Holiness to the Lord: The First Salt Lake Temple Dedication, 1893

The days leading up to the dedication of the Salt Lake temple were full of energy and commotion. Work on the temple was still in progress on the day before the doors were scheduled to open. The city streets, meanwhile, were thronged with visitors arriving hourly by train, buggy, and horseback. … Tens of thousands of Saints were planning to come to Salt Lake City that spring to see the house of the Lord with their own eyes.

The day before the first dedicatory session, Church leaders gave a tour of the temple to local and national reporters as well as dignitaries who were not members of the Church. Many of the guests praised the temple’s craftsmanship, from its elegant spiral staircases to its delicately tiled flooring. Even the Church’s staunchest critics were amazed.

“The interior was a revelation of beauty,” wrote one reporter from the Salt Lake Tribune, “so much so that the visitors stopped and stood still involuntarily, totally engrossed in their surroundings.”

The next morning, April 6, 1893, dawned bright but chilly. Over two thousand Saints with recommends for the first dedicatory session began lining up outside the temple gates hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin. … The weather grew colder and a stiff breeze began to blow. Soon, frigid rain fell and the breeze became a howling wind, blasting the Saints who huddled patiently in line. …

Yet those who stood outside the building saw a sign. … Lifting their eyes to heaven, they glimpsed a large flock of seagulls pirouetting in the sky, circling the temple spires in the midst of the storm.