Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Last updated

Hotel Utah
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View from the South.
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LocationS. Temple and Main St., Salt Lake City, Utah
Coordinates 40°46′11″N111°53′26″W / 40.76972°N 111.89056°W / 40.76972; -111.89056
Area1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1909-1911
ArchitectParkinson & Bergstrom
Architectural styleClassical Revival, Modern Italian Renaissance
NRHP reference No. 78002673 [1]
Added to NRHPJanuary 3, 1978

The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, originally called the Hotel Utah, is a social center located on the corner of Main Street and South Temple in Salt Lake City. It is named in honor of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement. It houses several restaurants and also functions as a venue for events. Several levels of the building also serve as administrative offices for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) departments such as FamilySearch. On January 3, 1978, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Hotel Utah. [1]

Contents

The building was closed to the public at the beginning of 2023 to upgrade its systems, with an expected reopening in 2025. [2]

History

Hotel Utah, 1925. Salt lake city hotel utah 1925.jpg
Hotel Utah, 1925.

The corner of Main Street and South Temple has long been important in Utah history. Prior to construction of the Hotel Utah from 1909 to 1911, the general tithing office of the LDS Church, a bishop's storehouse, and the Deseret News printing plant all were located on the site.

Work on the Second Renaissance Revival style hotel, designed by the Los Angeles architectural firm of Parkinson and Bergstrom, began in June 1909. Two years later, on June 9, 1911, the Hotel Utah opened for business. While the LDS Church was the primary stockholder, many Mormon and non-Mormon community and business leaders also purchased stock in the effort to provide the city with a first-class hotel. [3]

"The largest and finest bar in the West [was built] in the basement of the Hotel" to pay off a $2 million construction loan. The financing was secured by the LDS Church's presiding bishop, Charles W. Nibley, from New York financier Charles Baruch. Originally, the hotel allowed black employees, but no black guests. [4] This policy extended to famous entertainers. Lillian Evanti, Harry Belafonte, Marian Anderson, and Ella Fitzgerald were all denied hotel rooms. Anderson was eventually allowed to stay at the Hotel, on condition that she did not use the elevator and eat her meals in her hotel room. [5]

In 1947, the first non-white professional basketball player, Wataru Misaka, signed his first NBA contract at this hotel. At the time of his signing, according to Misaka, nonwhites were not allowed to stay in this hotel. [6]

The ten-story building has a concrete and steel structure and is covered with white glazed terra cotta and brick. Various additions and remodelings have occurred throughout the years, including a substantial expansion to the north and modifications to the roof-top dining facilities.

It was featured in the 1973 film "Harry in Your Pocket" starring James Coburn.

The building ceased operations as a hotel in August 1987. A major remodeling and adaptive reuse project to accommodate both community and church functions was completed in 1993. [7] Church leader Gordon B. Hinckley chose the name when he observed that there were many monuments to pioneer leader and Utah founder Brigham Young, but none to Joseph Smith.

The building was decorated with the words "SALT LAKE 2002" during the Winter Olympics.

2011 marked the celebration of 100 years since initial construction was completed on the Hotel Utah. [8]

Features

Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building LegacyTheaterSLC.jpg
Legacy Theater in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building

The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd is a 67-minute film shot in 65 mm and produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It depicts the life of Jesus in Jerusalem while depicting the events described in the Book of Mormon from approximately the same time period. The film's climax occurs after Christ's resurrection, when Jesus appears in the Americas. The movie was originally shown in the Legacy Theater on a 62x31 foot screen. It replaced Legacy: A Mormon Journey as the flagship JSMB feature in March 2000. The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd was later replaced in the theater by Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration , a film commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Joseph Smith.

Current use

The chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. LDS Chapel.jpg
The chapel in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

The building currently hosts:

Related Research Articles

In Mormonism, the restoration refers to a return of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of Mormonism, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Latter Day Saint movement</span> Religious movement

The Latter Day Saint movement is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Joseph Smith in the late 1820s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple Square</span> United States historic place

Temple Square is a 10-acre (4.0 ha) complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. The usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities that are immediately adjacent to Temple Square. Contained within Temple Square are the Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake Assembly Hall, the Seagull Monument, and two visitors' centers. The square was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1964, recognizing the Mormon achievement in the settlement of Utah.

<i>Legacy: A Mormon Journey</i> 1993 American film

Legacy: A Mormon Journey is a 53-minute film produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Legacy depicts the life of two recent converts from the 1830s to the 1890s. The characters are fictional, though the events they experience are historical.

