Wilshire Ward Chapel PDF      Email to a Friend      Printer Friendly Version

Mormon Standard of Building by Levi Edgar Young¹

The completion of the Tabernacle at Hollywood marks an epoch in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California. Beautiful in its design, and noble in its purpose, it will become a center for the disseminating of information concerning the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and its influence will be felt far beyond the borders of the geographical area of which it is the center.

The Hollywood Tabernacle is a combination of classical and modern design. There is an intelligible ideal behind it, and the Gothic columns give it a sense of repose and strength, dignity and beauty. The entire building expresses what the architects had in mind: A house of worship. It is a Tabernacle where beauty, love, and wisdom are combined in the idea of God's grace to man. It has in its conception the All-loving Christ as the Redeemer of humanity, and this is what gives the spirit of truth to all the houses of worship of the Latter-day Saints. The sincerity of the people in their religious beliefs has profoundly influenced the building of all their houses of worship; and to understand the symbolism that the Hollywood Tabernacle embodies, one must appreciate the truths taught by Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The Latter-day Saints have built houses of worship from the time of the organization of the Church in 1830. The Kirtland Temple, and later the Nauvoo Temple were built on the frontier of America, and were beautiful in design and purpose. Simple in architectural plan. they expressed a divine message. They were temples, places for communal worship, and they testified to the thoughts and emotions of the people, and alike to the divine power and goodness of human life.

When the Saints arrived in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake in 1841, their first dream was for the erection of a Temple to their God. Even before they had planted their wheat or even had shelter, they planned the Salt Lake Temple, a noble edifice in stone where they might add their strength to the redeeming of a world. Then a Tabernacle was built, "a miracle of art". For where the material things of the world are used for the teaching of divine truth, there one finds art. Thousands of people every day are brought nearer to God by their visit to the Mormon Tabernacle at Salt Lake City. The Hollywood house of worship shows the ever-varying architectural forms and feelings of religious hopes and desires: and how they are connected with out-standing social, and geographical influences.

It is an expression or fine aesthetic taste. The Saints may write above its portal the words of Abul-Fazl:

"O God, I see in every Temple, people who see Thee,

And in every language I hear, they praise Thee."

The Hollywood Tabernacle will please all who have helped in its erection; it will make happy all who gather there to worship. It will satisfy the body that created, the mind that understands, the spirit which illuminates. We are entering a new era in church building, and as in all ages, churches embody the finest examples of spiritual development, so our churches or meeting houses will embody the finest concepts of religion in all days to come.

The building of the Hollywood Tabernacle is the expression of a divine purpose. It will be dedicated to God, and there God will be found in spirit to direct them through life to eternal life. The people have done a worthy thing. It is the fulfillment of a vision.

---

SOURCES

¹ Levi Edgar Young, "Mormon Standard of Building," Hollywood Stake Herald, Vol. 1, No. 16, April 1929.