The White Building of Dreams
Here are some facts about the Manti Utah Temple:
Announced June 25th 1875
Groundbreaking and site dedication was April 25th 1877 by Brigham Young
Original dedication May 21-23 1888 by Lorenzo Snow
Rededicated June 14-16 1985 by Gordon B. Hinkley
The 3rd temple built in Utah
Originally named just the Manti Temple
It was built on a rattlesnake-infested site, known as the Manti Stone Guarry. The quarry's stone, Manti oolite, is the stone that was used to build the temple.
Moroni dedicated the site for a temple in the later days!
Open-center spiral staircases wind up each of the 179-foot towers. An engineering marvel of the Mormon Pioneers.
The Manti Utah Temple is one of only two temples that still employs live acting for its sessions.
Stands on what is known as "Temple Hill," and dominates the Sanpete Valley of central Utah, because of it's location it can be seen from miles and miles away.
Announced June 25th 1875
Groundbreaking and site dedication was April 25th 1877 by Brigham Young
Original dedication May 21-23 1888 by Lorenzo Snow
Rededicated June 14-16 1985 by Gordon B. Hinkley
The 3rd temple built in Utah
Originally named just the Manti Temple
It was built on a rattlesnake-infested site, known as the Manti Stone Guarry. The quarry's stone, Manti oolite, is the stone that was used to build the temple.
Moroni dedicated the site for a temple in the later days!
Open-center spiral staircases wind up each of the 179-foot towers. An engineering marvel of the Mormon Pioneers.
The Manti Utah Temple is one of only two temples that still employs live acting for its sessions.
Stands on what is known as "Temple Hill," and dominates the Sanpete Valley of central Utah, because of it's location it can be seen from miles and miles away.
A contrast between the smooth finished stone of the temple and the un-quarried stone of the hill behind the temple.
The tower on the east end , you can see the French influence in the architecture.
The big stone wall.
The temple grounds always have such beautiful foliage.
A stone quarry was chosen as the building site. Because of the solid rock nature of the hill, a year and a half were required for excavating and terracing. On April 14, 1879 cornerstones were laid, and stone masons began putting up walls.
The Manti Temple was completed in 1888 after eleven years of construction, and dedicated at two separate services on May 17th and May 20th of that year. It was opened for sacred ordinance work eight days later by Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
PROVO — When Nani Bendixen was a small girl, she loved visiting her grandfather in the Sanpete Valley. He would often take her on bumpy rides around his farm and point out a white building in the distance on a hill.
"See that building way out there," he'd say. "That's the Manti Temple. Your great-grandparents were married there. Your grandmother and I were married there. Your parents were married there."
It's a beautiful building now on a green and grassy hill, he explained but it wasn't always so.
The site Brigham Young said was dedicated to be a temple site by the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni, was solid gray rock. Known as the Manti stone quarry, it was actually abundant in a cream-colored stone known as Manti oolite, used for the building's exterior.
To make way for a temple building, the early Saints would tunnel back about 20-30 feet, then dig two 10-foot wings at the end. They would then fill the cavity with several hundred pounds of gunpowder and explode the rock, dislodging 2,500 tons of rock, dirt and trees each time.
"It worked great except for the rubble it created," said Bendixen, who presented a paper on the temple's history at the Eleventh Annual Religious Education Student Symposium at Brigham Young University recently.
The rocks from that rubble can be seen today in the foundations of many of the homes in the Manti area.
The master mason for the temple, Edward Parry, tells a story about the pair of mules he used to pull loaded wagons to the site and back. When one day he couldn't find them, he became distraught only to discover them already at the site eager to get to work.
He insisted on quality stone, once rebuking a worker for attempting to put a piece of cracked stone on the inside of the building where it wouldn't show.
"That is not quite right," he said. "You will know it, I will know it and the Lord will know it. Now remove the stone and replace it with one without flaws."
The timber for the temple came from four sawmills in the area, the best cut down from the nearby woods known as Hell's Kitchen. The timber grew so straight they could cut poles 60-75-feet long.
"So they used lumber from Hell's Kitichen to build God's temple," said Bendixen.
Workmanship on the temple was largely done by Scandanavian carpenters more used to building boats than buildings.
To create the ceiling, they relied on skills they were comfortable with so, for instance, the temple's interior ceiling is a boat bottom built upside-down by a Norwegian saint.
The walls are so completely true that you can put your face against the side and see if there's a fly down the way.
The two open-center circular stairways inside the west tower are two of only five such stairways in the world, two of the three in the United States, built without central support. The two 151-step tower staircases are widely acknowledged to be an engineering marvel.
Many of the workers at the time joked that all they used in the construction was a "spirit level."
In the 11 years of temple construction, not one person died of injuries incurred while working on it. In fact, Parry dreamt one night of a worker falling to his death so he arose and went to check on the scaffolding. He found a loose rope which he tightened thus preventing certain injury.
One unique feature is the carpet in the temple's Celestial Room, which has 27 different colors woven into the design.
Another is the symbolism in the door catches, hinges and knobs created by John Patrick Reid — later interpreted by his grandson, Hugh W. Nibley to represent, among other things, eternal life.
There are many aspects of the Manti Temple that are unlike any of the other temples in existence. It used to be said that "the Manti Temple is the only temple you can go through without a recommend" because there was a large tunnel constructed under the east tower. One could actually come from either the south or the north and drive past both temple walls, thus going "through" the temple.
