Endowment House

Less than a decade after their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Latter-day Saints built a sacred structure on the northwest portion of the Temple Block in Salt Lake City. Completed on April 27, 1855, this building was called the “Endowment House” or the “House of the Lord.”95 On May 5, 1855, Heber C. Kimball, under the direction of Brigham Young, dedicated the building with a formal prayer.

The Endowment House on Temple Square before the Salt Lake Temple was built. Granite blocks from the Temple construction surround the Endowment House.

The Endowment House served the Latter-day Saints until 1889, when it was disassembled. The temples built in Logan, St. George, Manti, and Salt Lake would supersede the Endowment House. The Endowment House’s existence during these years stands as a testament to the import of temples to the Saints. Matthias F. Cowley wrote concerning the Endowment House: “It would be difficult even to estimate the sacred influence which that building has exercised upon the lives of untold thousands who felt themselves within its sacred precincts in the presence of their God.”96