OGDEN, Utah — For more than a century, the Ogden Valley Deaf Branch building has stood as a sacred place for deaf members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
On Sunday, July 27, Latter-day Saints and friends gathered one more time in the restored 1917 meetinghouse — many with tears in their eyes and hands raised in love and testimony.
The historic building, the first Latter-day Saint chapel — and one of the first buildings in the United States — designed specifically for individuals who are deaf, was recently renovated for a new purpose.
It will serve as the meetinghouse for the Church’s Water Tower Correctional Branch — offering a sanctuary for those rebuilding their lives after incarceration.
Before that next chapter moves forward, this day belonged to the Deaf community whose members once called this building theirs.
“Welcome home,” said Doug Stringham, a member of the Sign Language Board of Accessibility for the Church, his hands emotional and expressive in American Sign Language. “Here was a place different from any other hearing Church you could find.”
Emily Utt, historic sites curator for the Church History Department, said, “For more than 80 years, this place was home for the Deaf community.”
A chapel built by — and for — the deaf
Dedicated in 1917, the Ogden Valley Deaf Branch building was envisioned and advocated for by Church members Max Woodbury and Elsie M. Christiansen, who worked just blocks away at the Utah School for the Deaf.
After years of petitions and letters, President Joseph F. Smith and other Church leaders approved the project and funded it entirely from general Church funds — a rare act at a time when local members contributed for buildings.
Architect Leslie S. Hodgson, known for designing prominent local buildings like Peery’s Egyptian Theater, worked closely with Deaf leaders to design a chapel where communication through sign language could flourish.
Elder Jason C. Jensen, an Area Seventy and sign language representative on the Church’s Sign Language Board of Accessibility, presided at the meeting and represented the Utah Area presidency. He quoted Doctrine and Covenants 90:11, “Every man shall hear the fulness of the gospel in his own tongue, and in his own language.”
“This building is a manifestation of that prophetic vision and mandate,” he testified.
Elevated pews, sloped floors, natural lighting and wide sight lines make it a sacred and accessible space for Deaf worship.
Utt said, “Starting in the 1840s, there have been deaf Latter-day Saints living in Utah, but they were always in borrowed space. It was never a place of their own.”
This building changed that.
‘This is our home’
For decades, deaf Latter-day Saints traveled from across Utah — and beyond — to worship in this inclusive building.
Every Deaf unit in the Church today can trace its roots to this branch, explained Utt. “The first Deaf Primary, the first Deaf Sunday School, the first Deaf roadshow, the first Deaf banquet.”
Elder Jensen explained there now are just over 25 Deaf units throughout the Church.
Gaye Collins Berg, who first came to the branch as a young girl in the 1950s, recalled walking from the Deaf school dorms to the chapel for Primary, Mutual and Sunday services. “We had so many social activities,” she said. “It was our life.”
Mark Erwin, who served as branch president for 14 years, explained the building holds generations of memory.
“As soon as I walked in, I felt the history — the spirit," he said, adding that in this building, his community’s history is etched.
“This is our home,” he said. “I feel this close connection of family and being together and just knowing that we are all the same. We have the same culture, same communications, the same language. It’s just wonderful.”
In 1999, the growing Deaf branch relocated to a larger, more accessible meetinghouse. As second counselor in the branch presidency at that time, Erwin conducted the final meeting in the hallowed building.
“We understood the need to move,” Erwin said. “But there were a lot of hard feelings, lots of tears, as we felt the loss of this building. That time was really, really hard.”
A new chapter of ministry
Since 2001, the building has served a different community: formerly incarcerated individuals — a place where men and women seeking spiritual renewal after prison can gather, worship and heal.
In 2024, though, the building was closed to allow for much-needed refurbishments.
“It’s much more than construction, it’s a restoration,” said Elder Jensen. “Not just of a building but a legacy.”
As the Deaf community once did, correctional members often feel unseen or forgotten. President Charles Adams serves as the branch president of the Water Tower Correctional Branch. He and his wife, Diane Adams, have watched hearts soften and lives change in that building.
“They call me ‘grandma’ or ‘mom,’” said Sister Adams. “This is the only place where they’re really, truly loved and not judged.”
‘Access to Jesus Christ’
Natural light, raised pews, lighted doorbells instead of chimes — every detail was built for access, explained Elder Jensen, referencing Mark 2 in the New Testament. He described four friends who lowered a paralyzed man through the roof to reach the Savior.
“They uncovered the roof for access,” Elder Jensen said. “Greater access in this building is symbolic of that access to Jesus Christ. This building is much more than a building. It’s a sanctuary.”
During Sunday’s sacrament meeting — the first Deaf sacrament meeting held in the building in 25 years — hands signed as hymns were sung, and tears streamed down faces both old and young.
Darlene Cochran, a third-generation deaf Latter-day Saint, remembered being taught to pay tithing in this building by President Woodbury, the branch’s first leader, who served for more than 50 years. “He taught me about the gospel. I’ll never forget it,” she said.
She wants deaf Latter-day Saints everywhere to “keep going, keep learning the gospel.”
“Everywhere I go I’m able to see members of the Church that are deaf,” she said. “We’re so lucky to have the gospel. We’re so lucky that we have a church to attend together.”
Legacy lives on
“The best story here is really about the community,” Utt said. “All of us want a place to belong. All of us want to find a group of people, a location that we can call home.”
As the Deaf community continues to grow and worship in new spaces, and as the correctional branch steps into a new season of ministry, the spirit of the building endures — not only in bricks and architecture, but also in hearts, hands and stories.
President Jimmy Adair, current president of the Ogden Valley Branch (Sign Language), stood quietly in the chapel he first entered as a 24-year-old in 1984, acknowledging where the Latter-day Saint Deaf community was then, and now.
“In 1917, this was the first Deaf branch in the world,” he said; now there are sign language wards in Riverside, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Salt Lake City.
Looking around the renovated space, he smiled and said, “God loves everyone.”
