"The Restoration," a majestic 10-foot painting done by L.A. Ramsey in 1922, is adorning the walls of the Portland Temple entry corridor.
The temple is the third home for the painting, which hung for years in the old Union Stake Tabernacle in La Grande, Ore., before surviving demolition of the building in 1977, and being relocated on a wall in the Sugar City (Idaho) 2nd and 4th wards meetinghouse."We are very glad to be able to hang the painting in the temple," noted Lawrence F. Wyss, manager of interior design for temples and special projects. "It is nice to have original art. This is a commanding piece, and is located behind the recommend desk. That is about the only place able to accommodate it because of its large size (10 feet by 7 feet). A smaller Ramsey work of the Angel Moroni delivering the plates to Joseph Smith hangs in the Chicago Temple."
Larry E. Hibbert, a biology professor at Ricks College in Rexburg, Idaho, has been an informal guardian of "The Restoration" since he saved the painting - which portrays Moroni delivering the gold plates to Joseph Smith - from the crumbling walls of the tabernacle.
When the building was about to be torn down, Hibbert purchased the painting for $5. Not a bad price, considering it cost $350 in 1922. And that didn't include $44.05 for the wooden frame and $29.96 for railroad shipment from Utah to La Grande. The money was raised in the early 1920s by Relief Society sisters in the Union Stake, the first stake organized in the Pacific Northwest.
"The reason my wife, Janet, and I have such an interest in the painting is because we grew up in La Grande, where we saw it hanging in the tabernacle," Hibbert explained. "Every time we would go to stake conference, we would look at that picture. We know of its tremendous uplifting influence in our lives, pointing our thoughts toward the restoration of the gospel in this dispensation.
"I kind of feel like I've been a custodian of the painting since acquiring it. I knew it was really the Church's. It was originally purchased through the donations of faithful Relief Society sisters. I've heard many of the General Authorities talk about it. It has been a special part of my life."
The painting and the tabernacle that housed it for so many years have interesting histories.
Apostles Abraham O. Woodruff and Matthias F. Cowley organized the stake in June 1901. Stake members immediately set out to build a tabernacle for their then-quarterly stake conferences and other functions. The large, beautiful building was completed and dedicated June 16, 1907.
About 15 years later, the stake Relief Society leaders made a proposal to the stake presidency that an appropriate painting be acquired and placed on one of the building's bare walls. The idea was approved, and plans were made for a Relief Society bazaar to raise money for the project.
Sufficient money was raised for the painting, and there was enough left over to repaint the interior of the tabernacle.
A contract between the artist and stake was signed Nov. 8. On Dec. 16, the painting was unveiled at the tabernacle during a special program attended by 350 people. Elder George F. Richards of the Council of the Twelve gave an address titled "What the Restoration Means to Us and the World."
The painting spent the next 55 years in the tabernacle, before the need arose to move it elsewhere.
On June 5, 1976, the Sugar City meetinghouse was severly damaged when the Teton Dam collapsed. It subsequently underwent extensive renovation.
On Aug. 23, 1977, Ariel S. Bean, bishop of the La Grande 3rd Ward, visited the Hibbert family in Sugar City, where the Hibberts showed him the newly renovated meetinghouse. When Bishop Bean saw the large walls in the chapel, he exclaimed, "This is where the picture should hang," referring to "The Restoration," which needed a new home because the Union Stake Tabernacle was being demolished.
Bean encouraged Hibbert to acquire the painting. Hibbert contacted Derrell A. Lindsay, president of the then-renamed La Grande Oregon Stake, to see if the piece was available. When President Lindsay heard what Hibbert's plans for the painting were, he asked him to send a $5 check, which Hibbert promptly did.
Now that $5 purchase will be enjoyed for years to come by the thousands who attend the Portland Temple.