The 54th operating temple of the Church and the first in Alaska will open to the public during a two-and-a-half-day open house this winter.
The First Presidency has announced that the open house for the Anchorage Alaska Temple is scheduled for Dec. 29-30 (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and a half day on Dec. 31 (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.). Tickets to the open house are not required. Following the open house, the new temple will be dedicated in seven sessions Jan 9-10, 1999.The Anchorage temple will begin operating on a scheduled basis Jan. 11.
The 7,000-square-foot edifice, one of the new smaller-scale temples, will serve 24,000 Latter-day Saints in Alaska and in the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada.
This temple will include such features as a stone-clad exterior, custom art glass windows and statue of the Angel Moroni atop the spire.
President Gordon B. Hinckley announced at the October 1997 general conference plans to build the Anchorage Alaska Temple. Ground was broken for it on April 17, 1998, by Elder F. Melvin Hammond of the Seventy, then-first counselor in the North America Northwest Area presidency. Elder Hammond is now president of the Northwest area. (Please see April 25, 1998, Church News.)