They came together and mourned.

Five thousand or more gathered and wept together — some silently, some out loud — as they remembered not a president, a king, nor a person of note. They had come to the UCCU Events Center at Utah Valley University to offer tribute to a building of brick and mortar, a building with memories imprinted on every singed brick and torched pew.

The Provo Tabernacle, for more than 130 years the center of daily life both temporally and spiritually for hundreds of thousands, was gone. Its art glass windows, circular staircases and collectible art pieces were diminished to smoldering rubble among heavy smoke, leaving a mere shell of a building.

What was it about this particular building that had people from all over the world mourning its loss?

To know why, one must look back at the building and the community that used it as a church, a meetinghouse, a concert hall and a political pulpit.

The history

The excitement of the 1880s and 1890s, known as the Gilded Age, produced some of the world’s most influential rulers, industrialists, inventors, performers and celebrities — some of whom visited Provo and its new tabernacle.

Contemporary with the construction of the Provo Tabernacle — now the Provo City Center Temple — were the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, Carnegie Hall and Ellis Island. In 1893, the Chicago World’s Fair Columbian Exposition drew crowds from around the world.

More converts to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were coming to Utah. Just three years before the dedication of the new tabernacle, Utah became a state.

In Provo, one of the hotbeds of the territory, a Presbyterian-style meetinghouse had been built in the 1860s, on the block that would later house the Provo Tabernacle, to succor the saints and provide a central meeting place for the Utah Stake, which covered all of Utah County.

The original tabernacle, dedicated in 1867, was 61 feet by 182 feet and seated 1,200. It was 2.5 stories above ground and one full story below and was located just north of the new Provo City Center Temple. Another building adjacent to it contained one of the first indoor baptismal fonts in the territory. It was completed in 1870.

Just one block south was the popular Hotel Roberts. It was a draw for downtown business and for travelers throughout the area.

“Hotel Roberts was the most luxurious hotel in the Utah Territory,” said Ryan Saltzgiver of the LDS History Department.

In 1947, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Utah County published a centennial history of Utah County titled, “Memories That Live.” 

According to numerous historical accounts, when Brigham Young met with the primary contractors at the time of the first tabernacle’s dedication he told them it was already too small. The description of the meetinghouse, or first tabernacle, includes the following:

“The meetinghouse or tabernacle, answered the needs of the people until 1883, when they found it necessary to build a tabernacle that would house three times the number of people as did the meetinghouse they had enjoyed the past 16 years.”

Brigham Young’s desire for a larger tabernacle came to fruition. William Harrison Folsom was called upon to design a newer, bigger tabernacle. Folsom had just completed the designs for the Manti Temple.

According to the DUP of Utah County, “H.H. Cluff, J.P.R. Johnson and J. C. Snyder were appointed as building committee for the new tabernacle.”

Construction started in 1883 on the building with architecture that followed the Charles Eastlake and Victorian Gothic designs. Built by pioneers, the tabernacle could have easily graced the streets of New York, Chicago or London.

According to the Millennial Star publication, “The Provo Tabernacle was the most beautiful in the territory.”

A description of the new tabernacle by the DUP of Utah County indicates it sat on wide lawns that covered a city block.

“Cathedral windows are used throughout the building and the beautiful ivy vines cover the walls. The interior is finished with painted, stained and varnished sugar pine wood. The stand was designed by Thomas Allman.”

The description continues, “When first finished the benches were made with straight backs and the seats were covered with red velvet — later these were replaced by curved back, spring-filled, leather upholstered benches. A green plush curtain separated the choir from the top pulpit and speakers.”

According to the DUP history, “The pipe organ was imported by D.O. Calder and was one of the finest to be bought at that time. The tabernacle has been in service for 60 years.”

David John, the great-great-grandfather of Provo residents Judy Kelsch and Carol Walker, wrote in his journal about a musical program fundraiser.

“On May Day (May 1) 1889 a musical festival was held in the Utah Stake Tabernacle. The proceeds were dedicated to purchasing an organ for the tabernacle,” he said.

John was called to take care of the tithing house and collect the funds. He was a member of the Utah Stake presidency under President Abraham O. Smoot. His numerous handwritten journals are a living history of the two tabernacles, the meetings and the memories of early Provo.

