This Week in Church history LEAD} 100 years ago - The work of erecting the Brigham Young statue in downtown Salt Lake City was under way, the June 3, 1897, issue of the Deseret News reported.
"A gang of men begun work yesterday, removing the lawn sod from a triangular plot of ground at the southeast corner of the Temple block," according to the article. "The dimensions of the plot being thus cleared are about four rods on each side, two of which are bounded by the wall, and the third by a graveled walk."
It was expected that about four rods of the Temple Square wall would be removed in each direction.
The sod was removed for the excavation of a six-foot foundation. "On this foundation of massive masonry will be laid a broad base of Utah granite, and on this base will rest the pedestal, also of Utah granite, which will support the statue. This pedestal will weigh about thirty tons," the article continued.
At a later time, bas relief carvings of "figures typical of features connected with the early settlement of Utah" were to be carved into the pedestal.
The statue would be in place for the Jubilee celebration on July 24 of the first pioneers' arrival in the Salt Lake Valley.
It was reported that the Brigham Young statue, at the time the new construction was begun, was standing on a temporary pedestal.
Quote from the past
"We profess again to be the Church of God, and to be the kingdom of God; in fact we have any amount of profession; but the question with me sometimes is, how near we live up to our professions, and adhere to the principles that we profess to believe in, and to be governed by." - President John Taylor, in an address delivered in the Assembly Hall on Feb. 11, 1883
