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Show Wall for protection By QLKr MKLSKN Why the wall around Salt Lake City's Temple Square? While a number of reasons have been givento keep hostile Indians out, to provide work when jobs were scarce, to keep the undesirables outmost are incorrect. incor-rect. According to James E. Talmage, Mormon apostle and writer, the purpose of the wall was "to enclose the area and to protect it from outside out-side disturbance or distraction." Once the ten-acre Square was selected, the leaders decided to enclose the temple block with a substantial wall. Beginning construction con-struction of the wall was delayed through lack of material and men until Aug. 3, 1852. It was completed com-pleted May 23, 1857. The wall and its gates completely enclose Temple Square. It is 15 feet high, with a four-foot base of red sandstone, a 10-foot middle section of adobe, and a one-foot one-foot coping of red stand stone. Most of the adobe bricks were made on the Square. The dimensions of the Temple Square are about the same as the wall that once enclosed the grounds surrounding the Temple of Herod in Jerusalem. Many visitors to Temple Square ask questions about it. It has sometimes been compared to the Berlin Wall, some of which has not been removed, and other walls around some of the older cities in Europe. But the purpose of the wall still remains to protect the area from outside disturbance or distraction. Source: Talmage, "The House of the Lord"; Nielsen, "Temple Square, Crown Jewel of the Mormons." Mor-mons." (Quig Nielsen is an information officer for the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City.) |
