Salt Lake City, Utah
Downtown Walking Tour
Genealogy Research Trips

Enjoy this walking tour of the beautiful flowers, bushes & trees in all seasons of the year on this 40 acres of meticulously landscaped flora.
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Summer Photos
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Winter Photos
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Family History Library
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Church History Library
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Night Photos
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Christmas Lights
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Joseph Smith Memorial Building
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The New Church History Building under construction 2006 to 2008
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President Gordon B. Hinckley uses a small shovel crafted by Brigham Young. (Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret Morning News)
President Gordon B. Hinckley uses a small shovel crafted by Brigham Young.

It is to be a replacement for the current history library in the Church Office Building, a high-rise building one block from the Family History Library.

The five-floor, 250,000-square-foot building will be located on the northeast corner of the intersection of North Temple and Main streets, a spot that is a parking lot today. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with completion scheduled for late 2007. The new library will house the growing historical collection, which currently includes 3.5 million manuscripts, 210,000 publications, 100,000 photographs and 50,000 audiovisual productions. Again, it will not house genealogy information.

The 250,000-square-foot LDS Church History Library will sit at northeast corner of North Temple and Main.

Tight space, aging records and a growing membership have left the current LDS history library crowded and inadequate.

The new library, to be completed in the spring of 2009, will include a collection of 270,000 books, pamphlets and magazines, as well as 240,000 original unpublished records.

The Foundation of the new Church History Building is just coming up to ground level during the early Summer of 2007 As viewed from the Kimball Condominiums with the main Church Office Building in the background
This is the back side of the new Church History Building and will face the Kimball Condominiums and the LDS Conference Center accross Main Street This is the corner of the building and will be all glass facing Temple Square and the LDS Conference Center Front of building facing North Temple and the main Church Office Buiding
The 250,000-square-foot LDS Church History Library will sit at northeast corner of North Temple and Main. (Bowen Studios) Ground Broken for New Church History Library
Church History
 
SALT LAKE CITY — The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints broke ground for a new Church History Library in downtown
Salt Lake City.

This new library will incorporate updated technology and significantly increase archival storage capacity to preserve Church records. The library will house nearly 25 miles of shelving containing books, pamphlets, journals, manuscripts, photographs, microfilm, microfiche, audiovisual items and other published and unpublished works.

When completed, scholars, Church members and other researchers will enjoy expanded research facilities and enhanced access to Church historical collections.

President Gordon B. Hinckley offered remarks and a dedicatory prayer on the building site at the northeast corner of the intersection of North Temple and Main streets. President Thomas S. Monson and President James E. Faust, his counselors in the First Presidency, also spoke briefly.

More than 400 invited guests attended the event, including general authorities, local government officials and employees and missionaries of the Church history divisions of the Family and Church History Department.

In his remarks, President Hinckley explained that Church historians have kept careful records since the Church’s founding in 1830. He expressed “gratitude and appreciation that the custodians of the records of the Church through all of the years of its existence have been so conscientious and dutiful and helpful and devoted in every respect.”

In keeping with the historic significance of the day, President Hinckley turned the first spade of earth with a small fireplace shovel made by Brigham Young, second president of the Church. The shovel was used by Elder G. Homer Durham, then serving as Church historian and recorder, in the 1984 groundbreaking ceremony for the Museum of Church History and Art.

MHTN Architects, Inc., a Salt Lake City-based firm, has designed the new library to visually complement the Conference Center across Main Street to its west. MHTN and specialists from the Family and Church History Department have consulted with international experts in records preservation and archival design to ensure that this facility will employ best-available lighting, humidity and temperature controls, as well as fire and seismic protection.

Jacobsen/Swinerton, a joint venture, will serve as general contractor for the building. Construction will begin later this year, and completion is scheduled for late 2007.

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January 10, 2006

Contact Information LDS Philanthropies
LDS Philanthropies
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2nd Floor East
Salt Lake City, UT 84150
801-240-5567
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LDS Philanthropies is a department of the Office of the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is responsible for donations to the Church and its institutions beyond tithes and offerings.
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