Other dinners and programs were also held to benefit the cost of the organ and other amenities in the tabernacle, according to John.

The tabernacle was dedicated in 1898 by George Q. Cannon, who filled in when LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff fell ill. It housed the Utah Stake, the Provo Stake and several wards and branches.

According to the DUP history book, “This tabernacle, situated in the heart of Provo city, was built to stand for future generations.”

Nearly every LDS president since Lorenzo Snow has spoken at the tabernacle, as well as leaders from other faiths. Two April general conferences of the LDS Church were held there in 1886 and 1887. The conference sessions were held during a heightened time of concern for the LDS Church regarding its practice of polygamy.

Brent Ashworth, a local collector of rare books, documents and art, has special connections to the tabernacle. His father, Dell Ashworth, was the last architect on the tabernacle and was in charge of installing new heating systems during the last upgrades to the building in 1985.

Ashworth has numerous documents, photos and other items relating the tabernacle and Provo — along with many stories.

“In the 1886 conference there was only one general authority on the stand, Elder Franklin D. Richards, because he was not a polygamist,” Ashworth said.

Ashworth said the U.S. Marshals were in town gathering up general authorities and other men who were practicing polygamy. Many went into hiding. Some were even chased around the Provo Tabernacle.

“If we hadn’t have had Teddy Roosevelt as a friend, we’d still be running around,” Ashworth added.

In 1909, U.S. President William Howard Taft spoke at the tabernacle as a guest of Sen. Reed Smoot.

Provo’s faithful

For nearly a century the building provided accommodations for numerous and varied LDS Church meetings only.

That changed on Christmas Eve 1996 when members of a local Catholic congregation held three traditional masses in the building. That would be the first time the building was used for a church service other than LDS.

The Daily Herald reported that the Rev. William H. Flegge, a Provo newcomer, had heard how crowded Christmas Eve services were the previous year at St. Francis, and he approached officials of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the 1996 news report on the event Flegge said, “I didn’t know what to expect.”

Mormon officials agreed to allow the tabernacle for the Catholic church’s use, and the century-old building was transformed for three Christmas Eve services. Parishioners worked all day to move fixtures from St. Francis a few blocks away.

“It’s just perfect,” Flegge said as he gestured to the nearly life-sized crucifix positioned amid the choir seats behind the satin-draped pulpit. “It looks like it absolutely belongs there.”

The crucifix, candles, communion wine, incense and statue of the Virgin Mary definitely were new.

“Last year, people were crowded in and we had to rush them through the Mass,” said Lector Kevin Crowell. “Using the tabernacle made for a more meaningful worship service.”

The congregation was also thankful and applauded when Flegge said, “The Lord would bless his faithful Mormon brothers and sisters for use of this beautiful building.”

On at least one occasion the tabernacle was also used as a “Station of the Cross” during a multi-church event at Easter remembering Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the days prior to his crucifixion and resurrection.

A few years later, as part of the Freedom Festival Mayor’s Prayer Breakfast, Robert Schuller from the famous Crystal Cathedral in California spoke.

In a speech given by Utah Valley University President Matthew Holland during memorial services for the burnt tabernacle, he said, “The tabernacle has been the place of my sweetest moments of communion with believers not of my particular faith. As Provo Seventh-day Adventist pastor Carlos Garcia and head elder Brad E. Walton said, ‘Our congregation has been welcomed to that facility on many occasions. … It was not only a beautiful, historic building, but a place where we were all part of a greater community.'”

What a unifying and uplifting power those moments have been, Holland added.

Fond memories

There are hundreds of thousands of sweet memories that took place in the tabernacle.

The Daily Herald received a short note from 90-year-old Patricia Pett. She tells of a special program she was involved in when she was in the first grade at Maeser Elementary School in 1930.

“Our first-grade class took part in a program at the tabernacle,” Pett wrote. “Our class performed on the stage there, and we marched to the music of Sousa’s song ‘Stars and Stripes Forever.’ That has been a special memory for me, and I have cherished and loved that building ever since.”

Ethel Belmont Tregeagle, 103, doesn’t get out much anymore. But recently her family took her down to see the new Provo City Center Temple.

