Episode 86: Mormon Meeting House Architecture

I think it’s funny that trumpets can’t be played in the chapel but what is Moroni playing up on top of the temple. Or maybe it’s ok since Moroni is outside.

http://www.bontri.com/ldschapel/bontri_ldschapel.html

I wish I hadn’t given away my collection of Utah Historical Quarterly issues before moving out of Utah. There is one particular article that was one of my favorites that is relevant here. If you can get a copy and can post some pictures from it (or others that you can find on the Google Machine of old LDS chapels), it really illustrates how completely different today’s meetinghouses (there’s a “Mormon expression” for you) are from yesteryear’s. Here’s the reference: Janell Brimhall, “Diversities of Gifts”: The Eclectic Architecture of Early LDS Churches, Vol. 68 (No. 2), Spring 2000, pp. 157-71.

There were a lot of great lines from this episode; this was one of my favorites: “Reverence is measured in decibels.”

This episode really brought back a surge of memories–some great ones, in fact, some of which were later soured by the correlated church. My first memory of church is in the Millcreek ward on 3900 South and about 600 East in Salt Lake. I remember the beautiful stained glass window that was front and center for all to admire during church. Directly behind and above the audience was perched a glassed-in mother’s room. You had to climb some stairs to get to it, and you had a bird’s-eye view of the congregation. It was like a luxury sky box for moms — the full chapel experience, but sound-proofed so you could take your crying kids up there or nurse in privacy. I remember playing up there. I can still taste the oranges that Santa Claus gave me when I was five at the ward Christmas party at that building.

I drove past it several years ago when I was in Salt Lake and they had taken down the stained glass window, which used to face 39th South for all to admire as they drove by. I understand that chapel has since been completely torn down.

We then moved to Davis County and had a cool pre-correlated building with a cool Scout room (wood paneling, lots of flags and such from camps hanging on the walls), a full-size basketball court, and a softball field out back. I have great memories in that building–my baptism, ward basketbrawl games, kissing my girlfriend at the stake dance on New Year’s Eve, and so on. Then the boundaries were realigned in the early ’80s and we got sent to a brand-spankin’ new correlated building. It had the a carpeted gym, carpeted walls, and absolutely no personality. Each room looked exactly like the next.

Then we moved back East and were in another pre-correlated building. It actually fit in with the New England aesthetic. I was sitting next to my friend in the foyer and made an ill-advised comment about the ugliness of the couch we were sitting on.

“It used to be in our living room.”

“What?”

“Yeah, it was our family’s. We donated it when they built the church.”

(Open mouth, insert foot.)

Surely that building had greater meaning to some of the long-standing members in that “mission field” ward who had sacrificed time, money, and couches to make the building happen.

I think one of the things that bugs me about the McCorrelated buildings is that it just strips the church of personality. I have wonderful memories in some of those buildings (only a couple them mentioned here) and even though I don’t believe in the Corporate Church, I do believe in the people and in gathering together with people I care about, which was often done in those edifices. Memory is really tied to a place and time. When every Mormon space looks exactly like the next, it’s difficult to have an emotional tie to one of those places.

And having served a mission in Latin America, David Knowlton was absolutely right about the chapels: They stick out like a sore thumb. One local adjustment that was always made was turning the outdoor basketball courts into “baby fútbol” fields.

It’s like a favorite restaurant or coffee shop that you associate with special gatherings or events compared with a Outback Stake House (intentional misspelling) or Starbucks. They all look and feel the same, and thus not very special or unique.

Just look for pictures of old chapels like the ones I mentioned in the article above and compare them with the McChapels. Night and Day.

Best Closet Joke EVER!

In Kaunas, Lithuania in the late nineties, the branch met in an upstairs space that the Church renovated with a HUGE door that cost more than any of the families earned in a year. I heard many a criticism of that purchase. However, the Senior Missionary loved to brag about how the seller guaranteed that it could withstand the blast from two grenades.

One more thought: Why do they include stages in the new buildings? What was the last time you saw a road show or anything like it performed in a wardhouse?

Well as you all know I’m generally critical of modern Mormonism.

However, the Church buildings is one area where I’m not. This is, and how to organize and manage social services for that matter, is an area where I think the mainstream Christian Church could learn a lot from the Mormons. I find their buildings – especially the older, pre-correlation buildings – to be exceptionally well done and surprisingly functional.

And I’ll say this from this “outsider looking in” perspective. The two things that I hear people of faith kvetch about more than anything about their respective place of worship (not necessarily in this order) is parking, nursery, the building, and/or music.

So you guys hit on all cylinders on this one – except for the parking, which I suspect was either an oversight or simply not an issue in non-metropolitan areas!
(I wouldn’t know on the later one – never having done “urban”)

My personal feeling is that socialist politics lead inevitably to cultural stagnation (as the central power flexes its muscles and makes people conform) and collapse (as the fringes finally rebel and recover from the stupor of corporate thought into which they have been thrust). The COB gained power over local wards and branches when it created the “one true church” (architecturally and decoratively determined); it also ensured its eventual demise (which may or may not play out as a major shake-up in LDS-dom: the church could manage a seamless transition by handing control over local buildings back to local people).