Before the Washington D.C. Temple, glistening and hovering Oz-like over the Capital Beltway, there was the Washington Chapel.
Built in 1933, the meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was constructed from Utah granite, capped by an Angel Moroni and dedicated by the faith’s prophet, President Heber J. Grant. It was, in other words, not an ordinary chapel, even by the church’s pre-correlation standards of the day.
(Reed Russell) Three of the nine stained-glass windows, including a depiction of a Book of Mormon temple.
The global faith of 17.2 million members hasn’t owned the building in decades, having off-loaded it in the 1970s over concerns about renovation costs. But its current occupants, the Unification Church, have been careful to preserve some of its architectural features — Latter-day Saint scripture engraved on its facade, for instance — while keeping the doors open to visitors.
That may soon change.
Nearly 100 years after its highly trumpeted dedication, the aging edifice is part of a proposed plan to develop the spot into luxury apartments — spire and all.
About the chapel
As the first official house of worship constructed in the area by the Utah-based faith, the building served as part-announcement and part-monument: The Latter-day Saints had arrived — and they weren’t going anywhere.
This was no small gesture.
“Considering the tenuous relationship between the church and the U.S. government during the 19th century,” researchers Alonzo L. Gaskill and Seth G. Soha wrote in the book “Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C.,” “the construction and ultimate dedication of this edifice was a significant symbolic statement.”
The architects, including Brigham Young’s grandson Don Carlos Young Jr., represented the same firm responsible for, among other buildings, the church’s temple in Mesa, Arizona. That the team approached this meetinghouse assignment with no less gravitas is evidenced throughout the construction — including the fact that it is the only chapel to ever have boasted an Angel Moroni, a more common adornment atop the faith’s temples.
(Reed Russell) The main meeting hall found within the Washington Chapel.
(Reed Russell) A view of the interior of the Washington Chapel, currently owned by the Unification Church.
The statue would eventually find its way to the Church History Museum in downtown Salt Lake City. But many of the building’s distinctive architectural flourishes remain — including nine stained-glass windows, one depicting a temple from the faith’s signature scripture, the Book of Mormon.
“The building really is singular,” said Coby Vail, a Latter-day Saint living in Washington, D.C., “among Latter-day Saint chapels and architecture [generally].”
About the proposed plan
(Dila Development via D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board) A view of the proposed development looking south.
(Dila Development via D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board) A view of the proposed development looking north.
A rough draft of the proposed nine-story apartment tower submitted by Dila Development to the city’s Historic Preservation Office depicts the fusion of a “rehabilitat[ed]” version of the chapel with a new, modern-looking residential complex erected in what is now the adjacent parking lot.
The new portion will be “subservient to the historic church building,” reads the application, which is intentionally sparse on details about what its renovation would look like. Those specifics, the developers explain, will be noted in a “more refined concept” to follow input on the plans thus far.
The document does emphasize that a historic preservation plan for the church “is anticipated to be included as part of the future concept submission.”
Also noteworthy: The developer does not list itself as the owner of the property, which remains in the hands of the Unification Church — at least for now.
A grassroots response
Vail first learned of the proposed plans while scrolling through a real estate website. “I’m interested, the Latter-day Saint said, in urban planning and design.”
He has since teamed up with another area member, Diana Brown, to raise awareness of the effort and organize fellow Latter-day Saints and preservationists ahead of the proposal’s first public hearing Dec. 19.
The duo hopes to form a committee to work with the developers on preservation and with the Unification Church to plan a tour and “interfaith celebration” of the building.
Similar efforts to try to preserve 20th-century Latter-day Saint architecture have met with mixed results.
In 2023, members tried and failed to prevent the total revamp of Provo’s “Space Age” temple, first opened in 1972. In contrast, public outcry helped save the murals by famed Latter-day Saint artist Minerva Teichert during the recent renovation of the pioneer-era Manti Temple.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Ordinance room in the Manti Temple displays the brightened Minerva Teichert murals.
Unlike the Washington Chapel, the primary purpose of these buildings was preserved, however, and it was the church — not an outside development firm — that faced the heat.
Theologically, meetinghouses hold a less-vaulted status in Latter-day Saint faith than temples, the only place where eternal marriages and other salvific rituals are performed.
In terms of historic import, however, the Washington Chapel, Vail argued, is unparalleled.
“It reflects an important coming-of-age moment in the church’s development in the 20th century,” he said. “For those interested in preserving and reflecting on that history, this chapel really stands alone.”
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