It’s the last week of the month, and for October we are focusing in on 2 religious buildings that have a lot of historical significance for the State of Utah; The LDS Temple in Salt Lake City and The Cathedral of The Madeleine also in Salt Lake.

The show begins though, with some grumbles from Jeremy and Chris about the small election this coming week, and how folks continue to be running unopposed in the state, especially in local elections. We also complain about the need to mail ballots for a single position in a district, that is unopposed. A real barn burner of a choice who to vote for if you ask us.

Now into the good stuff, where we start with the LDS temple, in Temple Square, Downtown Salt Lake City. While not the first Mormon temple built, it is the largest in the world. It stands 210 feet tall, is covered in Utah granite as thick as 9 feet at the base and took 40 years to build.

The land the temple would be built on was recognized quickly and snatched up. A wall went up in 1852, to conceal the area to be built within. On April 6, 1853, the cornerstone ceremony occurred and work began in earnest. Local sandstone was initially used in the construction, which took years in foundation work. 14 years before walls appeared above ground to be exact.

In 1857, the site was buried, and hidden, in an effort to prevent the US Army from identifying that a temple was being built. When work resumed on the temple, after the military left and the Utah War was all but over, it was discovered that sandstone was just not the right material. So in 1860, the builders swapped to granite, which had been recently discovered in the nearby canyons.

In the episode we talk about the design of the temple, the symbolism used within and outside and many of the structures in temple square itself. It took 40 years to the day to complete, and on April 6, 1893 the temple was officially dedicated. Today, the temple is undergoing a massive renovation, and visiting it is not possible for the next 4 years.

We then move to a much quicker project, but equally significant to the State of Utah. The Cathedral of The Madeleine in downtown Salt Lake, just a few blocks form the LDS Temple, is a bastion of Catholic presence in the Salt Lake Valley. Built in 1/4 of the time, the Cathedral features similar architectural greatness.

Built on land purchased and donated by the first Bishop of Utah, Bishop Scanlan, it features tons of beautiful stained glass, sandstone and granite. With a very gothic interior the cathedral is open for all to see. Bishop Glass, the bishop that took over when Bishop Scanlan died, really added a lot of his flair to the cathedral after it was complete.

The cathedral was completed in 1909, but consecrated after it was paid off, during the Great Depression in 1936. The masses in the cathedral were all in Latin until 1965, when the first English mass was celebrated. The Cathedral also has slivers of what is supposed to be the cross that Jesus Christ was crucified on inside.

Hopefully you enjoy this episode, we had a good time making it.

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