The Salt Lake Tabernacle
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• Construction took nearly four years
• Cost: $300,000 without the organ
• The original design was unprecedented and architectural plans were completed during — rather than before — construction.
• Constructed completely by hand, with all materials hand-fashioned
• Held together with wooden pegs and rawhide strips — nails and steel were unavailable to frontier craftsmen 1,000 miles from the nearest railroad
• Built of 1.5 million feet of lumber hauled from nearby canyons via ox team
• Roof covered with 350,000 shingles
• Animal hair was mixed into the plaster used in the ceiling, enhancing the acoustics with its "absorbency"'
• Maximum number of workers on site during construction: 205
• Elliptical in shape, 250 feet long, 150 feet wide, 80 feet high
• Originally seated 13,500 people
• Building was not finished when the first conference was held there Oct. 6, 1867. A new hymn, written especially for the occasion by Eliza R. Snow, was sung by the 150-voice Tabernacle Choir.
• When it was first constructed, there was no electric lighting; lights and heat were installed in later years. The first heat was generated by a wood-burning stove.
• A fountain was present inside the building in its early years; City Creek ran through Temple Square north of the Tabernacle and was harnessed via water wheel to power the huge organ inside.
• Architects: William H. Folsom, Truman O. Angell, Henry Grow
• Arches for roof spanned 132 feet with no support pillars; timbers shaped to match curve of roof
• The balcony was added in 1870, improving the beauty of the interior and greatly improving the acoustics.
• Dedicated October 1875 by President John Taylor, then president of the Quorum of the Twelve.
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