1140 West 7800 South
West Jordan, UT, USA

National Register of Historic Places - West Jordan Ward Meetinghouse

Statement of Significance:

The West Jordan Ward Meetinghouse, completed in 1867, is locally significant as the only remaining historic church and public building in this community. Though built and owned by the West Jordan Branch of the Mormon church, the building also served as a school, community center, and social hall. Multiple-use buildings such as this were common in Utah communities during the early decades of the settlement and beyond. The West Jordan Meetinghouse is also architecturally significant as an excellent example of the first-phase meetinghouse building type, as documented in the Multiple Property Submission, "Mormon Church Buildings in Utah, 1847-1936". The architecture of the settlement phase reflected local expediency, and the first meetinghouses and schools were often built of logs.
Adobe was a common building material, and to a lesser extent, stone, as in the West Jordan Meetinghouse. Whatever the material, a concern for symmetry and balance dominated the designs, reflecting the widespread American acceptance of Renaissance-inspired Classical Revival principles during the nineteenth century. Constructed in various sizes and decorative styles, first-phase meetinghouses had rectangular plans, gabled roofs, and symmetrical exteriors. The largest examples had steeples, but smaller buildings like the West Jordan Meetinghouse relied on front-facing, pedimented, or partially pedimented facades for their visual effect.

HISTORY:

The city of West Jordan was established in 1849 when early pioneers settled along the banks of the Jordan River. The town was first called Gardner, after Archibald Gardner, a key player in the settlement of the area.
In 1858, the West Jordan Ward was organized with Archibald Gardner as bishop. The log cabin in which they had been meeting was soon to be replaced. Preparations for the new building were made by hauling stone from a quarry near the Oquirrh Range. The granite came from the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon. Elias Morris, a stone mason, who eventually became known for his work on buildings such as the Salt Lake Temple, the Salt Lake Theater, and some work on the Salt Lake City and County Building, was commissioned as an architect and builder.'
On May 15, 1861, the cornerstone was laid. Elias Morris wrote of the work in his personal journal:

1861 In the spring, in the company of I.C. Morris, Edw. LI. Parry, James Moyle, we contracted to build a stone Meeting House for Bishop Gardner Ward. The
building about $2,000, got through by July. When we commenced at the Theater.

Money had run out before the roof could be built and prospects for completing the building were discouraging. Three servicemen helped raise money for the roof by throwing a military ball in the building and charging one dollar per ticket. They were able to raise enough money for the roof and it was later installed. Those who worked in the building were paid with food and other necessities. The final cost of the building was estimated at $10,000.3
The building was finally completed and dedicated on August 11, 1867. It took six years to see the completion of the building and the dedication was a large community event. When the building was completed it was said by some to have been regarded as the finest church building west of the Missouri River. The stone meetinghouse was built for the local branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS church), of which most of the residents of the town were members. Although it was built as a religious facility, it also served as a civic center and as a school.

The original 20' x 20' vestry that had been built adjacent to the hall had been used as a school. When it was removed in 1880, the stone addition that was built served as the school, and the remainder of the building served as the church, meeting hall, playhouse, and dance hall. On December 13, 1913, when a larger church house was completed just west of this site, on Redwood Road, this building was abandoned.

The old church stood empty for many years and began to fall into disrepair. It was used as a barn to house animals and machinery and for a time as an automobile shop. During this time, a large hole was knocked into the west elevation, probably to make room for the machinery and vehicles.
In the spring of 1937, the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers (D.U.P.) leased the ground and the building from Bishop David N. Haun and restored it. After the restoration of the building in 1938 the city of West Jordan bought it and leased it back to the D.U.P., who continue to use it to this day.

The architectural detailing of this building is a good example of the Classical design that dominated Utah architecture from the pioneer period into the 1880s. Geometrical composition and symmetrical balance were the hallmarks of Classical design and the principal facades were normally placed on the long side of the rectangular block. The notable exception, however, was the temple-form type with its main entrance on the narrow side, usually below the gable. The West Jordan Meetinghouse is a good example of this temple-form plan. Its stone construction with granite quoins and lintels and implied cornice return are distinctive decorative features and contribute to the architectural qualities of the building.

Historic Context: Mormon Meetinghouses and Tabernacles in Utah, 1847-1936'
The history of Utah is closely tied to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. More commonly known as Mormons, members of the church played a significant role in the early settlement and subsequent growth of the state of Utah. It is not surprising therefore that the religious buildings of the Mormons comprise one of the principal segments of the state's architectural heritage. Within the larger theme of Mormon religious architecture, eight specific historic contexts have been identified [See the Multiple Property Submission, Mormon Church Buildings in Utah, 1847-1936]. The West Jordan Meetinghouse is significant within one of these contexts, "Mormon Meetinghouses and Tabernacles, 1847-1936".

