At its base the Nauvoo Temple was long and wide with a tower and weather vane reaching to . The second temple of the
Latter Day Saint movement was built 60 percent larger in dimensions than its predecessor, the Kirtland Temple. Like Kirtland, the temple contained two assembly halls, one on the first floor and one on the second, called the lower and upper courts. Both had classrooms and offices in the attic. Unlike Kirtland, it had a full basement which housed a baptismal font.
Exterior The limestone used for the original temple was quarried from a site just west of the temple. Much of that quarry, however, was submerged by rising water behind the Keokuk Dam in 1912. Therefore, Russellville, Alabama, subsidiary of Minnesota's Vetter Stone Company, was chosen by the LDS Church to provide stone for the new temple. Church officials say the quarry was selected because it provided stone that is a close match to the limestone originally used.
Basement The basement of the Nauvoo Temple was used as the
baptistry, containing a large
baptismal font in the center of the main room. The basement was accessed by spiral staircases at the northwest and southwest corners of the temple. The staircase landing was made of wood and opened to a short hallway heading east, leading to the basement proper. Between the two hallways was an unfinished room sealed off from the rest of the temple, containing an old well that had been dug but never used. The room was discovered by an
anti-Mormon mob who broke through the floor of the vestibule above.
The stairwells The two stairwells were constructed of dressed limestone walls. One rose from Northwest corner and the other at the Southwest corner of the temple. They were not true circles but were flatted on four sides. Nor were they symmetrical, being sixteen feet in diameter from East to West and seventeen feet in diameter from North to South. This was done to support landings and other support structures. The staircases, made of wood, provided access to all of the temple from the basement to the attic with a landing at each floor. They had lamps for illumination at night, and had windows for daytime illumination. William Weeks' elevation of the front facade does not show windows at the basement level of the two stairwells, and photographic evidence is inconclusive. However, Joseph Smith's youngest son, David Smith, rendered a painting of the temple's damaged facade, clearly shows half-circular windows at the basement level in the north and south corners of the facade. The staircase in the northwest corner was never completed. It was roughed in with temporary boards resting on the risers. Workmen used this staircase to gain access to the building during its construction, especially during the winter of 1845–1846 when persons were using the other staircase to reach the attic for ordinance work. The southwest staircase was completely finished for use. It included lamps for night illumination, and may have been carpeted near the attic landing.
The Great Hall Entrance to the first floor assembly hall, called the "Great Hall", was through two large double doors at the east end of the vestibule. The Great Hall occupied the remainder of the floor space East of the vestibule. The room was flanked on either side by seven large, arched windows, with four similar windows along the east wall. An arched ceiling spanned some fifty feet in breadth, in the center. the floor was stained wood and the walls were painted white. There were two rooms to the north just past the entrance. It has been suggested that these rooms were used initially by
William Weeks, because they are referred by
Thomas Bullock as the "architect's room." Their eventual intended use is not clear.
Pulpits At the east and west ends of the hall were two sets of similar pulpits. Resembling the pulpits used in the Kirtland Temple, and repeated in later temples, they were arranged with four levels, the top three consisting of a group of three semi-circular stands. The lowest level was a drop-table which was raised for use in the
sacrament. The pulpits to the east, standing between the windows, were reserved for the
Melchizedek Priesthood. Accordingly, each pulpit had initials identifying the priesthood office of the occupant. The top most pulpits read
P.H.P., which stood for President of the High Priesthood. The next level down had
P.S.Q for President of the Seventy Quorums. Below that, the labels were
P.H.Q. which stood for President of the High priests Quorum, and the folding table had the inscription
P.E.Q. standing for President of the Elders Quorum. Above the Eastern pulpits, written in gilded letters, along the arch of the ceiling, were the words,"The Lord Has Seen Our Sacrifice - Come After Us." The pulpits to the West end were reserved for the
Aaronic Priesthood. Each pulpit similarly had initials identifying the priesthood officers who occupied that stand. The highest three pulpits bore the initials
P.A.P., which stood for President of the Aaronic Priesthood. The next lower pulpits had
P.P.Q., for President of the Priests Quorum. Again, the next had
P.T.Q., for President of the Teachers Quorum and on the table at the bottom was written
P.D.Q., for President of the Deacons Quorum.
Pews Similar to the Kirtland Temple, the hall was fitted with enclosed pews with two aisles running down its length. There were also pews for a band and choir. The room could accommodate up to 3,500 people. Because there were pulpits on both ends of the room, the pews had movable backs which could be swung to face either direction, depending on who was presiding - the Melchizedek Priesthood or the Aaronic Priesthood.
First floor mezzanine Access to the first floor
mezzanine was directly from landings of the two staircases in the west end of the building. A foyer, corresponding in size to the vestibule below, connected the two stairway landings. Evidence suggests that this mezzanine had fourteen small rooms, seven along each side of the North and South wall. Each room had a small circular window supplying light. These rooms may never have been completed, except perhaps some kind of partition dividing them.
Second floor assembly hall The second floor hall was similar in construction to the Great Hall, except that it included the foyer area where the vestibule would be. This made the room about seventeen feet longer. A stone arch ran north and south between the circular stairwells supporting the massive timbers for the tower above. It had seven large windows along the north and south wide, with four windows along the east wall. The floor would have a similar configuration as the Great Hall with a set of double pulpits and pews, but the room was never completed. Doors were never hung, the plastering was unfinished, and the floorboards were only rough timber, not the tongue and grove finished hardwoods of the other floors. The room, when used for an occasional meeting, was furnished with wooden benches.
Second floor mezzanine rooms The second mezzanine was similar to the first floor mezzanine. It was accessed via the two staircases at the West end of the building. There was no foyer connecting the two stairwells. The second floor mezzanine is also presumed to have been divided into fourteen small rooms, seven rooms along each side of the North and South walls of the building, between the arched ceiling of the second floor. Circular windows in the entablature of the building allowed for illumination. Just as with the second floor assembly room, there is no evidence that these rooms were ever completed, except perhaps for the partitions dividing each room. There was a staircase in the second room from the Southeast corner leading to a room above, providing another access method to the attic.
Attic At the top of the two stairways, opening to a foyer, was the attic floor. The attic was not built of limestone but of wood. It was composed of two sections. The West end of the temple was a flat roofed section that supported the tower. The rest of the attic was a pitched-roof section running the length of the temple. The flat-room section was further divided into two sections, the foyer on the west side, and a suite of rooms to the east. When the attic was used for ordinance work, they were used as a pantry, wardrobe and storage rooms. The area was illuminated by six windows along the foyer's west wall. Outside windows also provided light along the north and south sides. The roof had four octagonal skylight windows to provide light to the interior rooms, in addition to a twenty-foot arched window. The incline of the roof prevented a six-foot-tall man from standing erect along the outside wall. The second room from the south-east corner had a stairway leading to a room in the mezzanine below.
Tower rooms Rising from the plateau of the attic is an octagonal tower. The tower was divided into three sections, each accessible by a series of stairways leading from the attic to an observation deck at the top. The lowest section was the belfry. The bell was rung for various occasions. Between the observation deck and the belfry was a section containing the four clockwork mechanisms. ==See also==