Celebrating Kirtland
Historic Site Rises Again

An Exclusive Photographic Essay
Photography by Scot Facer Proctor
Essay by Maurine Jensen Proctor
All Photographs Copyright 2003 Scot Facer Proctor
(Use of any photographs herein only by written permission of Meridian Magazine)

click on photos to enlarge

Part 1

In a series of cover stories and photographic essays, this week Meridian will celebrate the restoration of historic Kirtland, remembering one of the Church’s most significant chapters. Watch for articles on the dedication of the new sites, accompany the Prophet on his tour of the restored Kirtland, enjoy the story of Karl Ricks Anderson and others who felt an urgency to see this project completed, meet the heads of the private foundation that is dedicated to funding Mormon historic preservation. Each article will be richly illustrated with photographs that take you there.

For years, Kirtland was marked by the temple on the hill, the Newel K. Whitney store, and across the busiest intersection in the town where 21,000 cars passed every day, a makeshift visitor’s center.

Driving down the hill from the Kirtland Temple one can see the lovely old Kirtland village area.

Before that, most of the Church members did not know much about Kirtland or the Ohio period of the history of the Restoration. Certainly, “Kirtland” appeared in the headnotes of some sections of the Doctrine & Covenants and there was, for some, a vague recollection that the Saints stopped in Ohio on their way to somewhere else.

View looking west of Old Carriage House and the John Johnson Inn.

Yet, it was still easy to have the sense of a founding in New York and fruition and ferment in Illinois without knowing much in between. We suffered, perhaps, from a collective amnesia.

Area behind the Newel K. Whitney Store where Joseph Smith and Brigham Young first met (in this life).

Karl Ricks Anderson likes to think that Kirtland was one of the Church’s best-kept secrets—and if so—a significant secret, because though the Church was founded in New York, it was certainly organized in Kirtland.

Artist Walter Rane painted this scene of the original building of the Kirtland Temple (circa 1835). This large canvas hangs in the new Kirtland Visitors Center.

Here was the calling of the Twelve, the organization of the priesthood, the building of the first temple in the latter days, the restoration of priesthood keys, the sending out of missionaries beyond the nation, mind-expanding insights into the nature of God, a look into the destiny and promises for humanity in the vision of the three degrees of glory. Elder Neal A. Maxwell calls the outpouring of revelations the “Kirtland cascade” calling the doctrine they revealed “stunning.”

To fail to fully comprehend the meaning of Kirtland in our group memory was to suffer profound loss.

Click here to go to Part 2 of
Celebrating Kirtland--Historic Site Rises Again--A Photo Essay

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