Kirtland Temple

The Kirtland Temple is the oldest and original temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and serves to this day the fellowship of Christ as a church. It was built from 1833 to 1836 in Kirtland, Ohio, near the shores of Lake Erie, at the present boundary of Greater Cleveland. Since the entry into the National Register of Historic Places in 1969, he is a listed building, he is also recognized as a National Historic Landmark since 1977.

Building

The temple is a three storey building in the style of early Victorian architecture, with styling cues from the Federal-style combined with neo-classicism and neo-Gothic details.

Construction

The rectangular layout is 18x24 meters, the building is in an east-west direction oriented with the entrance facing east. The ridge is crowned by a tower with an octagonal lantern and a domed hood. The exterior walls are erected unusual for the period and the region of sandstone, the facade provided with a circulating under the umbrella Friesen is plastered. In the white exterior plaster shards were originally incorporated of crushed glass and porcelain, to glisten in the sunlight and to serve the church as jewelry. The corners of the building and the Faschen the doors and pointed-arch windows are constructed with hewn stones. The gables and the turrets are made of wood frame construction. They are clad with wooden slats and painted white. The roof was originally covered with handmade wooden shingles. You are not received

About a functionless basement to compensate for the slight slope are two floors, each with one, almost the entire basement fills meeting room. The ground floor is called the Church floor, the upper floor as Apostolic Floor. The attic was divided into five over the full width of the building reaching classrooms, each of which has a dormer window - per roof area.

Equipment

The equipment of the meeting rooms reflect the beliefs of early Mormonism. For the two levels of the priesthood, the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthood higher, nine increased pulpits are built on the two narrow sides. The pews are designed so that the worshipers can and East toggle between turning towards the west side.

Pulpits, benches, columns, and the establishment of the staircase are handmade from hardwoods in the region and embedded white. Columns and pulpits are adorned with carvings, ceiling edges and windows are fitted with stucco.

History

The followers of the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844) and in 1830 in upstate New York, which he founded Church of Christ ( 1838: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints - in short: Church of Jesus Christ LDS ) gathered from 1832 at the edge of the advancing westward settlement boundary. They wanted to build a new community in accordance with the beliefs that would have received Smith since he was 15 in the form of revelations. Smith and his followers were important shortly after the founding of the church, fled before commencing hostilities to Kirtland, near the Great Lakes. This was initially intended as a stopover, Smith held out his feelers out to Missouri in the local town of Independence, they were planning to start their Zion; a site for a future main temple was there also already purchased and dedicated. As construction in Independence but failed in various political and economic obstacles to Smith a few years later refocused on Kirtland, and there began the planning of a more modest temple. The guided by Smith community saw itself as a restoration movement that revived according to the revelations of Jesus Christ early Christianity.

The Kirtland Temple was built by them as the first Assembly building and consecrated on 27 March 1836. It was designed for approximately 1,000 members, the number of members but was exceeded shortly after completion.

On the ground floor the services were held, the hall upstairs was the formation of priests and the training of missionaries. In the school rooms in the attic of the High School of Kirtland, and the church offices were housed. Evening here gathered by the various colleges of the Church.

In the year after the completion of the temple of the financial collapse of the Kirtland Safety Society Bank own church brought tensions in religion and community. Most members coated with Joseph Smith to Missouri, first to Independence, then on to Far West, where Smith was detained for several months, and finally in 1839. Nauvoo in initially more tolerant state of Illinois In Nauvoo, Smith designed the beliefs of the Church fundamentally about, he led a plural marriage and baptism of the dead and changed the rituals in the temple according to models of Freemasons completely. Around 100 supporters who remained in Kirtland and used the temple according to the original traditions continue.

1844 Joseph Smith was imprisoned there again; in the Carthage Jail, Illinois, he was attacked and murdered by a lynch mob; Community split permanently. The vast majority preferred under the direction of Brigham Young across the Rocky Mountains and founded the city of Salt Lake City and the State of Deseret - later Utah. Most of the remaining in Illinois, Missouri and Kirtland followers organized themselves in 1860 under the direction of Smith born in Kirtland son Joseph Smith III in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints, according to the original faith directives without the reforms of Nauvoo.

The temple in Kirtland was used only sporadically by the few Mormons in the region, but also served the community for a variety of public purposes. Community meetings, school, music venues filled the rooms.

The Church in Utah was because of plural marriage under intense political pressure, which is why they officially abandoned in 1890. In the meantime, the Reorganized Church in Ohio led a process to ownership of the Kirtland Temple in 1880 and recognized as the legal successor of the original church Smiths. Your the temple and most documents from Smith's estate were awarded. The Reorganized Church was called in 2001 by the Community of Christ.

The temple today

The temple is owned by the Community of Christ, and is used as a house of worship. It is (unlike the temple of The Church of Jesus Christ LDS ) available to the public and can be visited. Since 1977 he has been recognized as a National Historic Landmark since 2007, provides a small museum the history of the religious community and the building.