The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced a December groundbreaking date for the Grand Rapids Michigan Temple, which will be the second house of the Lord in the state of Michigan.
Elder Mathias Held, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the North America Northeast Area presidency, will preside at the Dec. 7 groundbreaking ceremony, an invitation-only event to be held at the site of the new temple.
Plans call for a single-story building of approximately 20,000 square feet to be built on a 10.5-acre site at 2400 Forest Hill Ave. in Grand Rapids. The site location was released on Nov. 7, 2022, with an initial exterior rendering following a year later on Nov. 6, 2023.
A new exterior rendering, showing a redesigned tower over the temple’s entrance, was released along with the groundbreaking announcement.
The temple was one of 18 announced by Church President Russell M. Nelson in October 2022 general conference. The Detroit Michigan Temple, the first in the state, was dedicated in October 1999.
Every effort is made to construct temples in an expeditious manner. At times, various reasons may delay a temple’s completion and dedication.
The groundbreaking date was first published Monday, Nov. 11, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
More than 46,000 Latter-day Saints comprising nearly 100 congregations reside in Michigan. The first Latter-day Saints in the area were baptized only a year after the Church’s 1830 organization.
Note: An earlier version of this article included the old exterior rendering and not the new rendering released as part of the groundbreaking announcement.
