For nearly 150 years, the St. George Temple has been the dominant man-made feature on our remarkable southwestern Utah skyline. When it was built by devoted members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 1870s, it stood alone, well south of the town center, surrounded by a sea of brush, creosote and crusted alkali. Church President Brigham Young rallied the impoverished new residents of southern Utah to come together in a spirit of unity and sacred devotion to build the Church’s first temple west of the Mississippi. They had little to offer but their specific skills and a willingness to work. The result of their sacrifice was a magnificent House of the Lord, a stunning physical structure, and a powerful monument to their faith.
Today the gleaming white edifice continues to inspire residents who look at it in wonder. And its imposing presence continues to turn the heads of millions of visitors who travel to southern Utah every year.
Brigham Young was prescient when, in May 1861, he called his carriage to stop atop a rise at the southern end of the valley. There he pronounced, “There will yet be built, between those volcanic ridges, a city with spires, towers and steeples, with homes containing many inhabitants.”
Late that same year more than 300 families made the trek from northern Utah to settle the town to be named St. George. They came with a charge to grow cotton, grapes and other crops viable in the temperate climate of a region soon to become known as Utah’s Dixie. They arrived with only what their wagons could carry. And what they found here was little more than rocks and dust. Within a decade, even in the depths of their deprived conditions, they began to use those rocks to build a magnificent, holy structure.
Since the St. George Temple was completed and dedicated in 1877, it has undergone several physical renovations, remodels and updates. Most were necessary due to natural deterioration with the passage of time. As the temple approached its centennial in 1977, Brigham Young’s 1861 pronouncement was coming to reality at a rapid pace. Not only was the temple now physically in the middle of a thriving city, it was the centerpiece of one of the country’s fastest growing communities. The stress on the physical structure to accommodate the growing number of patrons coming to conduct and participate in the sacred rites of the temple was ever growing.
In 1974–75, the temple was closed for 18 months for extensive remodeling, then rededicated in November 1975.
In May 2019, plans for another extensive renovation were announced. The temple closed November 4, 2019, as the process began to renovate not only the building, but the entire block upon which it stands. Four years later, with work now complete, the temple is ready to be rededicated and resume its sacred role in the lives of the thousands of Latter-day Saints who have eagerly awaited its reopening. Before the rededication on December 10, 2023, the interior of the temple has been open for eight weeks for public tours. This has been a unique, one-time opportunity for all members of the general public to walk through the temple’s magnificent halls and rooms.
This latest renovation assures the temple’s continued use by faithful Latter-day Saints who come daily by the hundreds to participate in sacred ordinances and enter into eternal covenants, including marriage for eternity. It is the longest operating temple of the Church and was the first built in Utah.
The luminous white building is a striking monument among the red rock ridges and the black volcanic mesas that characterize Utah’s Dixie. It represents the faith, courage, grit and reverence of the pioneers who built it, and the hope, commitment and continued devotion of future generations of Latter-day Saints.