “It feels special, and it feels beautiful, but it also feels historic. It still feels like a pioneer temple.”
Kirby said in a news release: “I think the pioneers who built this would be pleased with our work. They would be satisfied that we preserved their efforts and the beauty and the intent of their work.”
Why the St. George temple is important to the wider Church
Besides being a beloved lodestar to Latter-day Saints throughout southern Utah, the St. George Utah Temple holds a special place in the annals of the worldwide Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Announced in 1871 as early Latter-day Saint settlers were struggling to tame their sometimes hostile desert environment, the St. George temple was miraculously completed roughly six years later. The Salt Lake Temple — which took 40 years to complete — would be finished 16 years later, in 1893.
After being driven out of their city and temple in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1845, the early Saints rejoiced when — nearly 30 years later — the temple ordinances were again available. When the Apostle Orson Hyde saw the baptismal font installed, he wept. “He thanked God that he had lived to see another font in place in a temple of the Lord,” (“How the Temple Font Was Taken to St. George,” Deseret News, Aug. 29, 1931).
In addition to being the first temple in Utah, the St. George temple was also the first house of the Lord where the endowment and sealing ordinances were performed by proxy for deceased ancestors. It was also where, under the direction of President Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, the first president of St. George temple who would later become the Prophet, made the first written record of the ordinances, ensuring their consistency and availability at future temples.
So in many ways, the completion of the St. George Utah Temple marked a significant step in being able to offer temple blessings to all.
The St. George temple holds “a special place in the hearts of Latter-day Saints,” Elder Kevin W. Pearson, General Authority Seventy and president of the Church’s Utah Area, told the Church News during a media tour of the newly renovated temple.
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