While Nauvoo, Ill., is receiving considerable fanfare this week from members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints because of the dedication of the new temple there, Kirtland, Ohio — to the east — also has reached a milestone.
A new visitors center, plus two historic structures — one rebuilt and one restored — opened there Monday.
The Kirtland Visitors Center, the Newel K. Whitney home and the John Johnson Inn — all key sites in a multiphase restoration project — are now open and expected to attract 100,000 visitors a year.
From 1831 to 1838, Kirtland was headquarters for the LDS Church. When the Kirtland Temple was finished in 1836, some 2,000 church members resided there.
"It was a defining period for the church," said David Brown, the new visitor center director. "During the Kirtland era, we believe God revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith the essential organization and much of the doctrine of the church that is still in place today."
The 10,000-square-foot visitors center includes exhibit rooms and a 120-seat theater where an introduction to the Kirtland area is shown.
The John Johnson Inn was the first brick building in Kirtland. Early church leaders conducted business and published a newspaper there. It contains an exhibit room, small theater and a computer kiosk where visitors can search for ancestry.
The Newel K. Whitney Home, closed since November 2000 after serving as a visitors center, has been restored.
An earlier phase of the project restored the Newel K. Whitney Store in Kirtland and the John Johnson home in Hiram, Ohio.
Church leaders hope to dedicate all the restored sites in Kirtland by the summer of 2003.