The Bountiful Tabernacle

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormon Pioneers, arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in July of 1847. Soon after, a man named Perrigrine Sessions and his family traveled north and settled an area that would become the city of Bountiful, eleven miles north of Salt Lake City. Then known as Sessions Settlement, Bountiful was the second city established in Utah.[1] For many years, church members met in various houses, then built a small log cabin for religious meetings and other social gatherings.[2] The cabin quickly became too small. In 1857 ground was broken in the center of the settlement to build a tabernacle. [3] In a contribution to a scholarly anthology, Dr. C. Mark Hamilton discusses the significance of tabernacles in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

“Tabernacles were specifically designed to meet the congregational needs of a stake, a term used to describe a Mormon ecclesiastical unit equivalent to a diocese. A stake is composed of wards, smaller ecclesiastical units roughly equivalent to parishes.” [4]

Tabernacles were places to gather and worship as a congregation on a weekly basis. They were very important to the community as well as to the church as a whole. Great care was taken in building these sacred structures.

The Bountiful Tabernacle was designed by architect Augustus Farnham, who converted to the church and moved west from Andover, Massachusetts. The style Farnham used in the design of the building is Greek Revival.[5] It was built with the best local materials with the best craftsmen available and at the time cost around $60,000.[6] It has been renovated and added onto over the years, but the original building is the rectangular chapel connected to a tower and the basement. Exterior walls are three-foot-thick stacked adobe blocks covered with stucco to give a white appearance. The tower is topped with five distinct spires.[7]

Early in its 1857 construction, a division of the US Army, led by Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, was sent to subdue a reported Mormon rebellion against the United States.[8] The community expected that Johnston’s army, as it has now come to be locally known, was approaching rapidly, causing alarm to spread through the settlement. It was determined that the community needed to act quickly to protect what they had accomplished in the settlement. The foundation of the tabernacle was filled with harvested grain and buried to make it look like an empty field while the settlers sought refuge to the south. [9] This same procedure was implemented to the foundation of the Salt Lake City temple because of its sacred significance. The temple was a place where the members would go receive individual instruction and spiritual guidance. After arriving in the valley, Johnston’s army found the accusations of an imminent uprising to be false. The people soon returned to their homes and construction on the tabernacle resumed. The Bountiful Tabernacle took six years to complete and was dedicated in 1863.[10]

Since its dedication, the original building has been added to and remodeled. The most significant restoration was in 1983 after the roof caved in causing considerable damage.[11]

Many tabernacles were built throughout Utah during this period, each were individual and beautiful buildings.[12] The Bountiful Tabernacle is significant because it is still used today for its original purpose, religious gatherings. Many other historic tabernacles are now just used as historic sites throughout the state to preserve their historic significance. The Bountiful Tabernacle is the longest continuously used religious building in Utah.[13] 

[1] Scott, Patricia Lyn. “Bountiful” in Utah History Encyclopedia. Accessed April 5, 2021. https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/b/BOUNTIFUL.shtml.

[2] Malan, Ruth. “Bountiful Tabernacle to Celebrate Its 150th Year in Service.” Standard-Examiner. Accessed April 5, 2021. https://www.standard.net/news/local/bountiful-tabernacle-to-celebrate-its-150th-year-in-service/article_1b053eb2-9e51-5b8b-94e9-76eb84b02891.html.

[3] Scott, “Bountiful.”

[4] Hamilton, C. Mark. “Chapter Four - Tabernacles.” In Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture & City Planning, 203. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1995. 53.

[5] National Park Service, “National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form,” (United States Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.: January 1, 1976), accessed on April 5, 2021, https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/32a4b76c-095f-43b4-b205-d109fa40d3fc.

[6] Scott, “Bountiful.”

[7] National Park Service, “Historic.”

[8] Hamilton, C. Mark. “Chapter Two – Zion and Mormon City Planning.” In Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture & City Planning, 203. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc., 1995. 29

[9] Malan, “Celebrate.”

[10] National Park Service, “Historic.”

[11] Scott, “Bountiful.”

[12] Hamilton, “Tabernacles,” 53.

[13] National Park Service, “Historic.”