The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released both a name change and location for an announced temple in the north Dallas area of the state of Texas.
The name and site were first published Monday, Dec. 4, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
President Russell M. Nelson announced Prosper, Texas, as a location for a new house of the Lord, one of 18 announced Oct. 2, 2022, at the conclusion of the October 2022 general conference.
With Monday’s First Presidency announcement, the temple will be known as the McKinney Texas Temple.
It will be the third temple in Texas’ Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area, joining the Dallas and Fort Worth temples, the former operating since its 1984 dedication and the latter had its groundbreaking on Oct. 28.
The McKinney temple is planned as multistory edifice of approximately 44,000 square feet for the 8.16-acre site adjacent to an existing meetinghouse at 651 E. Stacy Road in Fairview, Texas. Fairview is a suburban area north of Dallas and south of McKinney.
Texas is home to seven other houses of the Lord. Besides the aforementioned Dallas-Fort Worth temples, operating temples are located in San Antonio, Houston, Lubbock, and McAllen and one in planning for the state capital city of Austin.
More than 378,000 Latter-day Saints comprising nearly 750 congregations reside in Texas,
Missionaries first visited Texas in 1843. In 1898, about 300 Church members settled on land purchased by the Church in northeast Texas that would become the colony of Kelsey, about 110 miles east of Dallas.
Church membership in Texas has grown rapidly in recent decades — from 132,000 Latter-day Saints in 1985 to just over 210,000 in 2000 and now more than 378,000.
Membership in the Dallas-Fort Worth area alone is 83,000 strong.
