Philadelphia Pennsylvania Mormon Temple

April 6, 2009 by Guest Author
Filed under Temples in America

On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced the construction of a new temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It is assumed that the Church will follow the pattern it has established for temple building in downtown areas of large cities, such as Hong Kong and New York City, and that the temple will be a multi-level building with offices and a visitors’ center on the lower floors and ordinance rooms on the top floors.

This will be the first LDS temple to be built in Pennsylvania.

Several significant events in Church history took place in Pennsylvania including much of the translation of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of priesthood authority. The Church was first established in Pennsylvania in 1839—growing to 450 members by October 1840. Membership fell following the migration of the Saints to Salt Lake but grew again as Mormon European emigrants arrived. Eventually the first stake was organized in 1960 with 1,100 members located in congregations in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Today there are nearly 48,000 members in Pennsylvania alone who will use the Philly Mormon Temple (LDS Newsroom, October, 2008).

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced the site for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple. The specific location is 1739 Vine Street in downtown Philadelphia.

The site is adjacent to the Vine Street Expressway and neighboring Courts Building and situated diagonally across the street from Logan Square, a prominent Philadelphia landmark.

The groundbreaking ceremony for the Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple took place on Saturday, September 17, 2011—the 224th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall. Attendance at the temple site was by invitation only. The event warranted a long story in the Philadelphia Enquirer.