Preliminary work has begun on the future Vancouver Washington Temple site. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has received the necessary permits and approval to begin early construction work on the site of the house of the Lord.
The next steps on the site include clearing the land, installing essential utilities and realigning the adjacent Bybee Road to better accommodate temple construction.
According to a March 10 news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org, these updates will prepare the site for development and ensure the proper infrastructure is in place.
An official groundbreaking date has not yet been announced. The building permit and design work for the temple are also ongoing.
“The commencement of this work marks an exciting milestone in the process of building a house of the Lord in the Vancouver area,” said Elder Gordon L. Treadway, an Area Seventy. “This sacred place will be a tremendous blessing for the many Latter-day Saints in the area and throughout Southwest Washington. We are grateful for the ongoing support and collaboration from the city of Camas.”
About the house of the Lord in Vancouver
President Russell M. Nelson announced a temple for Vancouver, Washington, on Oct. 1, 2023, during October 2023 general conference. It was one of 20 locations worldwide that he identified at the close of the Sunday afternoon session.
Planned as a multistory building of approximately 43,000 square feet, the Vancouver Washington Temple will stand on a 15.11-acre site at the northwest corner of the intersection of SE 20th Street and SE Bybee Road in Camas, Washington, just east of Vancouver proper.
This new temple will join the state’s four operating houses of the Lord: the Seattle Washington Temple (dedicated in 1980), the Spokane Washington Temple (1999), the Columbia River Washington Temple (2001) in Richland in the south-central Tri-Cities area, and the Moses Lake Washington Temple (2023). A temple for Tacoma was announced in October 2022 general conference.
The Church of Jesus Christ in Washington dates back to 1854, when four missionaries serving in California were sent into the Washington and Oregon territories. Enough converts joined to create a congregation just north of present-day Vancouver along the Lewis River, a tributary of the Columbia River.
Many Latter-day Saints helped with the 1880s railroad construction of the Northern Pacific Oregon Short Line in Washington. In 1930, Church membership in the state totaled 1,900 in eight congregations, with chapels in Seattle, Spokane, Olympia and Everett.
Today, Washington is home to more than 281,000 Latter-day Saints in nearly 490 congregations.
