Independence Missouri LDS Visitors Center

This visitors center, own and operated by the LDS church, sits on a portion of 63 acre lot known as the "Temple Lot". This land was purchased by the LDS church in 1831 after Joseph Smith, Jr. received a revelation that a temple was to be built here as well as this spot was to be the gathering place of Zion at Christ's Second Coming; corner stones were laid and dedicated. After the Extermination Order was issues by Missouri Governor Lilliburn Boggs in 1838, the LDS church was forced out of the state one year later and forced to give up the land. Years later the church returned to by the land, but ended up having to share the land with two break-offs of the church: The Community of Christ and the Church of Christ, Temple Lot. The visitors center provides the general public a history of the LDS church as whole, its years in Missouri and beliefs regarding this spot and others within the state.

*From Mormon Historic Sites:

Independence, Missouri was designated as a gathering place for the Saints in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, Jr. in 1831.1 The same revelation also revealed that the Independence area was Zion and advised the area where a temple was to be built “lying westward, up a lot which is not far from the courthouse.”2

Shortly after becoming a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, W. W. Phelps was directed to purchase a press and begin publishing a newspaper in Independence, Missouri. In June 1832, the first issue of The Evening and Morning Star was published. Additionally, the first compilation of the revelations revealed to Joseph Smith, the Book of Commandments (now known as Doctrine & Covenants), was published here.

The location for the temple was dedicated on “a spot lying westward” under the direction of Joseph Smith. John Whitmer described the events of the dedication as follows:

'Sidney Rigdon dedicated the ground where the city is to stand: and Joseph Smith, Jr. laid a stone at the Northeast corner of the contemplated Temple in the name of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth. After all present had rendered thanks to the great ruler of the universe, Sidney Rigdon pronounced this Spot of ground wholly dedicated unto the Lord forever: Amen.' 3

The site where the cornerstone was laid and dedicated is located near present day River Street and south of Lexington Avenue.4

In July 1833, a mob of 400-500 individuals gathered at the Independence courthouse to discuss the problem of the growing presence of the Mormons. The mob decided that the printing office should be destroyed and razed the building to the ground.4

The mob then captured Bishop Edward Partridge and Charles Allen, and dragged them to the public square where they gave as ultimatum: deny the Book of Mormon or leave Jackson County. They each refused either choice and were subsequently tarred and feathered. Bishop Partridge described the event as follows:

'Before tarring and feathering me I was permitted to speak. I told them that the Saints had suffered persecution in all ages of the world; that I had done nothing which ought to offend anyone; that if they abused me, they would abuse an innocent person; that I was willing to suffer for the sake of Christ; but, to leave the country, I was not then willing to consent to it…

I bore my abuse with so much resignation and meekness, that it appeared to astound the multitude, who permitted me to retire in silence, many looking very solemn, their sympathies having been touched as I thought; and as to myself, I was so filled with the Spirit and love of God, that I had no hatred towards my persecutors or anyone else.' 6

When the mob attacked the printing office, the Book of Commandmentswas being published. Two young girls, Mary Elizabeth and Caroline Rollins picked up as many sheets as they could of the unbound revelations and hid in a cornfield until the mob departed. They each subsequently received a copy of the Book of Commandments which they highly prized the rest of their lives.5

The mob returned the next day and forced the leaders of the Church to sign an agreement to leave Jackson County before April 1, 1834. The events that transpired here led to the Battle of the Big Blue and eventually Zion’s Camp. However, the Saints were never able to reclaim their land."

Additional information: 

The property upon which the Visitors Center stands was first purchased on December 19, 1831 by Edward Partridge, acting on behalf of Joseph Smith. It was repurchased by the LDS Church, which had become the largest of several different Latter Day Saint denominations, on April 14, 1904. The purchase was completed by James G. Duffin, President of the Central U.S. States Mission, acting on behalf of the First Presidency.

A few months later, the Kansas City Times published a rumor (but corrected itself the next day) that the so-called "Utah Mormons" had secretly purchased the entire Greater Temple Lot, including that portion owned by the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), which had been the subject of a lawsuit in the 1890s between the Temple Lot and (then) RLDS churches (now Community of Christ). The portion owned by the Temple Lot church was the highest-altitude 2.5 acres portion of the 63.5 acres originally purchased by Partridge in December, 1831, and had been repurchased by Granville Hedrick, founder of the Temple Lot church, between 1867 and 1877. Both pieces of real estate are often confused, because since 1867 both the 2.5-acre area and the larger 63.5-acre area have been described in newspaper and other media reports as the "Mormon Temple Lot." A January 2009 online article by Community of Christ researcher John Hamer entitled "The Temple Lot: Visions and Realities" helps clear up the confusion.

The Visitors Center opened in 1971, the same year as another particularly notable LDS Visitors Center, the LDS Visitors Center in Nauvoo, Illinois. Its style of presenting Mormon claims and doctrines in a modern audio-visual and interactive format was specifically the brainchild of LDS general authority Bernard P. Brockbank, who had overseen implementation of this same style at the 1964 New York World's Fair.

