Its New Manhattan Temple Is a First for Mormon Church

Successfully blending religion with prime real estate, the Mormon Church has completed its first temple in Manhattan.

The task required creating a feeling of spaciousness and spirituality in tight quarters.

Unlike most temples built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with soaring spires and manicured lawns and gardens, the new temple is on four floors of a renovated six-story building across Columbus Avenue from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

“I think the primary challenge has been fitting a temple inside an existing building, which is highly unusual,” said Brent J. Belnap, president of the temple committee.

“Other temples usually have been new construction ... on a piece of ground that has sufficient space for landscaping and parking.”

Facing the challenge of creating contemplative space in a bustling, noisy section of mid-Manhattan, architects studied the construction of Lincoln Center, where such groups as the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera and the New York City Ballet perform.

“As you walk through, you will notice you can hear virtually nothing from the outside,” Belnap said.

The temple’s architects employed the same soundproofing techniques used in some of the cultural center’s facilities to block distracting noise.

The decision to build the temple -- the 119th in the world -- reflects both the growth of the religion, which has about 42,000 members in the New York region, and its history.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there were fears that the threat of further terrorism would cause large numbers of followers to leave the city. That hasn’t been the case.

“It hasn’t affected the growth of the church at all,” Belnap said.

“The church has continued to increase in growth since then.... We have congregations that speak not only English and Spanish but Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese, French Creole, Korean and other languages,” he said.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has about 12 million members, was founded on April 6, 1830, by Joseph Smith, who lived about 300 miles northwest of Manhattan in Palmyra, N.Y.

In October 1832, he traveled to New York City to preach and clearly was impressed by the city, writing to his wife, Emma: “The buildings are truly great and wonderful, to the astonishing of every beholder.”

Many of the church’s early Scriptures, hymn books and newspapers were published in the city, and even after church members migrated west to escape persecution, many of its converts from Europe still passed through New York.

The temple in Manhattan, like others worldwide, consists of rooms designated for specific functions -- such as marriages, baptisms and religious instruction -- rather than a single large hall.

The church considers its temples to be sacred places, and after a building is dedicated only church members may enter. Inside, they wear simple white clothing symbolic of purity.

The temple will be open to the public until it is dedicated in June 13.

The design of Mormon temples emphasizes symbolism and spiritual upliftment.

Almost immediately inside the Manhattan temple, a stained-glass window shows Jesus journeying to Jerusalem with two disciples who do not recognize him as he explains the Scriptures.

In a grand hallway, a large baptismal font rests upon statues of a dozen white oxen, representing the 12 tribes of Israel. As people move to upper floors in the building as part of a religious journey, the lighting grows brighter, and the dimensions of rooms increase.

The highest chamber at the top of a gently rising ramp is the Celestial Room with a 24-foot-high domed ceiling, ornate lighting, large facing mirrors, a balcony and armchairs and couches.

Visitors are requested not to speak, and if they can’t resist the temptation, to do so in hushed tones. It is a room built for personal prayer and contemplation.

As in Mormon temples elsewhere, there are local touches.

Doorknobs are engraved with a flame like that on the Statue of Liberty’s torch, and the large mural in an instruction room is painted from the perspective of being high on a mountain looking out at a river valley in upstate New York.