Kirtland Historic Sites, including Kirtland Temple

My plan for the day was to visit some religious historical sites in the town of Kirtland today, but I was running short on clean clothes, so my first order of attack was to find a laundromat and do a batch of laundry.

After finishing my laundry, I drove to the Kirtland Temple for a temple tour. The Kirtland temple was the first temple built by the LDS church. It was constructed in 1833-1866. Ownership changed hands a few times over the years. Another faction of the Mormon church owned it for decades and conducted tours, but it was recently reaquired by the LDS church. 

Many visions and spiritual experiences were reported during the temple dedication in 

1836. The interior of the temple is a lot different than modern LDS temples.

The Kirtland temple is 3 stories high, and has a staircase on each side as you enter from the front doors. The following photo was taken from one of the staircases.

The third floor has a series of meeting rooms and classrooms. The bottom 2 floors each have one large room with pews and pulpits on both ends. The large rooms were designed so that curtains could be rolled down from the ceiling via pulleys to divide the room into smaller sections if needed. The pulley system was accessed from the support posts. The access door on the left post is open in the first photo, below. The curtain rollers are visible on the ceiling.

These two photos are of the second floor. The boxes around the pews on this floor were not original, but were added later.

The boxes around the first floor pews, below, were original. The first floor also  had a different way of lowering the curtains.

Anyone could attend the temple in those days. It was more like a meetinghouse.

After touring the temple, I watched a movie in the Historic Kirtland visitor center and then took a tour of a few other buildings -- the Newell K. Whitney store, the Whitney's home, an ashery and a sawmill.

The Newell K. Whitney store had a display of contemporary goods on the main floor. The upper floor had some living quarters and meeting rooms. The Whitneys let Joseph Smith and his wife live there for a time, and hold meetings in some of the rooms.

It was during that time that Joseph Smith had a revelation regarding health that led to LDS not smoking, drinking alcohol, coffee or tea. 

 

I didn't take any photos of the ashery or sawmill. The sawmill was used to create the lumber for the temple and other buildings around town. The ashery made potash by soaking ashes  from burnt wood. The potash was used to make lye and soap and could also be sold.

Here is a group photo from the tour. The couple on the left led the tour. The couple on the right are from Sri Lanka and came to Ohio to study at one of the universities.

After the tour, I drove to the nearby Stannard Quarry that is now a park, and walked around the trails. Rock from the quarry was used in the construction of the Kirtland Temple and other buildings in the area. The trails around the quarry were beautiful and peaceful.

The town had an outdoor musical event in the park. They had problems with the sound system so they had to quit early. I only got to hear a few songs. I spent the night in the nearby town of Mentor.