NAUVOO, Illinois — Just beyond the welcome desk, the central focus of the new Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center comes into view.
At the end of the main corridor is an 1896 Tiffany art-glass panel, 7.5 by 10 feet, depicting Jesus Christ standing with arms extended — an image reminiscent of the Christus statue.
The hallway leading to the art-glass panel features a series of paintings by French artist James Tissot illustrating scenes of Jesus Christ at the temple.
The purpose of these and other elements at the new center is to help visitors easily connect early Church history and the Nauvoo Illinois Temple to Jesus Christ, said Matt Grow, a historian and managing director of the Church History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“As we went through the process and received counsel from Church leaders, the strong feeling was we need to connect the temple to our devotion to Jesus Christ,” Grow said. “We need our visitors to understand that everything about the temple, everything about the Saints’ original experience in Nauvoo, was because of their belief in Jesus Christ.”
It’s “a beautiful way” to welcome people in, said Juanita Coleman, manager of the Church’s Illinois historic sites.
“I think it will be awe-inspiring for people, and they will feel a connection to the Savior,” she said.
Elder Gerrit W. Gong of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles will dedicate the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center and restored Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home in a livestreamed meeting on Saturday, June 27, at 12:30 p.m. MDT. The center opens to the public beginning June 29.
Before the dedication, Grow and Coleman previewed the new Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center — its purpose, exhibits and other details — along with the restoration of the Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home.
History and purpose
Located on a prominent bend of the Mississippi River, Nauvoo, Illinois, served as headquarters of the early Church from 1839 to 1846. During those years, the Lord revealed the fullness of temple ordinances to the Prophet Joseph Smith.
After Joseph and his brother, Hyrum Smith, were martyred at the Carthage Jail on June 27, 1844, the Latter-day Saints made “exceptional physical, temporal and spiritual sacrifices” to complete the Nauvoo Temple so that some 6,000 members could receive temple ordinances before the temple was closed and the Saints were forced to vacate Nauvoo in 1846, Elder Quentin L. Cook of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said when dedicating the Temple District of Nauvoo in May 2021.
“These ordinances then sustained them through all the trials and tribulations they subsequently faced in their exodus to an unknown future,” Elder Cook said in 2021.
A fire and subsequent tornado destroyed the Nauvoo Temple.
On April 4, 1999, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that the Nauvoo Temple would be reconstructed on its original site. The rebuilt Nauvoo Illinois Temple was dedicated on June 27, 2002.
Years before the construction of the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center, an educational complex known as the Joseph Smith Academy, also referred to as the BYU Nauvoo Center, existed on the same location. Following the temple dedication in 2002, the academy was used as a temple visitors’ center until the aging structure was torn down in 2007.
Construction on this new temple visitors’ center began in July 2024.
Grow said that since the restoration of many buildings in Nauvoo, beginning in the 1950s and 1960s, the primary visitor experience has been focused on the area of the city called “the flats,” near the Mississippi River.
“The rebuilding of the Nauvoo Temple began to reorient the visitor experience to the higher ground in the city, known as ‘the bluff’ — and to the higher spiritual message of the eternal promises of the house of the Lord,” he said.
In 2021, Elder Cook dedicated the Temple District, which included newly restored and rebuilt historic homes with exhibits focused on what temple building and temple ordinances meant to the early Latter-day Saints.
“This new temple visitors’ center continues that theme, emphasizing how the temple was a central spiritual focus for Latter-day Saints in the 1840s,” Grow said. “We believe that this new visitors’ center will help those who come to Nauvoo to anchor their visit more in the spiritual message and promises of the temple.”
Inside the new visitors’ center
Admission to the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center is free and the experience is self-guided. Visitors can scan QR codes to learn more about each exhibit. Site missionaries are also available to answer questions.
Featured exhibits and displays include:
The art-glass panel and Tissot paintings: Titled “Come Unto Me,” the art-glass panel draws from Matthew 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
“Tiffany art-glass is layers of colored glass. It’s an amazing piece,” Coleman said. “There are 5,400 LED lights lighting up the art-glass.”
The six Tissot opaque watercolor paintings are:
- “They brought him to Jerusalem [into the temple], to present him to the Lord” (Luke 2:22).
- “They found him in the temple” (Luke 2:46).
- “He taught daily in the temple” (Luke 19:47).
- “The blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them” (Matthew 21:14).
- “The people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him” (Luke 21:38).
- “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephesians 2:20).
‘Cornerstone of Zion’: In Doctrine and Covenants 124:2, the Lord calls Nauvoo a “cornerstone of Zion.” An exhibit talks about Nauvoo as a “covenant community,” “temple city” and gathering place with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone (Ephesians 2:20). The cornerstone ceremony for the original Nauvoo Temple took place on April 6, 1841.
