Temple Square

In July 1847 Brigham Young led an advance company of Latter-day Saint pioneers out of the Wasatch and into the Salt Lake Valley, seeking a refuge far from the persecution the church had faced in the East and Midwest. Within days of arriving, Young identified this block as the site for a temple and the center of the new settlement, and the pioneers set to work surveying a broad, orderly grid of streets radiating from it.

That decision shaped everything that followed. Salt Lake City's famously wide streets and its address system, which counts blocks out from Temple Square in each direction, both trace back to this founding moment. Long before the pioneers, this valley was home to the Northwestern Shoshone, Ute, and Goshute peoples, who lived in and traveled the region and retain ties to it today, a deeper history that underlies the pioneer story told on the square.

The Salt Lake Temple is the enduring symbol of the square and of the pioneer effort. Ground was broken in 1853, but construction stretched on for about forty years, finally completed in 1893, an extraordinary span reflecting the difficulty of the work. The great granite blocks were quarried from Little Cottonwood Canyon to the southeast and hauled to the site, at first by ox teams over many days and later by rail.

The pioneers labored on the temple through hardship, and at one point buried the foundations and disguised the site as a plowed field to protect it during a period of conflict, then dug it back up and pressed on. The finished temple, with its castellated walls and cluster of spires topped by a golden statue, stands as a monument to pioneer persistence. Its interior is reserved for sacred ordinances and is not open to visitors, but its exterior and grounds are there for all to see.

Beside the temple stands the Salt Lake Tabernacle, an unusual domed building completed in the 1860s, its great oval roof built by pioneer craftsmen without steel, using wooden trusses pinned together and, in places, bound with rawhide. Its acoustics are legendary, so fine that a pin dropped at the front can be heard at the back, and it houses a large and famous pipe organ.

The Tabernacle is best known as the home of the Tabernacle Choir, one of the most recognized choirs in the world, which has performed and broadcast from here for generations. Public rehearsals and performances let visitors hear the choir and organ in the hall built for them. Between the temple and the Tabernacle, the square offers a remarkable window into both the faith and the craft of the people who built Salt Lake City.

Beyond its landmark buildings, Temple Square is simply a beautiful place to walk. The grounds are planted with seasonal gardens and flowers, threaded with paths and fountains, and open to everyone regardless of faith. Visitor buildings and viewpoints around the block help tell the story of the pioneers and the city they founded, and the atmosphere is calm and welcoming in the middle of a busy downtown.

The square does undergo major renovation and seismic upgrading from time to time, so parts of it may be fenced or closed during a visit, and it is worth checking what is open before you go. Even so, a stroll around the block, past the granite temple and the domed Tabernacle, remains one of the essential things to do in Salt Lake City and the best way to feel the origins of the city all around you.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.