The Smithfield Tabernacle is a historic Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) tabernacle and present-day recreation facility in Smithfield, Utah. It is one of 42 surviving LDS tabernacles out of 92 built. The building was a notable construction for a settlement of Smithfield's size, and it served as a geographic and symbolic center for the early town, functioning as an important religious and public space.
Architecture & construction Land for a tabernacle was set aside early in 1860 on the town's central square. By 1880, the Smithfield Ward had outgrown the three-room building in which it was meeting, and in 1881, Bishop George L. Farrell and his counselors Preston T. Morehead and James Mack decided the time had come to erect a tabernacle. The tabernacle was designed in a Victorian Gothic style by Logan resident James Quayle of architecture firm Cannon and Mullen. Preston T. Morehead of the Smithfield Ward bishopric served as the chief engineer, superintending the construction. Morehead may also have collaborated in the design. Unusually for an LDS tabernacle, it was constructed and financed by the small Smithfield Ward rather than being a stake project. Stone for the foundation was salvaged from the abandoned building site of a nearby church meetinghouse. The building was constructed of approximately 220,000 yellow bricks distinctive to Smithfield and manufactured locally by Lars Mourtisen in his clay-pit brickyard near the Bear River. In some places, the masonry was layered up to seven wythes thick. Construction spanned roughly 20 years. One twenty-first century news report stated the building commenced in 1881, but the tabernacle's own datestone and other early or expert sources indicate it began in April 1883. It was completed in December 1902 at a cost of approximately $77,000, though it had been in use in its partially-completed condition for some years. For example, LDS Church President Wilford Woodruff noted in his diary on 3 August 1890 that he "went to the New Tabernacle & Attended a meeting with the people the House was crouded G Q Cannon spoke 40 Minuts & W Woodruff 38 M[inutes]." One much later news report suggested the building was finally dedicated in 1906, but the Smithfield Historical Society and the earliest surviving sources indicate the tabernacle was dedicated on 19 February 1905 by LDS apostle Rudger Clawson. The interior space was dominated by a chapel with an overlooking balcony, but the tower also featured an upper-story prayer circle room. The tabernacle's north and south walls each housed six tall pointed-arch windows with rectangular lights of varigated green. The front elevation included a large central pointed-arch window flanked by a smaller, similar window on either side, below which matching transom windows capped the two sets of entrance doors. Above the central window, the square tower featured the inscription "HOLINESS TO THE LORD L.D.S. CHURCH," a notable deviation from the faith's usual practice of reserving the phrase to mark its temples. Datestones to either side of this inscription mark the construction of the building. A rose window and a second smaller round architectural embellishment (possibly originally a window, but one that had been bricked over long before other windows were covered) appear in the upper half of the square tower. The only architectural voids on the rear elevation were two small doors.
Tabernacle era After its completion, the building served as the center of religious and civic life in the city, as the setting for both worship services and secular occasions such as musical performances, graduations, and other community meetings. For example, United States Vice President Charles Curtis reportedly visited the tabernacle during a fall 1932 trip to Utah. As it became partially usable during construction, the Smithfield Ward began holding its meetings in the tabernacle until its first division on 11 November 1906. The Second Ward (congregants living south of Summit Creek) continued meeting in the tabernacle, while the First Ward relocated to a nearby three-room community building, taking with them a small pipe organ that had been in the tabernacle. From 1910 to 1914, members of the Smithfield Second Ward performed operettas throughout Cache Valley to raise funds for a new pipe organ for the tabernacle. The new instrument was installed in late 1913, and was a point of community pride. In the 1910s, the Smithfield Sentinel newspaper reported ongoing work to repair lightning damage to the building, particularly to the tower. The cost of repairs amounted to about $100. Further renovations and repairs took place in December 1928. The roof was partially reshingled, windows were reworked to improve ventilation, and broken panes were replaced. The interior walls and ceiling were repainted, the woodwork cleaned, and a new electric lighting system was installed. By 1926, ward leaders recognized the tabernacle provided inadequate classroom space and no recreation facilities for the growing congregation. A new Recreation Hall was constructed in 1926-27 slightly south of the tabernacle instead of abutting it, due to the perceived difficulty in harmonizing the two buildings. Regular ward meetings were then held in this new Recreation Hall, with the exception of Sunday sacrament meetings, which continued in the tabernacle. By the 1940s, ward and stake leaders determined the Second Ward had outgrown the Recreation Hall, and that heating the tabernacle for Sunday sacrament meetings during the winter months was a costly undertaking. In January 1949, Second Ward Bishop G. Doane Chambers, with the approval of the Smithfield Stake Presidency and the church's Presiding Bishopric, offered the building and grounds to the City of Smithfield with the stipulation that they be kept in good repair. The deal was never finalized. In 1951, the Second Ward moved to its newly constructed meetinghouse, marking the end of the tabernacle's use as a house of worship. The building apparently remained unused for some period between 1951 and 16 May 1955, when it was deeded to the Cache County School District, which planned to renovate it as a storage facility and maintenance garage.
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