Noting that Mormon pioneers attended meetings in the building, he said, the pews were "our opportunity to touch and feel and participate with worship that happened before modernization."

Presiding Bishop H. David Burton said in 2004 that while the wooden benches were adequate for pioneer Latter-day Saints of smaller stature, today's audiences frequently comment on the lack of leg room. The tabernacle seats about 4,500, he said, noting possible changes could eliminate as many as 1,000 seats

The church has not determined what will happen to the unused original benches, Bills said.

Westwood said he hopes some of them could be used in the church museum.

Ericson, a Salt Lake art dealer specializing in early Utah artists, said the church has an obligation to keep them in the public domain, using them in other church buildings or at historic sites like This Is The Place State Park. He wouldn't like to see them sold off. But if the church made them available, he said, "I would be first in line to have something my great-great grandfather worked on."

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