Historic Tenth Ward Square offers glimpse into changing Church of Jesus Christ chapel designs

SALT LAKE CITY — Pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Within a year, they began to build churches.

Salt Lake City was divided into 19 districts, each with its own chapel, businesses, bishop's storehouse and schoolhouse.

While not the oldest chapel built in Salt Lake City, the Tenth Ward Square was no different. In 1853, the same year the Salt Lake Temple began construction, the congregation pooled funds to build an adobe chapel for worship. The then-leader, Bishop David Pettigrew, oversaw construction.

The chapel, while functional, did not last very long.

Within 20 years, a new brick chapel was constructed on the corner of 400 South and 800 East. The first meeting in the new building was Dec. 29, 1872, though final detail work was not completed until early 1873 under Bishop John Proctor.

"They might have had a fixed pulpit," said Emily Utt, historic sites curator for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "but most likely they had a table that they could move around depending on the need." The building also had movable pews and chairs, allowing worshippers to use the room in a variety of ways.

In the 1880s and 1890s, the church began encouraging people to take the sacrament in their home chapels rather than traveling to the Salt Lake Tabernacle. Adults gathered at 6 p.m. on Sundays to take the sacrament, while children would remain at home. They participated in the ordinance together on Sunday mornings.

Over the years, the early settlers added additional buildings near the chapel, including a small schoolhouse built in 1887. The interior boasted a fireplace to help keep the children warm during the winter months.

In the early 1900s, congregation members began pooling funds for a larger building under Bishop Joseph Christenson. A new building began construction on the same block, right next to the original chapel.

Members built it in phases over several years with little help from the church organization, starting in 1909 and culminating in its dedication in 1916.

The chapel was built around the same time that other religious buildings were also being built within the city, such as the Cathedral of the Madeleine completed in 1909, the original Greek Orthodox Church building completed in 1905 and the First Presbyterian Church on South Temple completed in 1906.

"The central church headquarters paid for about 30% of the building, and then the ward paid for about 70% of initial construction," Utt said. "Since the 1980s, church headquarters has fully funded the maintenance of this building."

While the new chapel did not have central air conditioning, it did have electric lights installed into chandeliers, coupled with natural acoustics to project sound from the pulpit. An organ was built into the back wall, ringed by pews for a church choir.

"Every (ward) is unique," Utt said. "The skills and abilities of our ward should impact the way that we worship. If we are in a musical ward, you put the choir front."

Opposite the organ is a somewhat unique feature within Latter-day Saint meetinghouses: a stained glass window. Utt said the window, which shows Jesus Christ knocking outside a door, was placed there in part to encourage speakers to focus on Jesus Christ.

At the back of the chapel, a winding staircase leads to a balcony overlooking the chapel. The second floor allowed more attendees to worship in the chapel without expanding the building's floor plan onto the street.

"There's no bad seat," Utt said.

The buildings remained separate for almost a century, serving the surrounding community. Utt said President Gordon B. Hinckley, the 17th president of the church, attended services at that building.

Unique elements were added, including a patio for outdoor activities near one entrance, under Bishop Thomas Child, the architect of Gilgal Garden.

"Latter-day Saints have been worshipping on this block since the 1850s," Utt said. She said the building was not built from "a standard plan, (with) 1,000 just like it. You'll often find original elements that are meaningful to this ward in ways that are special, because this ward has been here forever."

In late 1997, the complex underwent a major renovation. The three buildings, each unique in their own right, were combined into a single meetinghouse. The project was completed in early 2000, during which the building was also modernized and upgraded for seismic safety.

The renovation and building process was unique, as the three buildings presented different challenges the modern architects needed to overcome. One building sat much higher than the others, requiring interior ramps and staircases to connect the hallways.

"This building is fully accessible on this main level," Utt said. While several classrooms were either underground or on upper floors, she said the individual classes would move to rooms on the main level to accommodate worshippers' needs.

Additionally, while some of the original buildings had electricity and heating, they lacked indoor plumbing or air conditioning. Utt said the 1909 chapel remains virtually identical to what early Latter-day Saints would have seen, apart from vents in the ceiling for air conditioning and the new speaker system.

"We want people to come into this chapel and feel like they are worshiping with the generations before, but we also want it to be comfortable," Utt said.

Workers removed a time capsule placed inside the original cornerstone of the 1909 chapel and displayed its contents outside the chapel, including copies of the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, the Pearl of Great Price and other historical documents from the time period.

Both the original chapel and the schoolhouse were turned into classrooms for the combined building, leaving the 1909 chapel as is and turning Tenth Ward Square into a unique example of Latter-day Saint architecture.

While not the oldest surviving chapel built by members in Salt Lake City, Utt said it is one of her favorite buildings to talk about because of its complex history.

"It represents the evolution and continuation of Latter-day Saint worship; that Latter-day Saints have been worshiping on this block since almost the founding of Salt Lake City," she said.

The chapel joins with a host of other original Latter-day Saint buildings across the city and state, a testimony to those who helped found the city in which it stands.

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