Nauvoo Temple sunstone and other historic artifacts: The sunstone is one of 30 carved limestone capitals that once adorned the original Nauvoo Temple. According to the display, only three have survived intact. The sunstone, part original, part restoration, is one of the most recognized symbols of the Nauvoo Temple and is on loan from the State of Illinois.
The sunstone is one of the decorative stones featured in a scaled-down replica of one of the Nauvoo Temple’s 54-foot-tall exterior columns, topped with a replica starstone and an original moonstone at the base.
A replica Nauvoo Temple weather vane and spire, replica baptismal font and other historic artifacts stand nearby.
New film and theater: A new Church film produced for the center’s 236-seat theater depicts the sacrifices early Saints made to build the original Nauvoo Temple in the 1840s so they could receive their sacred ordinances in the house of the Lord before the journey west.
“It’s a powerful film,” Coleman said. “To walk in and see the Savior and then watch how He worked with His people who were trying to live in a covenant community is a powerful message.”
Historic map: One display features a map of Nauvoo circa 1846, identifying notable locations such as the steamboat landing, properties of Joseph and Emma Smith, homes of the Apostles, where Church conferences and meetings were held, trades businesses, the temple quarry, the Carthage road and the pioneer trail, among others.
Family Discovery Room: In this activity area, murals and interactive displays teach children and adults about the Creation of the world, the plan of salvation and making covenants, the history of the building of the Nauvoo Temple and the purpose of temples that dot the earth today.
“All we do in the Church points to the Lord and His holy house,” said the late President Russell M. Nelson in April 2001.
Gathering to Zion: A map identifies the early stakes of Zion — organized by Joseph Smith between 1830 and 1846 — in Kirtland, Ohio; Independence, Far West and Adam-ondi-Ahman, Missouri; and Nauvoo, Illinois.
Another map shows where missionaries were sent during this period of Church history — parts of North America, Great Britain, the Holy Land and the Pacific Islands.
Nauvoo Temple model: A cutaway model provides an interior view of the rebuilt Nauvoo Illinois Temple.
Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home
While crews built the Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center, they simultaneously restored the Brigham and Mary Ann Young Home.
The brick home was originally built after Brigham Young returned from a mission to England in 1841. The Young family moved into the home on May 31, 1843, and lived there until they left Nauvoo in February 1846.
While living in this home, Brigham met with other members of the Quorum of the Twelve, as well as civil authorities, new converts and returned missionaries. Following Joseph Smith’s martyrdom in 1844, Brigham became the senior Church leader.
Apart from the rebuilt wings, Coleman said the home retains most of its 1840 original construction.
The east and west wings of the home were restored in the 1960s, but over the decades that followed, both wings developed structural problems. In the latest restoration, workers rebuilt the wings with brick fired and sized to match the methods used in the 1840s.
To protect the historic home during winter, the construction team built a full enclosure around it — keeping the structure heated and dry while the roof and two wings were removed and rebuilt, said Stan Houghton, project manager for Westland Construction.
An accessibility ramp has also been added for convenience.
“We had a phrase for the construction teams — ‘We need you to make it perfectly imperfect,’” Coleman said. “If you are restoring a home and want to be historically accurate, they didn’t have all the resources, tools and technology we have now, so building walls, roofing, make it ‘perfectly imperfect’ and they have done a phenomenal job.”
Visitors to the restored Young home will learn about the family’s life in Nauvoo and Brigham Young’s leadership as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles during the Saints’ preparation for the exodus west. Outside, a historic wagon stands loaded and ready for the pioneer journey. Guided tours are available.
Houghton hopes visitors will come away with more than an appreciation for Brigham Young as prophet and leader. “I hope they feel the spirit of our Savior, Jesus Christ,” he said.
2 other visitors’ centers
Coleman said the new Nauvoo Temple Visitors’ Center serves as the main hub and starting point for the Nauvoo visitor experience. There are two additional visitors’ centers in the vicinity.
The Historic Nauvoo North Visitors’ Center was dedicated in 1971. Going forward, Coleman said, the center will mainly be used for performances and accommodating tours and large groups for educational functions.
The Church acquired the Historic Nauvoo South Visitors’ Center from Community of Christ in 2024. Coleman said the center features artifacts and artwork depicting the Smith family, as well as a daily morning performance called “The Songs of the Heart,” which focuses on the early Church hymnal created by Emma Smith.
The South Visitors’ Center ”gives visitors a place to stop down near the Mansion House, Smith homestead and Brick Store on the south end,” Coleman said.
Learn more about Historic Nauvoo Illinois and Carthage Jail on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
