Confessions of aMormon Reservationist CRAIG M. CALL

My first experience with losing In early 1971, I returned to BYU, a significant pioneer landmark was and was curious about the public the bulldozing, by a local developer furor over the razing of a in our little Idaho town, of the tabernacle in a strange sounding last remaining log cabin to clear a place called Coalville. Several building site for a modest home. other things I noticed intrigued I wrote a letter to the editor- me. In Provo and Utah County, I was only 16-and said that al- there were fine old buildings like though I could see reasons for the those my Dad had talked about destruction that were fairly com- when we'd gone home teaching pelling, it would be too bad if no to the older folks. one even mentioned in print that When Janine and I got married, some of our heritage was gone. we built a new home together in Some folks in our town were con- 1972. When the chance for a law cerned about preservation, with degree came, we sold it to raise marginal success. The logs left some funds. We sold the gas station from a cabin built in 1870 for in Pendleton, too, and decided Brigham Young had been preserved. to buy an existing home in Provo They served as benches in front of while we went to school. Why not the DUP plaque at the Brigham an older one? Well, we'd spent Young Motel, and acted as stops our first time alone together driving in its parking lot. around American Fork looking at After my mission, I became an the pioneer homes there. The old entrepreneur and contributed to furniture bug had bit us and we the street scapes of Pendleton, liked the idea of owning an old- Oregon, by tearing down a funny fashioned house. As I write this old Victorian home (long a local now, lying on the flowered carpet eyesore) and replacing it with four in front of the parlor fireplace, it's gas pumps and a trailer house. difficult to pin down exactly when For years I joked about the odd after that time my sanity left me neighbors who came and carted and I lost control of my keen finan- off the turned posts, mouldings, and cial mind: every cent I have is etched glass with my blessing, tied up in pioneer real estate. A lot (one less thing I'd have to haul of that law school time was spent to the dump). pounding nails into rough sawn 65 ART AND HISTORY timbers, and we'd renovated 3 1/2 for a parking lot. He said he didn't buildings before I graduated. Now, know, but was certainly not going when my classmates are hustling to tell anyone and get people ex- legal fees, I work as a consultant cited: "It would just give the apos- for the Historical Society. A law tates something to cry over. People school paper on "Historic Preser- are more important than buildings." vation and the Mormon Church" The other stake president was fell into the hands of a Sunstone very concerned. "If you had asked editor and here I am trying to me a week ago, I would have told justify all this. I am also supposed you to pull out all the stops. Do to tell the world (Sunstone's share anything to keep the building, of it anyway) what the Mormon its uses, our neighborhood intact." Church's attitude toward historic Since then he had received a notice preservation is. from the Church's real estate depart- It isn't easy. I have been so ment that the Committee on Ex- concerned at times about decipher- penditures had denied his second ing the Church's attitude toward appeal to them to withhold the the maintenance of our historic option. Two members of the First religious buildings that I have Presidencv were in the session that sought out my stake presidency. made the decision. For one who I have not received any pat answers. sustains his leaders, there was no Last summer I was asked by other choice. I agreed and did some concerned associates to ap- no more myself. proach the leaders of one particular Janine and I also visited Nauvoo stake about their fine old church that year and marvelled at the building, then optioned to a major exhilaration we got from climbing supermarket chain. The building out of the camper on a foggy July was not in religious use anymore, morning to step into another cen- but had a viable role in the com- tury. Walking down the streets, munity as a senior citizens center. we caught the spirit of our own Architecturally, it was really some- progenitors who moved commerce thing. It was located on a fine along those same thoroughfares old main street, almost intact from and made monumental sacrifices early days, with only a gasoline for their faith and leaders. The station on the comer to break painstaking efforts of the Church a generally pleasing street scape. in recreating the Nauvoo experience Another chapel, still in use, was for us lifted our testimonies and near and I wondered why the gave us renewed faith. A visit Church would want to jeopardize to Williamsburg had taught culture, or compromise the local neighbor- but the Nauvoo encounter gave hood of the active chapel with an us broadened eternal perspective. open-on-Sundays supermarket. When President McKay dedicated Two stake presidents were in- a 1957 addition to the Bountiful, volved. The first explained to me Utah, Tabernacle, he talked about that the building's future hung in the ability of cultural landmarks doubt. I asked if there might be to strengthen our dedication to a chance the city or another organi- overcome present-day hardships: zation could raise funds to buy This house becomes more the building if enough people knew than just a house of worship. that it would possibly be razed It is a monument, a link in the CONFESSIONS OF A PRESERVATIONIST

