Small Temple Plan

On December 27, 1832—two years after the organization of the Latter Day Saint church—the movement's founder, Joseph Smith, reported receiving a revelation that called upon church members to restore the practice of temple worship. The Latter Day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio were commanded to:

"Establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God."

Latter-day Saints view temples as the fulfillment of a prophecy found in (KJV).

The Kirtland Temple was the first temple of the Latter Day Saint movement and the only temple completed in Smith's lifetime. Its unique design was replicated on a larger scale with the Nauvoo Temple and in subsequent temples built by the church. As the needs of the church have changed, so has Temple architecture—from large castellic structures adorned with celestial symbols, to smaller, simpler designs, often derived from a standard set of plans.

The Kirtland Temple, built in Kirtland, Ohio, was not designed as a church or cathedral. It was a house of learning, where the School of the Prophets could meet. This temple was not built to accommodate the endowment ceremony, which was taught later. It has no baptistry, as the doctrine of baptism for the dead was not yet practiced. The structure has two unique sets of pulpits, representing the Aaronic Priesthood and the Melchizedek Priesthood. Truman O. Angell recorded in his journal that about this time Frederick G. Williams, one of President Smith's counselors, came into the temple during construction and related the following:

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