Construction will begin soon on the Toronto Ontario Temple, the 45th temple in the Church, to be located on a site in a wooded slope just north of Brampton, a suburb about 20 miles west of downtown Toronto.
Bids are scheduled to be let later this month, and construction is expected to start shortly thereafter, announced Elder Wm. Grant Bangerter of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy and executive director of the Temple Department.The site for the temple was announced June 22, 1986, by President Thomas S. Monson, second counselor in the First Presidency, while he was in Toronto organizing the 1,600th stake of the Church. President Monson, assisted by Elder M. Russell Ballard of the Council of the Twelve and Elder John K. Carmack of the First Quorum of the Seventy, broke ground for the temple on Oct. 10, 1987.
The Toronto Ontario Temple district, which stretches from eastern Canada down into the United States, encompasses "the cradle of Mormonism." Included in the district are areas rich in Church history such as Sharon, Vt., birthplace of the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Hill Cumorah and the Sacred Grove, near Palmyra, N.Y. Also in the temple district is Kirtland, Ohio, where the Church was centered in the early and mid-1830s and where a temple was dedicated in 1836.
Toronto itself is rich in Church history. In 1832, Elder Parley P. Pratt and five other members of the Quorum of the Twelve began preaching in Canada about two years after the Church was organized. Elder Pratt did much of his missionary work in Toronto, then a city of about 9,000 residents (the city now has a population of about 3 million).
John Taylor, who became the third president of the Church, was baptized by Elder Pratt on May 9, 1836, in Black Creek in what is now North York in suburban Toronto. Mary Fielding, who married the Prophet Joseph's brother, Hyrum, was baptized in Toronto. Mary Fielding Smith was the mother of Church president Joseph F. Smith and the grandmother of another president, Joseph Fielding Smith.
Derek F. Metcalfe, managing director of operations for the Temple Department, said the Toronto temple will be similar in design to the Denver Colorado Temple.
Inscriptions on the exterior will be in English and French.
Construction of the temple reflects growth of the Church in recent years. "In the first 150 years that the Church was organized, there were 19 temples dedicated, and the following 19 temples were dedicated in a six-year period,: said Metcalfe. "We've gone on, and it's interesting to see the increase in temples.
Growth also has been steady in the Toronto area. The first stake was created Aug. 14, 1960, while President Monson was president of the Canada Mission. It was the 300th stake in the Church.
The Toronto Ontario Temple district has 23 stakes (see accompanying box) and more than 63,000 members.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The stakes served
Akron Ohio
Bloomfield Hills Michigan
Brampton Ontario
Buffalo New York
Cleveland Ohio
Dartmouth Nova Scotia
Erie Pennsylvania
Grand Blanc Michigan
Hamilton Ontario
Ithaca New York
Kirtland Ohio
Kitchener Ontario
London Ontario
Montpelier Vermont
Montreal Quebec
Montreal Quebec Mt. Royale
Oshawa Ontario
Ottawa Ontario
Rochester New York
Rochester New York Palmyra
Syracuse New York
Toronton Ontario
Westland Michigan