“It’s beautiful how they’ve restored it,” Tregeagle said. “It looks just like it did. I used to walk by it every day to go to school. I would always call it the temple when I walked by it.”

Provo resident Diane B. Christensen said her entire family and many of her friends have a connection to the tabernacle.

“Half the people in Provo felt the tabernacle had belonged to them personally when it burned down. My family included,” Christensen said. “We attended stake conference there for almost 30 years. We sat on the same bench in the north balcony every time.

“Merrill (Diane’s husband) and I both spoke from the pulpit. We took turns sitting in the big wooden chairs in front of the pulpit when he was in the high council and I was in the stake relief society presidency.”

Christensen remembers her husband being in the Provo Stake production of “The King and I” in the mid-1980s.

“Merrill sang in the choir when President Benson re-dedicated the tabernacle — they called it the Provo Tabernacle Choir and thought they were very funny,” she said. “Our son Michael had his college convocation at the tabernacle.”

Christensen said when the building burned, her family sat on the couch and cried like they had lost a close friend. When LDS Church President Thomas S. Monson announced the reconstruction from tabernacle to temple, she said they also gasped like everyone else, and cried some more.

“Funny thing is, hundreds and hundreds of people in Provo could tell stories just like this,” Christensen said. “That’s why we’re all so excited to walk back into that building.

“In a little place in our minds it will still look like it did five years ago before the fire. But we’ll love discovering what it looks like now.”

The downsides

Throughout its life the tabernacle faced a number of close calls. Historical accounts record that it was partially condemned in 1913 because the roof’s truss system didn’t support the center tower. It was renovated in 1917, and the center tower was removed. In 1919, the meetinghouse next door was torn down.

In the 1930s and ’40s, the tabernacle suffered from one of the worst indignities ever to inflict an aging edifice — bats and excrement odor.

Worshippers and concert-goers reported detecting a faint, musty, malodorous smell mingling with the aroma of the floral arrangements that frequently decorated the podium.

It was later discovered the odor came from the droppings of the thousands of bats that annually inhabited the tabernacle’s attic.

The bats caused other inconveniences. They squeezed inside the pipe organ and altered its tone. Provo resident Shirley Paxman recalls stories about stray bats winging their way through the tabernacle during stake conferences.

Tabernacle custodian Harry L. Boswell pondered the problem of how to rid the building of bats. Boswell decided to use one of the only available means of solving the problem — a .22-caliber rifle loaded with fine bird shot.

On occasion, Boswell would climb the steps leading from the tabernacle balcony into his own private shooting gallery in the attic. After locating a cluster of bats, Boswell would take careful aim and fire, often dropping several at a time.

More than 13 loads of bat guano were carried out of the attic. Bat manure, considered one of the best types of fertilizer, was placed on the lawns around the tabernacle. Thanks to the bats, the tabernacle lawns in the 1930s and ’40s dazzled even those with the greenest of thumbs.

The tabernacle was used extensively, and by the end of World War II was in disrepair.

It was condemned again in 1949 because of the roof system. Fred Markham, a local LDS stake president, was an architect, and he figured out a way to support the roof. At the time, there was a serious move to tear down the tabernacle.

In the 1980s, it was remodeled again and brought back to its historic character. It was re-dedicated by Monson.

The Provo Tabernacle featured Gothic-style stained glass windows and a steep roof and corner turrets that gave the exterior a distinctive look. A pipe organ provided a stunning backdrop to the elaborate, hand-carved rostrum.

LDS Historic Sites Curator Emily Utt, speaking to Provo Rotarians during a luncheon lecture, said, “The builders went to extraordinary lengths. It is one of the best tabernacles built.”

Gov. Gary Herbert remembered as a young boy going Christmas shopping in downtown Provo and how much he enjoyed going to the tabernacle and seeing the Christmas lights.

“The tabernacle was part of the ambiance of the city,” he said at the 2010 memorial service. “Whatever generation pioneer you are, there is a sense of gratitude for those who went before.

“That tabernacle represents that for us. We should reflect on their service and sacrifice for the community and recommit ourselves to that same pioneer spirit.”