Logan, Utah Points of Interest

MORMON TABERNACLE, Main and Center Sts., a cupola-crowned structure of gray limestone, is an excellent example of early Mormon architecture. The building, started in 1865, was razed and begun again in the following year when discrepancies were found in the plans. The completed building, with a seating capacity of 2,000 and a pipe organ, was dedicated thirteen years later.

LOGAN TEMPLE, 1st North and 2nd East Sts., is maintained by the Latter-day Saints (Mormon) Church for the administration of sacred ordinances, and is not open to the general public. The building, a grim castellated structure with octagonal corner towers surmounted by cupolas and massive buttresses, commands the city from the crest of an abrupt promontory two blocks east of Main Street. The walls, of rough-hewn limestone, are unrelieved by ornamentation, except mouldings of light sandstone at the story levels and on the cornices. Fenestration is simple, and the end towers, 170 feet high, are capped with unornamented cupolas. The level grounds east of the building are landscaped with trees and flower plots, but to the west they slope down sharply from the building and are covered, in conformity with the severe character of the Temple, only by a wide sweep of lawn.

The temple was completed in 1884, almost two decades after Apostle William Woodruff of the Mormon Church prophesied to the people of Logan that "the day will come, after your fathers and the prophets and the apostles are dead, when you will have the privilege of going into the towers of a glorious temple." Brigham Young selected the site and conducted ceremonies for breaking of the ground in 1877. Mormon residents of Logan and some Shoshone Indian converts labored on the building for seven years without wage, hauling timber and stone from Logan Canyon, and the Church raised almost a million dollars through gifts and tithes to fulfill the prophecy. The temple was dedicated by John Taylor, successor to Brigham Young in the Church Presidency.

CACHE COUNTY RELIC HALL, 1st West and 1st South Sts., a stone building, contains a collection of pioneer tools, farm implements, art, and furniture. The hall, a reminder of the days of "brick barns and frame houses," was erected as a stable and carriage house by Hezekiah Thatcher in 1861. He transferred it to the old Brigham Young College in the 1870's to be used for classrooms, and that organization, when dissolved in 1927, gave it to the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.