Note: This article was originally published in November 2020.

Latter-day Saint eyes have been on Temple Square for the last ten months during the Salt Lake Temple renovation, but a recent article from Church History takes readers back to the 1800s, with historical architectural drawings and photographs. Here's a preview of what you can find. 

The Church History Catalog includes scanned versions of many original architectural drawings, dating from 1853–1893. Below is one drawing from March 1855 featuring the tablet in the east center tower and a first-story window.

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This photograph from 1884 shows the temple in progress. If you look closely you can see a line of boys standing outside the temple wall.

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This photo shows seven men in front of the Salt Lake Temple in 1890. One of the men, Carl August Ek, worked on the interior of the Salt Lake Temple as a plasterer. 

On April 6, 1892, nearly 30,000 people attended the laying of the Salt Lake Temple capstone. This photo shows some of those people gathered around the temple.

Read the full article and find more pictures from Church History. 

Forty Years: The Saga of Building the Salt Lake Temple

Want to learn more about the construction of the Salt Lake Temple? Forty Years: The Saga of Building the Salt Lake Temple, written by master storyteller Mark Henshaw, tells the narrative of the building of that iconic temple—a place of worship and refuge forty years in the making.

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