Lehi Tabernacle

Driving Directions

(Lehi Central Stake Location) 200 N Center St.

• The Lehi Tabernacle began construction in 1900. The building was completed for dedication in 1910.

• Sold to Alpine School District in 1915 for $28,000 because it was too expensive to operate.

• In December 1929, a guardsman’s cigarette nearly burned the building down.

• In 1934 Alpine School District sold it back to the church for $500, who then renovated it back into a tabernacle for $42,000.

• The structure was demolished in 1962 to make room for the Lehi Stake Center.

Designed by architect Richard Kletting, who had designed Saltair, and the Utah State Capitol Building. Excavation work on the tabernacle began in February 1900. The Lehi Tabernacle was constructed of white pressed brick. The walls were 121 feet in length and 76 feet wide. The main auditorium was 80 feet by 80 feet and the main southwest tower, with an observation deck facing each point of the compass, was 112 feet high. The building’s meeting capacity, including the vestry and gallery, was 1,200. In 1910 the building was completed for the dedication. Twelve-hundred and ninety-­one people attended the services where the dedicatory prayer was offered by President Joseph F. Smith.

After just ten years of maintaining the Tabernacle, Lehi’s four bishops came to the conclusion that the building was too expensive for them to operate. Because the facility was direct across the street from the site of the proposed high School, Alpine School District offered to purchase the building from the church for $28,000. This offer was accepted. While in school ownership, the basement of the building was being leased as the armory of Lehi’s National Guard unit. In December 1929, a guardsman’s cigarette nearly burned the building down. By 1934 it was a building in rough shape so the school district sold it back to the church for $500, who then renovated it back into a tabernacle for $42,000. Stake conference was back in the building by 1940, and the cultural center was holding hundreds of functions, as well as many activities in the basement. In 1962 after considerable opposition, the building was razed to make room for the new Lehi Stake Center.

Before the cornerstone was sealed up, a metal box, filled with numerous photographs, books, newspapers, and other artifacts was placed in a hollowed ­out cavity of the stone. This memorabilia, along with the silver trowel, are now housed in the Hutchings Museum.