Murray LDS Second Ward Meetinghouse

About this property

Built in 1909, the Murray LDS Second Ward Meetinghouse is a historic building in Murray, Utah, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. The building is significant for its association with the history and development of Murray between 1909 and 1950. The design of the meetinghouse came from Niels Edward Liljenberg, a Swedish-American architect. It is significant as a well-preserved example of a meetinghouse influenced by the Gothic Revival style, a popular style for Mormon meetinghouses in the Salt Lake Valley during the first decade of the twentieth century. The original architectural features are still evident, the fenestration patterns as well as the size of the openings have not been modified, and there have been very few alterations. The Murray Second Ward represents not only the growth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and development of the Murray community, but the building is also an excellent example of the influence of the Gothic style in LDS Church architecture. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the English parish style became the model for many LDS meetinghouses including the Murray Second Ward. This style was concurrent with the resurgence of medieval influence in American architecture. As the LDS Church wanted to follow current trends in architecture professionally trained architects were employed to design new buildings. The popularity of the Victorian Gothic influence in American architecture happened to coincide with the LDS Church's program to build new meetinghouses. These typical Gothic-style influenced meetinghouses are characterized generally by either an asymmetrical or symmetrical facade which is dominated by a square Norman architecture-style entrance tower; Gothic or Romanesque arches or a combination of the two, are used throughout the building. The Murray Second Ward Meetinghouse fits this description well; it has an asymmetrical facade dominated by an entrance tower with a crenellated parapet, and tall, Gothic (pointed) arch windows framed in wood tracery. The first LDS or Mormon meetinghouse in Murray was built in 1856. As in most pioneer LDS communities, the first meetinghouse was vernacular classical in style and was built with the nearest and most available materials. It was understood that in time, a larger, more substantial facility would replace this first building. In communities that did not have a temple or tabernacle, the ward meetinghouse was the primary physical symbol of their relationship to God; it was a common element within the Mormon concept of sacred space.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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