Item Detail
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26068
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0
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0
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English
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Joseph F. Smith and the Great Mormon Building Boom
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Joseph F. Smith : Reflections on the Man and His Times
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Provo, UT
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Salt Lake City: Religious Studies Center, BYU; Deseret Book
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320-341
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Joseph F. Smith’s presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1901–18) produced a veritable explosion of Latter-day Saint buildings. His presidency was pivotal in the change from a pioneering, colonizing, gathering concept of Zion to a larger view allowing for the expansion to a worldwide Church. Church priorities are evident in buildings constructed during his presidency. These buildings completed Joseph Smith’s plan for the City of Zion—as constructed in Nauvoo, Illinois, and extended the plan with additional structures. Temples expanded the “official” boundaries of Zion—in a major way. Period schools and meetinghouses show Church efforts to provide education at all levels after Utah education was secularized and no longer centered in ward schools. Basic design changes in temples and a redefinition of ward meetinghouses are fundamental to current Church buildings. A new system of Church aid to local building projects continued for the next seven decades. Finally, Church leaders and architects searching for a “Mormon style” of architecture raise questions about what style is appropriate for Church structures. [From the text]