Return to Home
SITEMAP    |    About Us    |    HELP

Browse Sites

 - By Region
 - List All

Search

    

Directory

- Recent Additions
- Recent News
- RSS Feeds 
- Add to Registry
- Questions & Comments

Have our weekly historic
site e-magazine sent to you:

Email:

PRIVACY POLICY: Your email is NEVER shared with anyone.

Read testimonies of the Book of Mormon from Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer
corner   Home    USA    New York    Palmyra    E. B. Grandin Building
E. B. Grandin Building, Palmyra, New York, USA
       Introduction         Personal Accounts         Multimedia           Directions/Maps        Further Reading

 E.B. Grandin Building PDF      Email to a Friend      Printer Friendly Version

E.B. Grandin Building

The E. B. Grandin Building is the original publication site for the Book of Mormon. It was printed here between August 1829 and March 1830.
Photo Courtesy of Alexander L. Baugh

The E. B. Grandin Building was the location where the Book of Mormon was originally published and it was sold here for the first time on March 26, 1830.

Egbert B. Grandin rented the building from his brother, Philip Grandin in the fall of 1828 and the actual printing of the Book of Mormon took place on the third floor of the building between August 1829 and March 1830.1

He initially refused to publish the book on religious grounds, but was persuaded when he was assured that "it was merely a business matter and that he would be in no way related to the religion."2 Additionally, Martin Harris provided the necessary financial security by mortgaging his farm to guarantee payment.3

Oliver Cowdery made a second transcription of the Book of Mormon to ensure that the printer used a copy and not the original. However, for the section between Helaman 13 through Mormon it appears as though the original translation was used.4 Each day, the transcribed copy was carried from the Smith's Log Cabin to the printer in the morning and then carried back to the log cabin that evening.5

John H. Gilbert, the chief typesetter, wrote a description of the printing of the Book of Mormon in 1892 when he was 90 years old.6

In 1978, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints purchased the building from Paul Cherry. It was later dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley on March 26, 1998 as the Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site.


SOURCES


1 Susan Easton Black and Charles D. Tate, Jr., eds., Joseph Smith: The Prophet, The Man (Provo: BYU Religious Studies Center, 1993), 52 - 53.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

4 Ibid, 72-73.

5 Donald L. Enders, "Two Significant Sites of the Restoration." Ensign, (September 1998), 30.

6 Quoted in "The Coming Forth of the Book of Mormon." Ensign, (December 1983), 31.

corner