"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."
There are now 144 temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints operating worldwide, but when Joseph Smith first dictated the words of this revelation in December 1832, the Saints had never constructed such a building. In response to this revelation, the Saints worked and sacrificed to build a temple in Kirtland, Ohio — to construct a building that was known at the time simply as “the House of the Lord.”
Significant details about the construction and development of the House of the Lord are now becoming widely available. The Joseph Smith Papers project is currently compiling and publishing all documents created, authorized or owned by Joseph Smith, and many of these documents, including revelations, architectural plans, city plats and letters, demonstrate the centrality of the House of the Lord in Joseph Smith’s life and in the lives of members of the early church.