Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are generally astonished by the fact that it took so long — 40 years — to build the Salt Lake Temple.
However, the new LDS Church History Library will technically have taken even longer — more than 48 years to build — when it opens early next year.
Also, the Church Office Building, 28 stories high and still Utah's tallest building, was originally envisioned as a much higher, 38-story structure.
"New archives building — Perspective for a new archives and genealogical building of the church was presented Friday. The building will be located on the northeast corner of Main and North Temple Streets" — a Deseret News caption from Oct. 7, 1960, stated.
The original plan for that building called for 11 stories of steel and concrete, with 400,000 square feet of space. A later plan increased the height to 15 stories. The building was to house the church historian's office, library and the archives/library of the genealogical society. It was to have a "loft-type" interior that could be adjusted for various uses.
The new Church History Library, now under construction, has five floors and is 230,000 square feet in size.
Construction was supposed to have begun on the building by early 1962, but it never happened — at least until building plans were completely redone. Site work finally started in October 2006 — 44 years later.
It was President David O. McKay and his church administration who first envisioned a separate history/archive building for the church.
However, by March of 1962, plans for the new archives/history building were dropped, due to the successful construction of the Granite Mountain Records Vault in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The church historian's office and library, plus any remaining records that weren't moved to the Granite Vaults, were put in the east wing of the new Church Office Building (originally called the "Administration Building").
President McKay stated in a March 23, 1962, Deseret News article that because of the modern methods of improved records storage, the vast amounts of space originally thought to be needed in a church archives/history building would not be necessary. He also said the historian's office and other facilities would more economically fit into revised plans for the new Church Office Building.
Originally, the four lower floors of the Church Office Building were to have served as a missionary training center for departing full-time missionaries. However, that MTC was eventually housed across North Temple in the former Ute Hotel and later in a nearby old school. Those locations were used until Oct. 26, 1978, when all departing missionaries were sent to Provo's current expanded Missionary Training Center.
So, what happened to the additional 10 stories planned for the Church Office Building?
J. Howard Dunn, who was in charge of project development for the LDS Church's building committee, said in a 1962 Church News article that the plans were changed and stories were deleted to meet mechanical requirements of the engineering department. Heating and air conditioning for the skyscraper would best be handled in 14-story units, beginning above the first two floors. At that time, the high-rise was to be 30 stories — so two more stories were eventually deleted from that plan.
There were also other changes made to the original, ambitious 1960 church building plan for Salt Lake City. The plan for a research center for the church's genealogical department on the northwest corner of Redwood Road and 2100 South was eliminated in 1962, and a planned 17-story annex northwest of the Hotel Utah was never constructed.
E-mail: lynn@desnews.com