Plan of the , [, Geauga Co., OH], between 1 and 25 June 1833; text and drawings in handwriting of ; two pages; CHL. Contains archival marking.
One leaf measuring 17¾–18¾ × 22¼ inches (45–48 × 57 cm). The recto features a floor plan of the interior of a House of the Lord, with text in the right margin. The interior drawing measures 15½ × 22 inches (39 × 56 cm). Dimensions are written on the plan. The verso features text and two drawings of the building’s exterior, one of the side view and one of the end view. These exterior drawings measure 3⅞ × 11 inches (10 × 28 cm) and 5¾ × 7⅝ inches (15 × 19 cm), respectively. An archival notation in the handwriting of Robert L. Campbell on the verso in reddish-purple ink reads: “G. S. L. city, June 30, 1865. This plan was presented to the Historian’s Office by | Mrs. Lydia Partridge widow of . It was sent to him by | Pres. Joseph Smith while he was presiding in in 1832–3. | It is a design for the house of the Lord for the Presidency intended to | be erected about the time of the expulsion of the Saints from Jackson County”. The document was folded multiple times and, along with the plat, was enclosed in a letter dated 25 June 1833 and sent to , Missouri. As indicated by an archival notation on the envelope that was deposited with the document, Partridge and his family maintained possession of this plan until 30 June 1865, when Lydia Partridge donated the document to the Church Historian’s Office.
Historical Introduction
Likely in connection with the development of the , or temple, in , Ohio, and the need to draft plans for its construction, the made plans to build similar temples in . In a late June 1833 letter to , Missouri, the presidency enclosed a plat for the development of , which called for twenty-four houses of the Lord to be constructed in the city’s center. The plat was accompanied by the document featured here, a draft of the architectural plan of a to be built in Missouri. The plan featured here was to be the “house of the Lord for the Presidency,” the first of the twenty-four multipurpose houses of the Lord to be constructed in . The building was to be for “the presidency as well as all purposes of Religion and instruction” and was to be “built immediately.”
By October 1830, leaders of the , directed by revelation, instructed a missionary expedition “unto the ” to locate the spot and “rear up a pillar as a witness where the Temple of God [should] be built, in the glorious .” The location for the temple was not designated, however, until early August 1831, when eight church leaders assembled in , Missouri, as JS laid a cornerstone for the “contemplated Temple.” This temple, according to revelation, was to “be reared in this generation,” though at the time JS sent the temple plan to , construction on it had not yet begun. Back in , church members had also made little progress in constructing the in . Progress had quickened, however, after JS’s 1 June 1833 revelation declared, “Ye have sinned against me a verry grievous sin in that ye have not considered the great in all things that I have given unto you concerning the building of mine house.”
The 1 June revelation also promised that “if ye keep my commandments ye shall have power to build” the and instructed that the house was to be built “after the manner which I shall show unto three of you,” referring to the presidency of the high priesthood. Shortly thereafter, drew the plans for the House of the Lord that was to be built in . Williams also drew the plans featured here for a to be built in , Missouri. By 25 June 1833, the presidency of the high priesthood approved Williams’s architectural draft of the interior and exterior plans of the House of the Lord. The specifications on the plan for this first temple in provided greater detail for the interior than for the exterior. JS and other church leaders in Kirtland told the recipients of this plan in Missouri that if they did not understand the explanations for the temple or the city plat that accompanied it, “you will inform us, so as you may have a propper understanding, for it is meet that all things should be done according to the pattern.” The package containing the plat and this architectural plan arrived in on 29 July 1833, just after violence against church members had erupted in Missouri.
Church leaders in later realized that the plat and plan were “drawn in grate haste” and that they included some errors. Thus, several weeks later drew up a new set of plans, accompanied by slightly modified instructions, and sent them to . Those plans likely arrived in Missouri in late September 1833. The plans to build any of the proposed houses of the Lord in were never realized because of the growing conflict between church members and other residents of .
The following transcript presents the plan for the interior of the temple first, the explanation for the interior drawing second, and the combined plan and explanation for the exterior last. For the plan of the interior, the transcript divides the drawing into nine rectangular sections. These nine sections were not numbered originally but are numbered here for the reader’s convenience. The images of the interior plan are all oriented so that the north end of the building is at the top, as in the original document.
