Nauvoo Temple facade nears completion

The stone facade is nearly complete and crews are getting ready to hoist the Angel Moroni statue atop the domed tower Friday as crews prepare for the dedication of one of the most celebrated temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Church spokesman Dale Bills said dedicatory services for the Nauvoo Temple, which is being reconstructed with the original architecture on the same site where early church members finished the original in 1845, will be held June 27, 2002. The date is significant to members of the LDS faith because the faith's founder, Joseph Smith, was martyred on that date in 1844.

President Gordon B. Hinckley is scheduled to officiate at the dedication, also to feature music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The dedication will be broadcast via satellite to LDS stake centers in many parts of the world. In addition to the initial dedication ceremony, nine other dedicatory sessions will follow on June 28-30, with three sessions held each day. Public tours of the building will begin May 18, 2002, and run for five weeks.

Ann Orton, a public affairs specialist for Nauvoo Restoration Inc., said that workers this week installed the dome on the temple's tower, where the Nauvoo Bell has been hung. Four huge clock faces, each 6 feet 3 inches in diameter, have recently been set in the tower, one facing in each direction, she said.

The statue of the Angel Moroni will be placed on the temple spire atop the tower today. There had been some question among church members who have followed the reconstruction about whether the statue would resemble the vertical design of those that grace the spires of every other LDS temple now operating. The original Nauvoo Temple featured a trumpeting angel sporting wings, flying in a horizontal position.

"It will be a vertical angel, and it was made through the same process that they make each one," though it will apparently have at least one feature unique to it alone. "What (information) we have from the temple construction department is that this statue was made for the Nauvoo Temple," Orton said.

"This one is its own, and a distinctive part about it is that it faces west rather than east. There is no comment on why. That decision was just made by the temple committee, and we're all pleased about its decision," she said.

Considerable work has also been finished on the grounds around the temple, with two thirds of the hand-made wrought iron fencing installed. Sidewalks, curbs and gutters are complete, and landscaping is now under way around the building.