The Ohio state historical marker near the Kirtland Temple in Kirtland, Ohio on Monday, March 11, 2024. Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
SALT LAKE CITY — The Kirtland Temple and several historic buildings in Nauvoo, Illinois, are now open for free public tours under the stewardship of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Earlier this month, leaders of the faith announced the buildings and various artifacts were transferred from Community of Christ.
Bishop W. Christopher Waddell, First Counselor in the Church’s Presiding Bishopric, said their hope and expectation is that they would be as good a steward for these resources, assets, and locations, as Community of Christ has been.
The Kirtland Temple was the first of hundreds for the temple-centered Latter-day Saints. The Community of Christ maintained it for more than 140 years and successfully petitioned to have it added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 as “the only temple still standing which was built under the leadership of Joseph Smith.”
Keith Erekson, director of Historical Outreach and Research for the Latter-day Saints said that much of the temple is original, including the floors and the famed, ornate pulpits on each end of the long, first-floor hall. The Community of Christ’s longstanding efforts to preserve the Kirtland Temple make it rare among sites in Christianity heralded as places visited by Jesus Christ.
The buildings in Nauvoo transferred to the Church are the Smith Family Homestead and Summer Kitchen, the Joseph and Emma Smith Mansion House, the Red Brick Store (reconstructed), the Nauvoo House, and additional properties.
And now on exhibit through October 26, 2024, at the Church History Museum on Temple Square are some of the artifacts transferred earlier this month from Community of Christ.
Called “Sacred History: Treasures from the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” the exhibit features:
- Four pages from Revelation Book 1, including portions of revelations now known as Doctrine and Covenants 64, 65, 66, 76, 81, and 133
- A page from a manuscript of Joseph Smith’s translation of the Bible, along with the printed “Phinney” Bible (Cooperstown, New York, 1828) with his numerous markings as part of that translation
- Book of Mormon “Caractors” document purported to contain characters illustrative of those on the gold plates
- A manuscript history of the Church from circa 1830 to 1847, written by John Whitmer
- The original door of Liberty (Missouri) Jail
- Seven letters from Joseph Smith to his wife Emma
- Portraits of Joseph and Emma Smith painted during their lifetimes
On March 5, the Church announced it had paid $192.5 million for the sites and historic documents without assigning specific values to the individual properties and items.