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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 2

Details of the Walter Rane painting.

Now, after decades of research and five years of fund-raising and construction, Kirtland has been reborn with many new sites restored. These include the Newel K. Whitney home, the Johnson Inn, a mill, the only period ashery in the United States, the red school house and a new visitors’ center.

The John Johnson Inn was originally built in the mid-1820’s by Peter French and was the first brick building in Kirtland. The reconstructed inn now houses a small theater, exhibits on the legacy of Kirtland, and a computer kiosk where visitors can search for their ancestors in a database of about 1,800 families who lived in Kirtland in the 1830’s.

That bustling intersection has vanished as the road has been moved around and beyond the site, and where cars used to whiz by are bark-lined walking paths along a stony brook and towering trees that lead to a working mill.

Newly-built Visitors Center is the place to start a tour of the newly restored old Kirtland.

This meticulous, multi-million dollar restoration project was made possible not just through the Church’s efforts alone, but also with the private donations of many individuals. President Hinckley noted that Bob Gay of Connecticut handed him two checks, one for $25,000 and the other blank except for his signature. Steve Young and Alan and Karen Ashton were among many others thanked for their contributions.

Visitors are welcomed by lovely landscaping and flowers in the newly restored old Kirtland.

It is not just buildings that are preserved or restored here, but memory itself. Walk into the mill or the Whitney store, and the people and marvelous light shed forth upon this place becomes vivid and tangible.

Entry to the John Johnson Inn where visitors can search for their own family names to see if they were residents of 1830’s Kirtland.

You can feel the power of a people who out of their poverty built a temple where Christ visited, who dusted off their paradigms and expanded into grander views.

Steven L. Olsen who heads the Church’s restoration efforts said, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is not in the business of historic preservation per se. It is in the business of saving souls, in accordance with our understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The John Johnson Inn was reconstructed to look very much like the original (based on extent photographs of the original structure).

So, what does a historical consciousness have to do with a religious identity? In many academic and religious circles throughout America today, these two interests are often seen as diametrically opposed. Yet for the Latter-day Saints, the two are inextricably linked. Our core doctrines are grounded in historical experience.”

View from the John Johnson Inn of the south face of the
Newel K. and Elizabeth Ann Whitney home.

Olsen said, “In some respects these historical sites are three-dimensional witnesses to the history of this restoration.”

Looking through the trees at the John Johnson Inn and the Newel K. and
Elizabeth Ann Whitney home

Sunday, May 18th President Hinckley toured the sites and dedicated them in an emotional meeting that was broadcast by satellite to stake centers throughout Ohio. He said Kirtland has been “sanctified by the sacrifice of those who stopped here for a season, including my own forebears…I think those (early Latter-day Saints) who walked these roads could not have dreamed—although the prophet spoke of it—of the marvelous expansion of this great work.”

Click here to go to Part 3 of Celebrating Kirtland--Historic Site Rises Again -- A Photo Essay

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