More than five years after the iconic Salt Lake Temple closed for extensive renovations, repairs and seismic upgrades, church President Russell M. Nelson revealed Friday that the work “to strengthen this sacred House of the Lord for future generations is nearing completion.”
“On February 14, 1853, a groundbreaking ceremony in Salt Lake City began a 40-year journey of faith and sacrifice, culminating in the dedication of the Salt Lake Temple in 1893,” the faith’s 100-year-old prophet-president wrote on his social media channels. “Today, exactly 172 years after the groundbreaking ceremony, I am delighted to announce that the temple will reopen for tours during a public open house from April to October 2027.”
The top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints then invited “friends to come and learn about God’s plan for his children and rejoice in the love of Jesus Christ.”
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) President Russell M. Nelson, announcing the 2027 reopening of the Salt Lake Temple, holds a rendering of the Celestial Room inside the renovated temple. The photo was taken Jan. 30, 2025.
He promised more details about events associated with the open house would be forthcoming as the date approaches.
The event is expected to attract huge crowds since the pioneer-era edifice hasn’t welcomed the general public inside since just before its 1893 dedication. Indeed, millions of members and outsiders will be interested to see the famed temple’s interior to see which original details were preserved and which were replaced.
In the wake of Nelson’s decision to discontinue the temple’s “live ceremony” — in which patrons move from room to room in a richly symbolic reenactment of the creation, Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden, humankind’s mortal journey and ultimate return to God’s presence — the whole architecture that supported the narrative had to be “reconfigured,” triggering a domino effect.
Preservation experts argue that visitors will not see the Mormon pioneers’ beliefs about eternity crafted into the space, and Latter-day Saints won’t necessarily enter into their ancestors’ sense of beauty and wonder.
“The furnishing of the temple will look and feel,” church spokesperson Doug Andersen said in September, “similar to the renovated [and rededicated] St. George Temple.”
Friday’s news, including the open house bookended by the faith’s spring and fall General Conferences, means that the landmark temple’s return has been pushed back a bit.
The massive renovations, which included digging deep beneath the granite structure and altering its foundation for an innovative seismic retrofit, was originally intended to take about four years. Instead, it will end up having lasted more than seven years.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) Overview of the west tower transfer girders of the Salt Lake Temple on Wednesday, July 31, 2024.
“When working with historic structures,” the church has previously explained, “...unexpected challenges are inevitable.”
The global faith closed its most well-known building in December 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit with full force and a March 2020 earthquake knocked the Angel Moroni statue’s horn off its perch atop the sacred edifice.
Crews took down that golden figure in May 2020 for repairs and refurbishment and returned it last April to its lofty home on the temple’s east side.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) The Angel Moroni statue is returned atop the Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in April 2024.
For long stretches of the renovation, the six-spired temple has been shrouded in scaffolding. Much of that construction facade has now been stripped away as the work inches closer and closer to completion.
The surrounding square also has been undergoing an overhaul, including a new plaza, lined with international flags, near the Church Office Building and new statues being added on the grounds where the North Visitors’ Center once stood.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The "Come, Follow Me" statue is placed in the northwest quadrant of Temple Square in Salt Lake City on Dec. 16, 2024.
“You will love the results,” Nelson pledged at the time of the temple closing. “They will emphasize and highlight the life, ministry and mission of Jesus Christ in his desire to bless every nation, kindred, tongue and people.”
Friday’s announcement did not include details of when the Salt Lake Temple would be rededicated.
Nelson urged members “to cherish your time and service at the temples closest to you as we prepare for the reopening of the Salt Lake Temple in 2027.”
Utah is home to 21 functioning temples; another 10 are planned. The global faith of 17.2 million members has 367 operating and planned temples. Nelson has announced 185 of them, or more than half, during his seven-year presidency.
Latter-day Saints consider temples houses of God. Unlike meetinghouses, they are places where the faithful perform their religion’s highest sacraments, including eternal marriages, for themselves and, vicariously, for their ancestors.
(The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) The Aaronic Priesthood end of the Assembly Room of the Salt Lake Temple as of July 31, 2024. This is one of the rooms being restored in the temple’s extensive renovation.
