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Site identified for Jacksonville Florida Temple

First Presidency releases location of 1 of the 5 houses of the Lord in the state of Florida

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has released the site location for the Jacksonville Florida Temple,

Projected as a single-story structure of approximately 29,000 square feet, the temple will be constructed on a 6.6-acre parcel at 3323 Loretto Road, Jacksonville, Florida.

The site was first published Tuesday, Feb. 20, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org. More information — such as an exterior rendering and date for groundbreaking — will be released later.

Church President Russell M. Nelson announced Jacksonville and 17 other new temple locations at the close of the October 2022 general conference.

In Florida, the Church has five total temples dedicated, under construction or in planning. The state’s first — the Orlando Florida Temple — was dedicated nearly 30 years ago, in October 1994, by President Howard W. Hunter. It will close in July 2024 for extensive renovations, the Church announced earlier this month.

The state’s other operating house of the Lord is in Fort Lauderdale, with a temple under construction in Tallahassee and another in planning for Tampa.

Missionaries first arrived and stayed briefly in Florida in 1845, with the Church’s first congregation in the state created in 1897 in the Big Bend area of northern Florida. Seven years later, in 1904, Church membership in the state was 1,230.

Today, the state is home to more than 168,000 Latter-day Saints comprising more than 280 congregations.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article gave a wrong year for the creation of the first congregation in Florida.

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