Merrill Boyd Jenson is an American composer and arranger who has composed film scores for over thirty films including Emma Smith: My Story, Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration, The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd, Legacy, Harry's War, and Windwalker. Many of the films Jenson composed music for were directed by Academy Award-winning director Kieth Merrill. Jenson has also composed several concert productions including a symphony that premiered at Carnegie Hall. Additionally, he has composed music for many television commercials including the acclaimed Homefront ads, music for three outdoor pageants, and several albums. Jenson lives in Provo, Utah with his wife Betsy Lee Jenson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eldred G. Smith</span> American Leader in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1907–2013)

Eldred Gee Smith was the patriarch to the church of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1947 to 1979. From 1979 to his death he was the patriarch emeritus of the church. He was the oldest and longest-serving general authority in the history of the church, although he had not been active in that capacity from 1979 to his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hyrum G. Smith</span> American Mormon leader

Hyrum Gibbs Smith was Presiding Patriarch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1912 until his death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Jenson</span>

Andrew Jenson, born Anders Jensen, was a Danish immigrant to the United States who acted as an Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for much of the early-20th century. Jenson also served the church as president of the Scandinavian Mission.

Junius Free Wells was the first head of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, an organization which is today the Young Men organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also was a magazine founder, an author, and the chief organizer of the LDS Church's efforts to build a number of historical monuments in the early 1900s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phineas Young</span> American Mormon missionary

Phineas Howe Young was a prominent early convert in the Latter Day Saint movement and was later a Mormon pioneer and a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Phineas Young was an older brother of Brigham Young, who was the president of the LDS Church and the first governor of the Territory of Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Church Administration Building</span> Office building in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

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In the theology of the Latter Day Saint movement, an endowment refers to a gift of "power from on high", typically associated with the ordinances performed in Latter Day Saint temples. The purpose and meaning of the endowment varied during the life of movement founder Joseph Smith. The term has referred to many such gifts of heavenly power, including the confirmation ritual, the institution of the High Priesthood in 1831, events and rituals occurring in the Kirtland Temple in the mid-1830s, and an elaborate ritual performed in the Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s.

Although the media has always been important in the church's growth, public relations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has become increasingly important since the church's growth internationally after World War II. By the 1960s and 1970s, the LDS Church was no longer primarily an Intermountain West-based church, or even a United States-based church. The church's organized public relations efforts have deep roots. The Bureau of Information, the predecessor of the Temple Square Visitors Centers was started on Temple Square in Salt Lake City with Le Roi Snow, a son of Lorenzo Snow, as the first director.

The name of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is derived from an 1838 revelation church founder Joseph Smith said he received. Church leaders have long emphasized the church's full name, and have resisted the application of informal or shortened names, especially those which omit "Jesus Christ". These informal and shortened names include the "Mormon Church", the "LDS Church", and the "Church of the Latter-day Saints".

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John Lyman Smith was an American politician and Mormon missionary. He served as a member of the House of Representatives for Iron County, Utah, in the Utah territorial legislature from 1852 to 1853, and for Great Salt Lake County, Utah, from 1853 to 1855. Cousin of the founder of the Latter Day Saint Movement, Joseph Smith, Smith was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who traveled to the Salt Lake Valley with his family and other Mormon pioneers in 1846. His father, John Smith, served as the fourth Presiding Patriarch for the LDS Church from 1847 to 1854. Additionally, he served two missions as the mission president for the LDS Church in Switzerland and Italy from May 1855 to June 1858 and September 1860 to December 1863, respectively. After his missions, he served in various civic and ecclesiastical positions in Utah.

References

  1. 1 2 "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "The Beehive House, the Lion House, and the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Will Undergo Renovations Beginning in 2023". Church Newsroom. Salt Lake City. November 29, 2022. Retrieved April 12, 2023.
  3. http://db3-sql.staff.library.utah.edu/lucene/Manuscripts/null/Ms0469.xml/complete%5B%5D
  4. Joseph Bauman (March 16, 2009). "The old Hotel Utah has long storied history in Salt Lake". Deseret News.
  5. Ronald G. Coleman. "Blacks in Utah History: An Unknown Legacy". Archived from the original on December 30, 2017. Retrieved November 30, 2017.
  6. "ESPNMAG.com - Basketball's Jackie Robinson". www.espn.com. Retrieved June 5, 2020.
  7. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]
  8. "Hotel Utah 100 Year Anniversary". Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved July 1, 2011.
  9. 1 2 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]
  10. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]
  11. 1 2 "Other Organs". www.mormontabernaclechoir.org.
  12. Media, American Public. "Pipedreams #0525: Some Latter Day Sounds". pipedreams.publicradio.org.
  13. "Salt Lake City's peregrine falcons". wildlife.utah.gov. Archived from the original on July 9, 2009. Retrieved July 11, 2009.
Preceded by Tallest Building in Salt Lake City
1911 - 1912
56m
Succeeded by