Lehi Stake Tabernacle
Designed by architect Richard Kletting, who had designed Saltari, and the Utah State Capitol Building. Excavation work on the tabernacle began in February 1900. The Lehi Tabernacle was constructed of white pressed brick. The walls were 121 feet in length and 76 feet wide. The main auditorium was 80 feet by 80 feet and the main southwest tower, with an observation deck facing each point of the compass, was 112 feet high. The building's meeting capacity, including the vestry and gallery, was 1,200. In 1910 the building was completed for dedication. Twelve hundred ninety-one people attended the services where the dedicatory prayer was offered by President Joseph F. Smith. After just ten years of maintaining the Tabernacle, Lehi's four bishops came to the conclusion that the building was too expensive for them to operate. Because the facility was directly across the street from the site of the proposed high School, Alpine School District offered to purchase the building from the church for $28,000. This offer was accepted. While in school ownership, the buildings basement was being leased as the armory of Lehi's National Guard unit. In December 1929, a guardsman's cigarette nearly burned the building down. By 1934 it was a building in rough shape so the school district sold it back to the church for $500, who then renovated it back into a tabernacle for $42,000. Stake conference was back in the building by 1940, and the cultural center was holding hundreds of functions, as well as many activities the basement. In 1962 after considerable opposition, the building was razed to make room for the new Lehi Stake Center.
LDS Historic Sights
Former Location: Northeast corner of Second North and Center.
Before the cornerstone was sealed up, a metal box, filled with
numerous photographs, books, newspapers, and other artifacts was placed in a hollowed out cavity of the stone. This memorabilia, along with the silver trowel, are now housed in the Hutchings Museum.
During the first meeting, a pigeon had flown in one of the open windows and circled around the huge auditorium until the close of the services.
(Much of this information comes from an online artcle written by local: Richard Van Wagoner)