and those upon each side are also to be ellevated the first one 8 inches the 2d 16 the 3 two feet the 4th 2 feet 8 inchs the corner seats are to be occupied by singers and ellevated the first seat 6 inchs the 2 12— the 3d 18— the 4— 24— & the 5th4 30 inches. The Pulpit in the East end of the is to be occupied by the No 1 the Presidency of lesser Priesthood No 2 for the No 3 for the and No 4 for the and the seats by their side are also to be occupied by by visiting officer each one opposite his respective office grade &c the pulpits are to be [illegible] off with pannel work in the best workmanlike manner and the building to be composed of stone and brick of the best kind
This is to represent a side view of the house five windows in each story the windows are to have each 48 lights 7— by 9— 6 one way and eight the other the sills and littels [lintels] of the windows to be of hewn stone and on the top of the Center is to be a gothick top as you see but <the> window must have a lintel and so with the out side doors the middle window of the ◊◊◊ is to have side lights all with gothick tops make your house 14 feet high between the floors and the timbers there will not be a gallery but a chamber each story to be 14 feet high arched over head with an eleptical arch each of the stories let the under part or foundation of the house be of stone let it be raised sufficiently high to admit of banking up so high as to admit of a descent every way from the house as far as to divide the distance betwen this house and those next to it on top of this the stone and above the embankment let there be two rows of hewn stone and then commence the back on the hewn stone in the entire hight of the house 28 feet each story being 14 feet make the wall a sufficient thinkness thickness for a house of this size Observe particularly that as there are pulpits at each <end of the house> that the backs of the congregation must be to one of them and they will want occasionally to change in order for this the house must have pews pews instead of Slips and in the pews let the seats be loose so as to slip from one side of the pew to the other so as to face other pulpit as occasion may require
immediately on entering the outer door turn to the right and left to go up stairs and between the stairs and and inner door, <& under the stairs> there is to be a vestry to contain the furniture of the house & the dressing rooms——
NB For your satisfaction we inform you that the plot for the City and the size form and dime[n]sions <of the house> were given us of the Lord
This cut represents an end view the windows the same as in the side the middle window excepted <it> is to be the same with the addition of side lights this middle window is desighned to light both above and below as the upper floor as to be laid off presently in the same way as the lower and arched over head with curtains or vailes as is before mentioned you will be carefull to have hooks and rings to suspend your vailes on so they can be let down or raised [u]p at any time at pleasure also as you can see the pulpits are to have four seats one raising above another for instance the Elders seat is the lowest next comes the high Priests next the presidency <Bishop> so each of these must have a vail that is suspended to the uper ceiling floor so to be let down which will at any time when necessary be let down and shut off each stand or seat by itself. The doors are to be 5 feet wide 9 feet high and to be in the east end the west end is to have no doors but in other respects to be like the east <except the windows are to be opposite to alleys which runs east and west of> the roof of the house to have one fourth ptich the door to have gothick tops as the windows the shingles of the roof to be painted before the[y] are put on there is to be a fan light as you see. The windows and doors are all to have venetions [venetians] a balcony in the east end and a bell of very large size [p. [2]]
This appears to be a reference to seating for a choir. According to music scholar Michael Hicks, these plans reveal that JS had planned “to have a formal choir,” and a choir was in fact organized for the Kirtlandtemple’s dedication in 1836. (Hicks, Mormonism and Music, 39–40; Revelation, July 1830–C [D&C 25:11–12].)
Hicks, Michael. Mormonism and Music: A History. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989.
Webster’s 1828 dictionary defined a “light” as “a pane of glass; as a window with twelve lights.” The size seven by nine was standard for glass windows. (“Light,” in American Dictionary; Hazlett, History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire, 679.)
An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
Hazlett, Charles A. History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire, and Respective Citizens. Chicago: Richmond Arnold, 1915.
Aside from the building’s dimensions, the only stylistic elements specified for the exterior of the temple are “gothick tops” on the windows and doors. Gothic doors and windows typically had rounded tops that came to a point at the apex. Gothic windows were a typical “cultural symbol for a church” in the United States and Canada in the early nineteenth century. An article in the July 1835 Messenger and Advocate discussed the nearly completed House of the Lord in Kirtland and noted that the house “will be lighted with thirty-two Gothic, three Venitian, ten dormer, one circular and two square gable-windows.” (Robison, First Mormon Temple, 17; [William W. Phelps], “The House of God,” LDS Messenger and Advocate, July 1835, 1:147.)
Robison, Elwin C. The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.
Latter Day Saints’ Messenger and Advocate. Kirtland, OH. Oct. 1834–Sept. 1837.
Most contemporary churches had “an upper gallery, or balcony, which was above the sanctuary and supported on columns. Often these balconies were U-shaped, leaving a full double height in the center of the room.” In contrast, the specifications here call for two stories with an assembly hall on each level. (Robison, First Mormon Temple, 19.)
Robison, Elwin C. The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.
According to one architectural historian, these specifications “describe the vaults, but neither the scaled drawings nor the height measurements listed in the specifications take them into account. . . . The fourteen-foot stories described here leave no room for the second-floor girders and joists or for the elliptical arch set into the ceiling of the lower floor.” These specifications for the House of the Lord in Jackson County were, therefore, not practical. When the Kirtlandtemple was built, workers raised the overall height of the building to forty-five feet to reach the eaves of the roof instead of the twenty-eight feet specified for the original Jackson County temple. (Robison, First Mormon Temple, 14–15.)
Robison, Elwin C. The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.
People of the period tended to use the terms pew and slip synonymously. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defined pew as “an inclosed seat in a church. Pews were formerly made square; in modern churches in America they are generally long and narrow, and sometimes called slips.” The definition of slip was “a long seat or narrow pew in churches.” The text here seems to distinguish between a large, immovable pew and a smaller bench or slip that could be easily moved forward or backward. (“Pew,” in American Dictionary, italics in original; “Slip,” in American Dictionary.)
An American Dictionary of the English Language: Intended to Exhibit, I. the Origin, Affinities and Primary Signification of English Words, as far as They Have Been Ascertained. . . . Edited by Noah Webster. New York: S. Converse, 1828.
In other words, the benches in the pews could be moved from the back to the front. This arrangement allowed congregants to “face either the Melchizedek or Aaronic pulpits, depending upon who was officiating during the meeting. Most meetings [in the Kirtlandtemple] were held facing the west or Melchizedek pulpits—an arrangement that would have been far more practical for latecomers, who could then slip in the eastern doors without disturbing the western-facing congregation.” (Robison, First Mormon Temple, 20.)
Robison, Elwin C. The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.
According to one architectural historian, “Most contemporary churches had an entry vestibule that led into the main sanctuary. . . . In these church buildings, stairs at the sides of the vestibule led to an upper gallery, or balcony, which was above the sanctuary.” Here, the stairs led to the upper-floor auditorium, which was to be used as a school. (Robison, First Mormon Temple, 19.)
Robison, Elwin C. The First Mormon Temple: Design, Construction, and Historic Context of the Kirtland Temple. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1997.