The most common types of nineteenth-century Mormon religious buildings were the meetinghouses and tabernacles. Designed as assembly halls for regular Sunday services, these buildings differed principally in size and scale. Tabernacles were typically large buildings with a seating capacity sufficient to accommodate the membership of several LDS wards, with wards being the smallest unit of ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the LDS Church. Smaller Mormon towns consisted of a single ward, while the larger communities were subdivided into several such districts. Every ward had a meetinghouse, or ward meetinghouse. Wards were further organized into larger geographical groupings called stakes, and usually (though not always (each stake had its own tabernacle. Tabernacles and meetinghouses were generally placed in a central location within the gridiron plan of the Mormon town. There are approximately 20 tabernacles and 237 meetinghouses remaining in Utah that were constructed prior to 1940.

Tabernacle and meetinghouse design went through five significant periods of historical development. The first period is associated with the early years of Mormon western settlement and begins with the arrival of the Saints in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847 and extends until around 1870. Settlement period religious buildings were often constructed using readily available materials such as logs, adobe, and stone. They were rectangular in plan and generally exhibited a minimum of architectural detail. The typical meetinghouse or tabernacle was a rather plain gable-roofed structure with an entrance in the narrow end. Some of the more substantial of these early buildings had Greek Revival or Gothic Revival features, though most could be described as generically classical, having plain but emphasized cornices and symmetrical fenestration. During this phase, the smaller meetinghouses were likely to serve a variety of functions such as schoolhouses, city halls, and social centers.
A second period of LDS Church tabernacle and meetinghouse architecture was ushered in by the ecclesiastical reforms of the late 1870s. Church membership had grown significantly during the 1850s and 60s. As the population increased, the system of ward organization that had been implemented during the initial years of settlement demanded attention. Beginning in the early 1870s, a general reorganization of the church commenced. The boundaries of many existing stakes were expanded to incorporate new areas of colonization. New wards were created in communities that had experienced substantive growth. Also, the administrative structure was solidified and channels of communication between Salt Lake City and the local branches were further defined. Along with the reorganization came a period of intense building activity. New stakes required new tabernacles and the creation of new wards meant constructing new meetinghouses; consequently, a significant number of new religious buildings appeared throughout the state during the years between 1870 and about 1885. These buildings were generally larger and more substantial than those of the settlement period. The double-aisled New England meetinghouse plan was commonly utilized, and both Greek Revival and Gothic Revival features were still in vogue. At this time also it became characteristic of Mormon communities to have separate buildings for different functions. That is, the meetinghouse or tabernacle was used exclusively for assembly, a special office was built to handle the collection of tithing, the women's church auxiliary had its own meeting hall, and so forth. Another result of this increased building activity was that many of the first-period structures were demolished to make way for the new ones.

The expansion activities of the LDS Church were curtailed during the 1880s and 1890s as the leadership's attention was increasingly consumed by the struggle with the U.S. Government over the doctrine of polygamy. Under pressure from Congress, The Mormons disavowed the practice of plural marriage in 1890 and the way was paved for Utah to become a state in 1896. Nearly twenty years of political conflict, however, had left the church in confusion and disarray. Beginning in about 1898, a serious revitalization program was launched that included, among other things, a restructuring of the hierarchy, a return to financial solvency, a revival of faith and commitment among the membership, and a rebuilding of the church architecture.

As a symbol of rededication, a massive church-building effort was initiated in 1898 that lasted until around the end of World War I. This period of architectural development may be considered one of "activation", as the church moved to strengthen its institutional base in Utah and surrounding states. It was during this time that the first "modern" meetinghouses appeared. These multi-functional buildings gathered all the activities of the local church under one roof. Ward buildings now included an assembly hall or chapel, the offices of the bishop, a room for the women's auxiliary, and classrooms for Sunday school. Designs varied. On one side, a conservation faction within the church hierarchy favored the

Neoclassical and Colonial Revival, while on the other, progressive groups championed Prairie School and Arts and Crafts designs. All in all, the early years of the twentieth century mark one of the richest periods in the LDS Church's architectural history.

The fourth period in the tabernacle and meetinghouse development spans roughly a thirty-year period between 1925 and 1955 and represents a time of both consolidation and experimentation. Again, there are both conservative and progressive strains. The multi-functional building became the mainstay of the building program, but designs ranged from the Moderne to the Colonial Revival. The LDS Church grew rapidly during the 1940s and 1950s and the need for new meetinghouse construction was even greater. Standardization increased, and there was a drive toward architectural efficiency that eventually lead to the creation of the LDS Church Building Department in 1954." The work of building department architects remains the final and fifth stage in the development of Mormon religious architecture in Utah.

The West Jordan Meetinghouse is significant within the first or settlement phase of the tabernacle and meetinghouse development. There are currently 20 meetinghouse buildings remaining in Utah from the first phase. It should be noted that not all were built prior to 1870. Because many outlying communities were not founded until the 1880s, first-period buildings may actually exist from the 1890s and early 1900s. Most of these later-settled towns skipped period II, moving directly to the various forms of the multi-functional ward meetinghouse. In West Jordan, the first-period meetinghouse was replaced by a third-period meetinghouse in 1913.