golden chain uniting the present of the De~artment.~ with the past. It is only a means Within a few days of the Priest- to an end, and that end is the hood action. the State Senate of development of character in the Utah passed an unanimous resolu- lives of your youth, instilling testimonies of God's existence tion imploring reconsideration. The in them.' Utah Heritage Foundation and This has been proven to me as I Historical Society were swamped have visited such places as the with protests. These were directed Santa Clara Utah home of Jacob to the First Presidency. Bountiful's Hamblin, the Old Council Hall Planning Commission urged the on Salt Lake's Capitol Hill, and city to deny the demolition permit. most of all, the splendid temples Newspapers picked up the story in Manti and Salt Lake City. Our and gave wide expo~ure.~President Church's meticulous care of such Kimball was in South America, places, or support of their preser- but when he returned, barely five vation, is deeply appreciated by a days after the Bountiful Priesthood lot of people, and I remember vote, an announcement was made for years hearing in testimony that the tabernacle would stand: meetings and Sunday School lessons We feel that because of its about affirmations of spirit prompt- deep attachment to our sacred ed by someone's contact with our pioneer heritage, the Bountiful remaining examples of pioneer Tabernacle is the legacy and craftsmanship and faith. responsibility also of others beyond the Bountiful Utah Stake. No doubt this ability of promi- It is a cherished treasure of the nent landmarks to convey our entire Church. . . . Mormon witness is partially respon- We express both gratitude sible for the Church's pursuit of and commendation to many, preservation in Palmyra, Carthage, many people both within and Nauvoo, and Sharon, Vermont. without the Church who have My early impressions from visits volunteered to contribute time, to these places before I turned funds and energy in an effort fourteen are deep and vivid. to preserve this edifice. . . .' Maintenance and care of even You could hear the sigh of relief our most significant- landmarks all the way down the Wasatch front. is not a foregone conclusion, how- Some were relieved for the Logan ever. In 1975, the Priesthood of Tabernacle and others for the Provo the Bountiful, Utah, Stake voted Third Ward Chapel and for the to demolish the tabernacle President Ogden Relief Society Hall and the McKay was speaking of in the Perry Three-Mile-Creek Ward quote above. Built between 1857 Meetinghouse. If the Bountiful and 1863, it is the oldest continu- Tabernacle remained after such ously used Church facility in the a brush with extinction, there was state. From what I can gather, plans hope for our own buildings in our to add on to the old Greek Revival own communities. adobe structure were deemed im- Decisions made by the Church practical by the Church Building subsidiaries are also encouraging. Department. The Salt Lake Tribune When the McCune Mansion (Salt stated that the stake officers' original Lake's finest) was sold by the desires to preserve the structure Church in 1973, the buyers agreed were overturned by "guidelines" to preserve the building twenty- 67 ART AND HISTORY five years if the Church lowered the only realistic way to understand the purchase price.' The Church the Church attitude toward preser- did. The same situation applies to vation is to conclude that the the 1975 sale of BW's lower campus Church doesn't have an attitude to a group who plans to retain it toward presemation. Various de- as a shopping ~omplex.~Higher partments have attitudes, at times offers were received but the Church seemingly at opposite ends of a wide opted for a plan to preserve continuum, but a general Church the buildings. policy on preservation similar to There remains some irony. Across the policy on missionary work from ZCMI1s glittering cast iron or liquor-by-the-drink has not facade, restored in the process of been articulated. building a new commercial complex, A month after the Coalville and the grand new Hotel Utah, Tabernacle was razed, President reconditioned with superb sensitivi- N. Eldon Tanner stood at the pulpit ty, the Church's financial arm, in general conference and said: Zions Securities, is razing the Con- Lay not up for yourselves stitution Building, a fine commercial treasures upon earth . . . or structure of equal quality. While where your treasure is, there efforts to renovate the 1898 Timpa- will your heart be also . . . I nogas Ward Chapel in Orem with wonder about our undue con- cern for material possessions, an eye to restore its traditional for shrines and monuments, gothic appearance unfortunately which crumble and decay. . . .7 involved sandblasting the brick in a brutal manner, the addition of an At the dedication of the Liberty amusement hall to the Spring City, Jail, President Joseph Fielding Smith remarked: Utah, Tabernacle is as fine as the I think it is wonderful that original portion, with cut oolite this old jail is now in our hands limestone facing and the original and we must not get the wrong motifs repeated in the new wood- idea in regard to it. It is valu- work. I felt as proud to watch the able to us as a historical site, careful retooling of the cornice but we do not worship it by and ceiling designs of the Celestial any rnean~.~ Room in the Salt Lake Temple a I agree with them. I also feel, few years ago as I was disappointed as Elder Neal Maxwell does, that to notice the acoustical texture we must not succumb to the "nar- spray covering vaulted ceilings in cotic of nostalgia" nor expect to the Terrestrial Room of the newly recreate "the Victorian age, but renovated St. George Temple. with penicillin".9 Now I suppose if a person did I agree with Elder James E. Culli- some "investigative reporting" on more, too, when he participated each of these situations he'd have in the dedication of the Johnson a lot of data and reasons why some Farm near Hiram, Ohio, where acts by the Church make historians Joseph Smith received significant happy and some are disappointing. revelations. He emphasized For one who has merely watched the need for members of the all of this happen, however, and Church today to come to such tried to grasp a thread of continuity historic sites as this Johnson through various encounters with Home and to realize and be old Church landmarks, it seems cognizant that the Gospel was 68 CONFESSIONS OF A PRESERVATIONIST

