Temple Square

Temple Square is the heart of Salt Lake City and the spiritual centre of the LDS Church worldwide. The ten-acre block, bounded by North, South, West, and Main streets, holds the Salt Lake Temple, the Tabernacle, the Assembly Hall, and several visitors' centres. It is the single most-visited site in Utah, drawing several million people a year.

The Temple itself is closed to non-members and is currently undergoing a major seismic-retrofit renovation expected to last through 2027; even so, the square remains open and the visitors' centres run free tours daily. The Tabernacle is famous for its perfect acoustics and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which rehearses publicly on Thursday evenings and broadcasts the long-running "Music and the Spoken Word" programme on Sunday mornings.

Tours are conducted by missionaries from many countries and are openly evangelical — fair warning if that is not your cup of tea — but the docents are well-trained and the history of the early Mormon settlement is genuinely interesting.

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A story
The Salt Lake Temple, designed by Truman O. Angell and built from quartz monzonite quarried in Little Cottonwood Canyon, took 40 years to complete — from the laying of the cornerstone in 1853 to the dedication in 1893. The original plan called for a building twice as tall, but the granite proved too heavy for the available foundations and the spires had to be shortened.

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