The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced plans to renovate the Manhattan New York Temple and released a rendering of the updated house of the Lord.
The temple will close in 2024, with renovations projected to take approximately three years.
The announcement was first published Monday, Aug. 28, on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
The Manhattan temple was built from an existing building that included a stake center and local and area Church offices. The building is a block west of New York City’s Central Park and diagonally across from the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts at the intersection of Columbia and 65th streets and Broadway.
Renovations will include upgrading the meetinghouse on the third floor of the building, with local congregations using that space to be relocated to other meetinghouses during the renovations.
Also, during the closure, Latter-day Saints in the Manhattan New York Temple district are encouraged to attend the Philadelphia Pennsylvania or Hartford Connecticut temples.
Dates for the public open house and rededication following the renovation will be announced closer to the completion date.
On March 24, 2002, President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke at a special regional conference in New York City and told the congregation a temple would be built in Manhattan within the next two years. Five months later, on Aug. 7, 2002, official plans to construct the Manhattan temple were announced.
President Hinckley dedicated the Manhattan New York Temple on June 13, 2004, with it becoming the second dedicated house of the Lord in the state and the Church’s 119th worldwide. Both the Palmyra New York Temple and the Boston Massachusetts Temple were dedicated in 2000.
Much of the Church’s first decade of early history took place in the state of New York, from Joseph Smith receiving the First Vision in 1820 outside of Palmyra and including the formal organization of the Church near Fayette, New York, on April 6, 1830. Also, in the mid-19th century, many converts immigrating from Europe passed through New York Harbor en route to joining the Latter-day Saints farther out west.
The Manhattan temple joins five other temples announced for renovations, expansions or reconstructions. Four additional temples are currently under renovation.
Under renovation
Three of the Church’s four pioneer-era temples built and dedicated in the late 1800s are under extended renovations, with temples in California and Europe also undergoing renovation.
Announced for renovations
The four temples previously announced for renovations are:
Kona Hawaii Temple — to close this fall for renovations and expansion that will begin this October.
Toronto Ontario Temple — to close in October 2023 for a projected nine-month renovation project.
Anchorage Alaska Temple — in early 2024, a reconstruction project will enlarge and relocate Anchorage’s house of the Lord, while the current temple remains open until it is finished.
Provo Utah Temple — the reconstruction of a redesigned new house of the Lord will begin after Jan. 21, 2024, dedication of the Orem Utah Temple. The Provo temple’s closure has been announced for Feb. 24.
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