reborn in most humble circum- decisions are delegated and some- stances. . . . This building will times improperly made. Some help impress upon others the results are reached by default. truth of the great manifestation 3. As President Kimball implied which came to the Prophet Joseph in his statement upon rescuing the here . . . and will help them Bountiful Tabernacle, it is proper understand that this is indeed the work of the Lord.lo to appeal to Church authority And President David 0. McKay's about preserving notable landmarks. words at the dedication of our most 4. Historic preservation, when recent Eagle Gate: considered in a realistic, rational format, is good. It is not, however, May the new eagle . . . receive akin to missionary work or gene- thy divine approval and future protection. May the virtues alogy -"central to the mission of associated with its initial structure the Church." There is missionary be incorporated with its new and and genealogical value in pioneer final restoration and may (it) landmarks, though, and it seems the continue to radiate to future question often boils down to finan- generations the virtues of the cial priorities. Pioneers exemplified as follows: 5. Decisions on church landmarks loyalty, industry, freedom, faith, are not made by any one depart- and worship.ll ment. Much inconsistency results All these comments leave wide from different priorities among middle ground in which we seem to different decision-making agencies. have discretion to overate without 6. Those presently in charge running at odds with counsel from of the staff positions in the Church's those we sustain as inspired leaders. building programs do not always Once brought to the point of stating seem to be open minded about my understanding of it all, I can retaining older buildings. sum up my view in the context of 7. Local authorities should not a few principles that seem to apply: leave unquestioned every assertion 1. When buildings are dedicated by Church building officials that a to the Lord, they are his. He may building is irreparable or hopelessly decide to convey that stewardship unsafe. New technology and creative to whomever he wills. At present, solutions to safety and structural President Kimball is Trustee-in- problems are constantly improving Trust, and Bishop Victor L. Brown the chances for older buildings. is head of the Corporation of the 8. Which buildings are worth Presiding Bishop. Theirs is the right saving and which are not is an to decide finally, legally, and theolo- elusive question. Local concern gically. We sustain them, with needs to be weighed against such our arms, once a year and should factors as alternative sites for new do so in our actions as well, once buildings, sources of preservation a final decision is made. Because financing, and historical significance. of their positions, they are entitled 9. We are losing too many to revelation and some decisions we fine structures. will not understand because their 10. Few buildings can be con- insights into eternal principles sidered safe from demolition and, are above ours. unfortunately, often no word is 2. The Church being composed of heard of impending doom until fallible humans with finite capacity, it is almost too late. One interested 69 ART AND HISTORY in a building's future must monitor its status continually. 11. Much has been accomplished by local people at local levels. If the Church is not interested in a building's future, ward or stake members, city councils, or others nearby can often arrange for future care. 12. Anyone interested in saving a building needs to bear it's financial burden. Unless a building can be seen to contribute to the Church's central objectives, that is, as an adequate meetinghouse or mis- sionary tool, tithing funds will not be wisely used in maintaining it. 13. Some assurance of long- term maintenance needs to be made if a landmark is to be preserved. 14. Contention is of the Devil. Fighting Church leaders is wrong. It is easy to lose sight of eternal values- questions of principle- when quibbling over questions of preference. 15. People are more important than buildings. Buildings, however, can provide inspiration, tradition, beauty, and pride. These in turn make people better.

1. Church News, Febmary 10,1973, p. 13. 2. Ibid. 3. See Salt Lake Tribune, March 11 through March 14, 1975. Articles usually found on page 51. 4. Deseret News, March 14, 1975, p. 51. 5. Church News, March 24, 1973, p. 5. 6. Discussion by Ab Christensen, of Archi- tects and Planners Alliance, Partner in Academy Square Associates, Provo, Utah, Chamber of Commerce Luncheon Meeting, Summer 1975. 7. Ensign, June, 197l, p. 14. 8. Church News, September 21,1963, p. 14. 9. General Conference, April 1975. See Ensign, May 1975, p. 101. 10. Church News, May 17,1969, p. 3. 11. Church News, November 9, 1963, p. 14.