The temple's water source is also noteworthy. Originally, all the water came from a small spring near the temple. Through the years, as the need for water has increased, the spring's production has also miraculously increased.
Another temple story involved a 15-year-old boy, Lewis Anderson, who, while in bed waiting for broken bones to heal, dreamed in detail of a white building. Years later, that boy became the temple president of the Manti Temple, serving 27 years in that role. He recognized the building when he saw it for the first time after he was grown, married and returned from two missions.
On April 25, 1877, the pioneer colonizers of Manti - the fourth community established in Utah - began taking from the south side of this hill the oolite stone from which to build their temple. The third of these sacred edifices erected in Utah, it was begun before the other two were completed.
When the site was dedicated, Brigham Young, who planned the structure, announced that no money was to be spent for labor. Consequently many months of labor were donated by skilled workmen, which together with contributions of materials and money made possible the completion on the building.
The temples construction was carefully and tastefully executed, the workmanship, decoration, and furnishing representing a high quality of skill and design. One outstanding feature of the interior is a beautiful spiral staircase which extends to the top floor.
Eleven years in construction, the Manti Temple was completed May 21, 1888, at a cost of one million dollars. It stands as a monument to the thrift, industry, and self-sacrifice of these early Mormon colonists.
"See that building way out there," he'd say. "That's the Manti Temple. Your great-grandparents were married there. Your grandmother and I were married there. Your parents were married there."
It's a beautiful building now on a green and grassy hill, he explained but it wasn't always so.
The site Brigham Young said was dedicated to be a temple site by the Book of Mormon prophet Moroni, was solid gray rock. Known as the Manti stone quarry, it was actually abundant in a cream-colored stone known as Manti oolite, used for the building's exterior.
To make way for a temple building, the early Saints would tunnel back about 20-30 feet, then dig two 10-foot wings at the end. They would then fill the cavity with several hundred pounds of gunpowder and explode the rock, dislodging 2,500 tons of rock, dirt and trees each time.
"It worked great except for the rubble it created," said Bendixen, who presented a paper on the temple's history at the Eleventh Annual Religious Education Student Symposium at Brigham Young University recently.
The rocks from that rubble can be seen today in the foundations of many of the homes in the Manti area.
The master mason for the temple, Edward Parry, tells a story about the pair of mules he used to pull loaded wagons to the site and back. When one day he couldn't find them, he became distraught only to discover them already at the site eager to get to work.
He insisted on quality stone, once rebuking a worker for attempting to put a piece of cracked stone on the inside of the building where it wouldn't show.
"That is not quite right," he said. "You will know it, I will know it and the Lord will know it. Now remove the stone and replace it with one without flaws."
The timber for the temple came from four sawmills in the area, the best cut down from the nearby woods known as Hell's Kitchen. The timber grew so straight they could cut poles 60-75-feet long.
"So they used lumber from Hell's Kitichen to build God's temple," said Bendixen.
Workmanship on the temple was largely done by Scandanavian carpenters more used to building boats than buildings.
To create the ceiling, they relied on skills they were comfortable with so, for instance, the temple's interior ceiling is a boat bottom built upside-down by a Norwegian saint.
The walls are so completely true that you can put your face against the side and see if there's a fly down the way.
The two open-center circular stairways inside the west tower are two of only five such stairways in the world, two of the three in the United States, built without central support. The two 151-step tower staircases are widely acknowledged to be an engineering marvel.
Many of the workers at the time joked that all they used in the construction was a "spirit level."
In the 11 years of temple construction, not one person died of injuries incurred while working on it. In fact, Parry dreamt one night of a worker falling to his death so he arose and went to check on the scaffolding. He found a loose rope which he tightened thus preventing certain injury.
One unique feature is the carpet in the temple's Celestial Room, which has 27 different colors woven into the design.
Another is the symbolism in the door catches, hinges and knobs created by John Patrick Reid — later interpreted by his grandson, Hugh W. Nibley to represent, among other things, eternal life.
There are many aspects of the Manti Temple that are unlike any of the other temples in existence. It used to be said that "the Manti Temple is the only temple you can go through without a recommend" because there was a large tunnel constructed under the east tower. One could actually come from either the south or the north and drive past both temple walls, thus going "through" the temple.
The temple's water source is also noteworthy. Originally, all the water came from a small spring near the temple. Through the years, as the need for water has increased, the spring's production has also miraculously increased.
Another temple story involved a 15-year-old boy, Lewis Anderson, who, while in bed waiting for broken bones to heal, dreamed in detail of a white building. Years later, that boy became the temple president of the Manti Temple, serving 27 years in that role. He recognized the building when he saw it for the first time after he was grown, married and returned from two missions.
On April 25, 1877, the pioneer colonizers of Manti - the fourth community established in Utah - began taking from the south side of this hill the oolite stone from which to build their temple. The third of these sacred edifices erected in Utah, it was begun before the other two were completed.
When the site was dedicated, Brigham Young, who planned the structure, announced that no money was to be spent for labor. Consequently many months of labor were donated by skilled workmen, which together with contributions of materials and money made possible the completion on the building.
The temples construction was carefully and tastefully executed, the workmanship, decoration, and furnishing representing a high quality of skill and design. One outstanding feature of the interior is a beautiful spiral staircase which extends to the top floor.
Eleven years in construction, the Manti Temple was completed May 21, 1888, at a cost of one million dollars. It stands as a monument to the thrift, industry, and self-sacrifice of these early Mormon colonists.
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