Doors open this week for public viewing of the Yorba Linda California Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Members of the public are invited to tour this sacred edifice from April 30 to May 23. Admission is free, but due to limited parking, online reservations are strongly recommended.
A media day is also being held April 27, and invited guests will tour the building April 28-29.
Leading news representatives for media-day tours are three General Authority Seventies: Elder Takashi Wada, president of the Church’s United States West Area; Elder Mathias Held; and Elder I. Raymond Egbo.
As Monday’s media day began, the Church published interior and exterior photographs of the Yorba Linda temple on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
After its June 7 dedication, the new temple will serve more than 21,500 Latter-day Saints in the Anaheim, Brea, Chino, Hacienda Heights, Orange, Santa Ana, Whittier and Yorba Linda areas.
The 10 a.m. dedicatory session — to be broadcast to all units in the temple district — will also be rebroadcast at 2 p.m. that day. A presiding leader has not yet been announced.
The Yorba Linda temple is scheduled to be dedicated on the same day and at the same time as the Willamette Valley Oregon Temple’s dedication, with the two becoming the Church’s 218th and 219th dedicated temples worldwide.
These two houses of the Lord were also announced on the same day, April 4, 2021 — meaning they’ll have the same timing from announcement to dedication, down to the very hour.
Design and features
The 30,872-square-foot Yorba Linda temple hints at the region’s historic Spanish Mission architecture. Its exterior is composed of structural steel and insulated concrete, clad in white Blanco Macael marble with pink and gray Rosa Porrino granite accents.
Flooring throughout the temple includes decorative tile and custom patterned carpet, with a New Zealand wool rug in the bride’s room and additional area rugs elsewhere. Art-glass patterns use palm elements and rondels inspired by Spanish Mission architecture, along with custom jewels and hues of green, blue, soft white, orange and yellow.
Illuminating the building’s interior are crystal chandeliers and sconces; decorative light fixtures combine crystal with gold-colored metal, satin brass and plated stainless steel with acrylic lenses. Decorative paint integrates colors and patterns inspired by the local landscape and architecture, with 24-karat gold leaf accents in select areas.
The millwork — mostly plain-sliced sapele veneer and plain-sawn sapele solids — includes painted poplar and maple millwork in some areas. Located at 17130 Bastanchury Road, Yorba Linda, California, the temple stands on a 5.46-acre site that has been owned by the Church since the early 1980s.
About the Yorba Linda temple
Yorba Linda’s temple is planned to be California’s ninth dedicated house of the Lord. It will be the second in Orange County, joining the Newport Beach California Temple, which is located about 20 miles south.
On April 4, 2021, the late Church President Russell M. Nelson announced this temple for Yorba Linda. It was one of 20 temple locations he identified in April 2021 general conference.
To start the construction phase of the Yorba Linda temple, a groundbreaking ceremony was held June 18, 2022. Elder Mark A. Bragg — a General Authority Seventy and then the president of the North America West Area — presided over the ceremony and offered the dedicatory prayer on the site.
Referencing Yorba Linda’s motto — “Land of gracious living” — Elder Bragg said that “this house of the Lord will represent the highest in gracious living, and those who enter will leave with a higher commitment to gracious living. … We commit to being neighbors of gracious living.”
The Church in California
California — one of the western U.S. states and located along the Pacific Ocean coast — currently has 12 houses of the Lord operating, under construction or renovation, and announced.
Eight have already been dedicated: Los Angeles (in 1956), Oakland (1964), San Diego (1993), Fresno (2000), Redlands (2003), Newport Beach (2005), Sacramento (2006) and Feather River (2023).
Of note, the San Diego temple was closed in July 2023 for extensive renovations and will soon be rededicated on Aug. 23.
The Modesto California Temple is currently under construction, since its October 2023 groundbreaking. A final two houses of the Lord are in planning stages: the Sunnyvale and Bakersfield temples, both announced in April 2023.
Latter-day Saints first arrived in California on July 31, 1846, in what was then Yerba Buena. The company of around 230 people tripled the population of Yerba Buena and helped build it into the prosperous city of San Francisco.
On July 6, 1851, the San Bernardino Stake was organized as California’s first. Eight California stakes were created in the 1930s, five in the 1940s, and 30 in the 1950s.
Today, California is home to nearly 729,000 Church members in almost 1,100 wards and branches. This makes it the second U.S. state with the most Latter-day Saints, after Utah.
California currently has 16 missions. On July 1, three more missions will be created in the state — headquartered in Oceanside, Ontario and Victorville. These three cities are within a 60-mile radius of Yorba Linda.
Yorba Linda California Temple
Address: 17130 Bastanchury Road, Yorba Linda, California 92886
Announced: April 4, 2021, by President Russell M. Nelson
Groundbreaking: June 18, 2022, presided over by Elder Mark A. Bragg, a General Authority Seventy
Public open house: April 30 through May 23, 2026, excluding Sundays
To be dedicated: June 7, 2026
Property size: 5.46 acres
Building size: 30,872 square feet
Building height: 70 feet (including the spire)
