Architect of The Salt Lake City Temple

To watch on Youtube click here: https://youtu.be/AkT_HW097Uo

To listen on Spotify click here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qMr3iTULGMFH6UhRDcc90?si=MyL6TKRnTu-2B9SdLRvPjQ

The Saints built the beautiful Salt Lake temple through sacrifice, trials, and hardships. The Temple took forty years to build this magnificent building. When the Saints first arrived to the Salt Lake Valley and planned to build this Temple they did not know the hardships they would be required to endure. Even before the first spade of dirt was turned, there were issues as to who would be the architect. William Weeks, the architect of the Nauvoo Temple was the first and obvious choice to build the Salt Lake Temple but William Weeks had different ideas. The Lord, knowing the needs of the Saints had another man prepared to do the work. Truman O. Angell, was chosen and called by God, to be the architect of the Salt Lake Temple.

Truman O. Angell, was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1810. He was the third son of seven children and the brother-in-law to the Prophet Brigham Young. Truman had learned carpentry and joinery as a teenager. Trumans father was very cruel to his mother and this resulted in Truman his sister and mother moving to New York, near the Pennsylvania border. In New York they were converted to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and were baptized in 1832. Trumans sister moved to Kirtland Ohio to gather with the Saints soon after her baptism, and Truman with his wife followed in 1835, where he contributed to the building of the Kirtland Temple, as a joiner.

Truman continued on with the Saints from Kirtland to Missouri and then to Nauvoo, where he assisted in the construction of the Nauvoo Temple. Truman was called to be the superintendent of the joiners on the Nauvoo Temple. As superintended he worked closely with the architect of the Nauvoo Temple, William Weeks. Through this experience he was introduced to the principles of architecture.

Truman never planned on being the architect to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When the circumstances arose, the faithful Truman accepted the responsibility and rose to the occasion. Truman did not feel confident in his abilities, but with the help of God, Truman knew that it all was possible.

William Weeks Left Salt Lake

William Weeks, the architect of the Nauvoo Temple was born in Massachusetts in 1813. He learned architecture from his father. They moved to Chicago in 1835 where Weeks joined the Church. He was with the Saints during the Missouri persecutions and moved with the Saints to Nauvoo Illinois.

When Joseph Smith announced building of the Nauvoo Temple, he invited any men with architectural skills to offer designs for the Temple. Joseph Smith loved the design submitted by William Weeks. Joseph "bear-hugged" the architect and exclaimed "You are the man I want."

Joseph and Weeks worked together to build the Nauvoo Temple. Joseph would explain to Weeks what he had seen in vision and Weeks would turn it into blueprints. At times the men would clash on details of the Temple, like Joseph insisted on circular windows, but Weeks said "round windows in the broad side of a building were a violation of all the known rules of architecture and he contended that they should be semicircular- that the building was too low for round windows." Joseph cared nothing for the "known rules of architecture" and countered with "I have seen in vision the splendid appearance of that building illuminated, and will have it built according to the pattern shown me."

After the death of Joseph Smith and Weeks left with the Saints to settle in Salt Lake Valley. It does appear that Brigham Young intended to work with Weeks in the Salt Lake saying "Just as soon as I find a spotI want Brother Weeks to dig deep and lay the foundation of the temple for I intend by the help of my brethren to build a temple unto the Lord just as soon as the Saints by a united exertion can complete it."Weeks arrived in Salt Lake on October 2, more than a month after Brigham Young had left back to Winter Quarters, it was during this time when William Weeks rebelled.

It is unknown why Weeks disaffected but he seems to have been unhappy with the strict rules Brigham had established for crossing the plains. Weeks wintered with the Saints but left for the East in the Spring. Weeks declared that the Saints would never build at temple without him. Brigham disagreed, assuring the people "we can built a temple without his assistance although he [Weeks] says we cannot."

Weeks and his wife left for Wisconsin, taking with them all the architectural drawings and blueprints for the Nauvoo Temple. Brigham felt that Weeks had left him and the Twelve no alternative and they excommunicated the Weeks family in October 1848.

Brigham knew they had some time to find a new architect, because there were more pressing needs with settling Salt Lake that would first needed to be taken care of.

Calling Truman Angell as Church Architect

The Latter-day Saints were not in a great hurry to find a Church architect in the beginning, because they were focused on building like homes, barns and shops, but as time when on the Church was in need of larger building which would require an architect. Heber C. Kimball was the person that urged Brigham Young to select Truman O. Angell to replace William Weeks.

Brigham ultimately accepted his friends recommendation and appointed Angell to Church Architect on January 26, 1850.

The first buildings designed by Truman were not complicated structures. The Council House was a simple square with a cupola on top, very similar to the courthouses found back East. Then, the Adobe Tabernacle was not significantly more complex. It was a rectangle 126 feet long and 64 feet wide, for 11,000 square feet of floor space. The trusses of the ceiling were a bit challenging to solve , and Truman tested them by building small models before ordering their full-scale construction. Construction on the Tabernacle began on May 21, 1851 and was completed in less than a year. Two thousand five hundred Saints could fit under its roof. In future years it would be torn down being replaced by the Assembly Hall, but for two decades it served its purpose well. The Adobe Tabernacle proved that Truman was a capable architect, and he would be asked to do much more.

Truman proved that with the Lords help anything is possible, with time and great effort he designed and built beautiful building including the Lion House, the Beehive house, the Utah Territorial Statehouse and two temples of the Lord, the Salt Lake Temple and the St. George Temple. He did not choose this calling for himself, but rose to the occasion.

Alma 26:12

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all  things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever."

Perhaps the most fitting characterization of Angell’s place in Mormon history was one made by himself in a letter to President Taylor. After reviewing many events in his life, Angell modestly wrote that he had been called an architect “perhaps for want of a better man.” [106] He knew that there had been stronger, healthier, better-trained, and more talented men than himself in the Church from time to time. But William Weeks and William Ward left the Saints to go elsewhere, William Folsom arrived in the Valley late and found the job too frustrating and limiting, and Truman, Jr., had neither the requisite humility nor devotion to the Church to replace his father. Only Truman O. Angell, Sr., had been willing to endure years of frustration and friction with his associates, striving to “suit the authorities of the Church” while receiving little recognition and inadequate compensation, and persisting for decades in supervising even the smallest construction details of a single building. His contribution in providing order and continuity to this important project was not the work of an architectural genius but rather the humble offering of an uncommonly loyal and devoted servant of the Church. As an architect he had achieved more than he aspired to do simply by doing what he regarded as his duty. For this monumental job, the Church had never found a “better man.” In many ways, Truman O. Angell’s life had been a testimony to the sincerity of his exclamation in another letter to President Taylor, “Oh that I could go to my Father in Heaven and have Him say, ‘Well and faithful have you been over a few things. Enter my rest.’”

References:

"Forty Years, the Saga of the Building The Salt Lake Temple" by Mark Henshaw p. 29- 31, 50-

https://rsc.byu.edu/supporting-saints-life-stories-nineteenth-century-mormons/truman-o-angell