In an August 1833 revelation, the Lord commanded the Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, to “commence a work of laying out and preparing a beginning and foundation of the city of the stake of Zion here in the land of Kirtland beginning at my house.” For the next three years, the Saints consecrated much of their time and talents to construct the House of the Lord, later known as the Kirtland Temple.

The First Presidency at that time—Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams—saw the building in vision in 1833 and presided over the laying of the temple cornerstone at a ceremony held on July 23. The revealed design called for an interior 55 feet wide by 65 feet long with a large first-floor assembly room for administering the sacrament, preaching, fasting, and praying, and another large hall on the second floor for a school of the elders. The exterior resembled the New England Protestant style, but the interior introduced unique features, particularly the arrangement of two series of four-tiered pulpits on each end of the assembly rooms for seating the presidencies of the Melchizedek and Aaronic Priesthoods.

A limestone quarry a few miles from the temple provided stone for the temple walls, and a sawmill built and operated through the consecrated service of the Saints supplied wood for the interior. Skilled carpenters, including Jacob Bump, Truman Angell, and Brigham Young, applied their craft to beautify the building. Children gathered discarded shards of crockery and china for mixing into the stucco finish applied to the temple’s exterior.

As the temple neared completion, Joseph Smith met in the structure with Latter-day Saint men who had been ordained to the priesthood in January and February to prepare for the dedication. The assembled men prayed together, experienced spiritual manifestations, partook of the sacrament, and participated in sacred rituals, including ceremonial washing and anointing. On January 21, 1836, Joseph Smith experienced a vision of celestial glory now found in Doctrine and Covenants 137.

On March 27, 1836, the Saints assembled for the temple’s dedication. The Saints partook of the sacrament and listened to several sermons. Joseph Smith offered a prayer of dedication that he had received by revelation (now D&C 109), which the Saints followed by giving the Hosanna Shout and singing “The Spirit of God like a Fire Is Burning,” a hymn penned by William W. Phelps for the occasion. The dedicatory prayer, Hosanna Shout, and Phelps’s hymn became standard elements of subsequent dedicatory proceedings of Latter-day Saint temples.

At the dedication ceremony and at meetings in the following weeks, Latter-day Saints experienced dramatic outpourings of the Holy Spirit and remarkable spiritual events within the temple that fulfilled a promise in earlier revelations that the Lord would “endow” the Saints with “power from on high.” Most notably, a vision of Jesus Christ and several Old Testament prophets seen by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery inaugurated the worldwide gathering of Israel and restored a fulness of the sealing power.

The temple functioned as a center of the Kirtland Saints’ worship, hosting Sabbath, prayer, and fasting meetings. Church leaders and missionaries assembled for study in subjects including reading, writing, history, and geography. The last session of the Kirtland School of the Prophets (also called the School of the Elders) was held in the temple.

A year after the temple’s dedication, a financial crisis beset the Saints in Kirtland. Angry at Church leaders, a faction led by dissenter Warren Parrish attempted to seize the building. Months later, an unknown arsonist tried to set fire to the building. Threats of violence and other troubles led Church leaders and many Saints to leave Ohio for Far West, Missouri. The relatively few Saints remaining in Kirtland continued to worship and congregate in the temple.

After Joseph Smith’s death in 1844, most members of the Kirtland congregation embraced the “New Organization,” a movement that eventually became the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, led by Joseph’s son Joseph Smith III. In 1880, a court recognized the heirs of Joseph Smith as those holding title to the building, and two decades later, the RLDS Church (later Community of Christ) secured ownership through a legal claim of continuous use (known as adverse possession). Community of Christ has cared for the building since that time.

Eliza R. Snow

“The ceremonies of that dedication may be rehearsed, but no mortal language can describe the heavenly manifestations of that memorable day. Angels appeared to some, while a sense of divine presence was realized by all present, and each heart was filled with ‘joy inexpressible and full of glory.’”

Sylvia Cutler Webb

“One of my earliest recollections was the dedication of the Temple. My father took us up on his lap and told us why we were going and what it meant to dedicate a house to God. And although so very young at the time, I clearly remember the occasion. I can look back through the lapse of years and see as I saw then Joseph the Prophet, standing with his hands raised towards heaven, his face ashy pale, the tears running down his cheeks as he spoke on that memorable day. Almost all seemed to be in tears. The house was so crowded the children were mostly sitting on older people’s laps; my sister sat on father’s, I on my mother’s lap. I can even remember the dresses we wore. My mind was too young at that time to grasp the full significance of it all, but as time passed it dawned more and more upon me, and I am very grateful that I was privileged to be there.”

Oliver Cowdery

“In the evening I met with the officers of the church in the Lord’s house. The Spirit was poured out—I saw the glory of God, like a great cloud, come down and rest upon the house, and fill the same like a mighty rushing wind. I also saw cloven tongues, like as of fire rest upon many, … while they spake with other tongues and prophesied.”

Benjamin Brown

“Many visions [were] seen. One saw a pillow or cloud rest down upon the house, bright as when the sun shines on a cloud like as gold. Two others saw three personages hovering in the room with bright keys in their hands, and also a bright chain in their hands.”

Orson Pratt

“God was there, his angels were there, the Holy Ghost was in the midst of the people … and they were filled from the crown of their heads to the soles of their feet with the power and inspiration of the Holy Ghost.”

Nancy Naomi Alexander Tracy

“[When] the Temple was finished and dedicated … they were two of the happiest days of my life. The fitting hymn that was composed for the occasion was ‘The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning.’ It was verily true that the Heavenly Influence rested down upon that house. … I felt that it was heaven on earth.”