File:Bountiful Tabernacle.jpg

English: Commissioned in 1857 by President Brigham Young — who appointed Augustus A. Farnham as architect for the Greek Revival edifice and, after the Johnston's Army episode of the Utah War, called Anson Call to raise funds for and to oversee its final construction — the Bountiful Tabernacle was completed and dedicated in 1862-63, at the height of the American Civil War and at a cost of $60,000. During its two-day dedication by President Heber C. Kimball, with President Young presiding (14-15 March 1863), Anson & Mariah Bowen Call housed and fed 150 out-of-town guests and cared for 100 of the visitors' horses. Apostle Lorenzo Snow had dedicated the structural site on 11 February 1857. The best artisans and craftsmen were employed in executing the plaster casting, hand carving, and the winding stairways for the 86 x 44 foot structure. The tabernacle was constructed on a rock foundation and featured a red-pine roof secured atop adobe walls by wooden pegs. The building's roof timbers and lumber were hauled from nearby Holbrook Canyon. Since its dedication, every Prophet-President of the Church (save Joseph Smith) has spoken from its pulpit. Today, the Bountiful Tabernacle, completed 5 years before the Salt Lake Tabernacle, remains the oldest surviving Mormon tabernacle and the oldest LDS Church meetinghouse in continuous use.^[1][2]