The Visitors Center is alleged to have been designed after the Parthenon, one of the world's most renowned temples. This has fueled speculation as to whether the LDS Visitors Center is, by definition, a temple constructed on the Greater Temple Lot dedicated and purchased by Joseph Smith and his associates for that purpose in 1831. An October 1952 Kansas City Times essay written by a friend and admirer of RLDS Church Historian Heman C. Smith (1850 - April 17, 1919) published the rumor that the LDS Church intended to build an LDS Temple on the site today occupied by the LDS Visitors' Center. In his 2004 book Images of New Jerusalem author Craig S. Campbell examines the rumor, but is skeptical the building may be "converted someday" into an LDS Temple.

While the LDS church operates a visitors center, the Church of Christ, Temple Lot has a small church building that also acts as visitors center and the Community of Christ constructed a type of temple on their portion of the lot that also contains a visitors center. Later the Community of Christ constructed a separate auditorium that took over much of the lot. Around the same time, another break off, the Remnant of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also constructed a building, this one a headquarters for the small church. While the grounds are contested, the churches have generally friendly relations, the Church of Christ, Temple Lot (at least), has a better relationship with the LDS church and has said on a visit to their center by the creator of this entry that when the day comes, they'd rather sell their portion to the LDS church. 

LDS doctrine and belief holds that by Christ's Second Coming the church will have had while control of the lot and a temple built here as well in nearby Far West, Missouri. This belief helps the members of the LDS maintain hope in the literal and final fulfillment of Smith's prophecies regarding this area. Of course, violence will never be used to obtained this land by the LDS church or others that lay claim to it. 

Other sides in this region of Missouri include Liberty Jail, Haun's Mill, Far West, Adam-Ondi-Ahman and sites of the Zion's Camp, a rescue party outfitted in Kirtland, Ohio to relieve the LDS members in Missouri from the persecutions they were suffering under. 

1 See Doctrine & Covenants 57:1. 2 Doctrine & Covenants 57:3. 3 John Whitmer, The Book of John Whitmer, [BYU, Harold B. Lee Library, L. Tom Perry Special Collections]. 4 Arnold K. Garr and Clark V. Johnson, eds., Regional Studies in Latter-day Saint History: Missouri (Provo: Department of Church History and Doctrine, 1994), 289. 5 Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 vols., introduction and notes by B. H. Roberts (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1932-1951), 1: 391. 6 Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1996), 41. "Denied by Mr. Duffin: No Truth in Report of a Large Purchase of Land by Mormons" Kansas City Times quoted in the Salt Lake City Herald newspaper, page 17 (C-3), January 15, 1905. "...The report published in the Times yesterday morning that several thousand acres of land had been purchased in Independence, Mo., for the use of the Mormon colonists was denied yesterday afternoon by James G. Duffin..." A 1975 edition of the Los Angeles Times mentions the Visitors Center in a report headlined Independence to be ‘City of God’: Three Churches Await Christ in Missouri Independence to be ‘City of God’: Three Churches Await Christ in Missouri By Charles Hillinger, Los Angeles Times, p. 18, Saturday, March 29, 1975, at Google Docs. An article published in the LDS periodical the Ensign in 1979 and reproduced online today includes a photograph of the LDS visitors center in Independence, Center, and the cutline reads: "Independence Visitors’ Center, dedicated in 1971 on part of the temple lot": "The Way It Looks Today: A Camera Tour of Church History Sites in Missouri", Ensign, April 1979. The Temple Lot: Visions and Realities January 19, 2009 — John Hamer at bycommonconsent.com "Church readies pavilion for N.Y. Fair Inaugural" Deseret News, February 29, 1964 "Famous members of the Community of Christ formerly named the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (RLDS)" RLDS "Church Letter on Succession Authority" ref. Heman C. Smith, 1919 at Shields-Research.com Moore, Edward D. (October 30, 1952). "Church History Surrounds Independence Tract Said to Be Worth Million Dollars". Kansas City Times. ...The 7,000-seat auditorium built by the R.L.D.S., which that church expects to finish at a cost of about 1 million dollars, faces the temple lot from the south...But just east of the Auditorium lot, across River boulevard, comes up the corner the Utah-owned temple tract on which the Utah Mormons say they will build a temple. In fact when the Independence school board offered to buy the tract for a new high school building and grounds, the Utah church president refused, but countered with an offer to give $60,000, to apply on the purchase of some other tract by the school board. Recently the Mormons sent the check. So a temple, understood by all Latter-Day Saints factions to be a strictly religious rites building, may spring up to complicate further an already complicated situation. Campbell, Craig S. (2004). Images of the New Jerusalem: Latter Day Saint faction interpretations of Independence, Missouri. University of Tennessee Press. pp. 169–172. ...[T]he membership on occasion has been known to speculate whether the Visitors Center could easily be converted into a temple, after all it is a multilevel structure with grounds decorated in templelike manner. One member expressed to me that the Visitor's Centers twelve columnns were like those...twelve gates of the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God (Rev. 21:11-12)...In reality, the Visitor's Center has thirty-eight slender pillars covering all four sides of the building, so quite a bit of millenial imagination was employed in converting a museum into a temple...