Manti Utah Temple

1888 Dedication of the Manti Utah Temple

At the start of October 1877, over five months after the Manti Utah Temple site was dedicated, 107 people were working on constructing the temple. Some workers lived in the city of Ephraim, so they walked seven miles from Ephraim to Manti every Monday morning then walked home every Saturday night.

The temple and its furnishings cost a combined $991,991.81 — an amount worth over $10 million when the temple was rededicated in 1985. Starting in 1877, Latter-day Saints within the temple district donated 50 cents or offered 50-cents worth of commodities every month for 11 years. Eggs laid by hens on Sunday were called “temple eggs” and donated to the bishops’ storehouse.

A private dedication was held for the Manti Utah Temple on May 17, 1888. President Wilford Woodruff, the senior Apostle after the death of President John Taylor, presided at this dedication and offered the prayer. He was joined by Elders Lorenzo Snow, George Q. Cannon, Brigham Young Jr. and Heber J. Grant of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other selected Church leaders.

The house of the Lord was dedicated publicly on May 21, 1888. Elder Lorenzo Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles read President Woodruff's dedicatory prayer. The public dedication was held inside the main assembly room on the upper floor of the temple and was filled to capacity.

In the dedicatory prayer, President Woodruff pleaded for the temple to be “as one of the gates of heaven, opening into the straight and narrow path that leads to endless lives and eternal dominion.”

Read the dedicatory prayer of the Manti Utah Temple here.

1985 Rededication of the Manti Utah Temple

The temple was closed in fall 1981 for renovations to modernize the old building by adding upgrades like air conditioning, plumbing and new sealing rooms. Latter-day Saints offered their talents to renovate the building, including 64 sisters from nearby stakes who spent a year making needlepoint upholstery for an altar and 30 chairs in a sealing room.

Almost a century after the first dedication, Church President Gordon B. Hinckley rededicated the Manti temple on June 14, 1985.

In the dedicatory prayer, President Hinckley said, “The riches of eternity have been showered upon generations of Thy saints who have here partaken of the everlasting promises given in Thy house. The benefits and blessings of these same ordinances have extended to great concourses beyond the veil that those in that sphere also might go forward on the way of immortality and eternal life.”

Read the rededication prayer of the Manti Utah Temple here.

2019 Closure of the Manti Utah Temple

On April 7, 2019, during the Sunday afternoon session of April 2019 general conference, Church President Russell M. Nelson announced that pioneer-era temples of the Church would undergo renovations. "Efforts will be made to preserve the unique historicity of each temple wherever possible," he said in his address, "preserving the inspiring beauty and unique craftsmanship of generations long-since passed."

Two years later, on May 1, 2021, President Nelson announced modified plans for the Manti temple's renovation via a prerecorded video at a press conference. The conference, held inside the Manti Tabernacle, also announced that a house of the Lord would be built for nearby Ephraim, Utah.

The temple is currently under renovations for construction that started on Oct. 1, 2021. It is scheduled to be rededicated Sunday, April 21, 2024.

The Manti Utah Temple was announced by President Brigham Young on June 25, 1875, and the site was dedicated for construction on April 25, 1877. President Wilford Woodruff wrote the temple’s dedicatory prayer, which was read by Elder Lorenzo Snow of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on May 21, 1888.

After major renovations that started in 1981, President Gordon B. Hinckley rededicated the house of the Lord on June 14, 1985. The Manti temple was temporarily closed in October 2021 for refurbishment. After a public open house from March 14 to April 5, 2024, it is scheduled to be rededicated in a single session on Sunday, April 21, 2024.

Architecture and Design of the Manti Utah Temple 

The Manti Utah Temple covers an area of 74,792 square feet and sits on a 27-acre site. The east tower, the highest point on the temple, rises 179 feet high. A castellated style reflects construction influences of Gothic Revival, French Renaissance Revival, French Second Empire and colonial architecture.

The exterior is made of cream-colored oolite limestone excavated from the same hill the temple is built on. A tower rises above both short sides of the rectangular temple, with a domed cupola above each tower. Rows of arched windows circle around the temple.

Inside the building are a baptistry, a celestial room, four ordinance rooms and eight sealing rooms. Both towers hold a spiral staircase, one staircase leading to an endowment room and the other leading to small sealing rooms. The staircases, built without a center post to support them, were referred to as “an engineering marvel” by President Gordon B. Hinckley.

In November 2009 general conference, Elder L. Tom Perry shared a story of how the temple’s interior ceiling came to be. The assignment to build the temple’s roof was given to fine carpenters from Norway. Although they had never built a roof before, they had experience building ships. They decided to design plans for a ship and then turn the plans upside down to make a roof.
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