M E R I D I A N     M A G A Z I N E

Sacred Stone: Distinctive Features of the Nauvoo Temple
by Heidi S. Swinton

The Windows:
The intended structure was massive by most standards and certainly far exceeded any building effort underway for hundreds of miles. Joseph Smith selected young architect William Weeks to design the temple but retained the role as chief architect. At one point, the two clashed regarding the design of round windows in the broad side of the building. Weeks contended that the windows should be semicircular—that the building was not tall enough to accommodate round windows. Joseph Smith summarily dismissed his objection: "I wish you to carry out my designs. I have seen in vision the splendid appearance of that building illuminated, and will have it built according to the pattern shown me."

The windows of the temple rivaled the stone as a distinctive feature. In the 1840's, the windows were more than ornamentation; they illuminated the interior with shafts of light. Even the shapes of the windows—some round, some with rounding at the top with a half circle—suggested light of a rising or setting sun, or of the sun high in the sky. Between the two rows of main windows, Joseph Smith asked for a row of round windows. Initially the architect, William Weeks, balked at the variance to accepted practice, but the round windows became a dramatic feature. Above the capitals and between each of the stone stars ran another row of smaller circular windows of painted glass that lit the rooms of the attic story used by the Saints for their special ceremonies.

The varied sizes of the rectangular windows, some with their half-circle top "give the appearance of thrusting up to the stars at the top of the temple," Charles Allen suggest. He knows what he is talking about, having been given the charge to design and craft all 127 windows. He talks of mullions and putty, of moldings and wind tunnels as he describes the process that required him to triple the size of his shop in Nauvoo for this project. Allen uses a historic restoration method that would have been appropriate for the 1840 period, using original mortise and tenon square-peg joinery instead of nails in window sashes and doors.

"I come to the shop every day and look at the windows and just shake my head. I marvel; it's a miracle that the windows came from our shop," states Allen who heads up the family operation.

The glass for the new temple was mouth blown—as the earlier glass would have been—in France.

The Carved Stonework:
The chiseled stonework on the temple pointed to its sacred purpose. In the spring of 1844, the Prophet Joseph Smith escorted Josiah Quincy, a notable from Boston, Massachusetts, about the already imposing yet nowhere-near-complete structure. While the pilasters were yet to stretch above the first floor, the stone carvings to ornament the exterior were underway. Years later, Quincy published his thoughts about the tour with the young Prophet:

Near the entrance to the Temple we passed a workman who was laboring upon a huge sun, which he had chiseled from the solid rock....'General Smith,' said the man, looking up from his task, 'is this like the face you saw in vision?'

'Very near it,' answered the prophet. 2

A visitor to Nauvoo from Pittsburgh later described the face on the sunstone as one "seen in old almanacs."3 Looking at the sunstones conjures up images of mallets, chisels, sanding devices, and ropes to haul the one-ton pieces into place.

The carved stones on the temple, the sunstone in particular, have been the focus of much attention over the years. The original architectural features have been reproduced with great care on the new temple. The pilasters, ornamented with carved moonstones at the base and the sun and trumpers on the capitals, stand as dramatic columns around the temple. These dramatic features were more than decoration; they symbolized the signs in the heavens. Joseph Smith saw the prominent stone ornamentation in a vision prior to the temple's construction. He taught that these astronomical symbols indicated the nature of the glorious blessings performed within the temple's walls: "God has made certain decrees which are fixed and immovable; for instance God set the sun, the moon, and the stars in the heavens, and gave them their laws, conditions and bounds, which they cannot pass except by His commandments; they all move in perfect harmony in their sphere and order, and are as lights and wonders, and signs to us."3

"It is intended that this temple on earth reproduce a temple plan or model which exists in heaven. So this implies two or three things. First that the temple on earth actually reflect the heavenly sphere in its architecture, namely the presence of the heavenly bodies—stars, sun, moon," explains Dr. John Lundquist. "These are reflected as symbols in the actual architecture of the temple to underlie that this is a meeting place of heaven and earth. Second, all of the great temple-building traditions have had the idea of astronomy, namely that the temple has always been like an observatory."

Of all the apparent themes etched in stone, Dr. Richard Ahlborn, curator of the Smithsonian Institute, suggests: "What creative power than making reference to what was created." In one of the "largest single acquisitions" by its Board of Regents, the Smithsonian purchased one of the two remaining sunstones for permanent display. Dr. Ahlborn sees "the sunstone as both a material object and visual presence that embodies the values of the people, the culture. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints obviously had, and you can feel it in the sunstone, a presence, a purpose, a sense of what needed to be done and the sunstone tells me all of that."

Dr. Madsen adds his interpretation: "The Saints came to the temple and saw on its exterior the very prophecy of the destiny of righteousness, meaning the fullness of the light of God." The image of stars in the galaxy is captured in the conversation between the Lord and Abraham, explains Dr. Madsen. "And the Lord says, 'Look up Abraham.' And he looks up at the night sky and sees the canopy of stars, and the voice of the Lord says, 'Thy posterity shall be like these, they will shine like stars of first magnitude.' So, temple and temple awareness were to fulfill the promises of Abraham in our modern day. That was their faith."

© Covenant Communications, 2002

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