“Of Beehives, Books, and Bricks”

You would expect prominent Latter-day Saints such as Joseph F. Smith, George Q. Cannon, Heber J. Grant, and Thomas S. Monson to have passed through its doors.  And, of course, they did.

You might be a bit surprised, though, to learn that such non-Mormon luminaries as Helen Keller, Paul Robson, Sergei Rachmaninoff, William Howard Taft, Fritz Kreisler, Marcel Dupré, Will Durant, Jascha Heifetz, John Philip Sousa, Robert Frost, Anonymous 4, and Béla Bartók also spoke or performed there.

And now the Provo Tabernacle will shortly be dedicated as the Provo City Center Temple.

This interesting and beautifully illustrated article tells something of the story of the Tabernacle, its destruction by fire, and its genuinely remarkable rebirth:

http://magazine.byu.edu/of-beehives-books-and-bricks/

I mean, did you see it when the exterior wall were entirely suspended in the air on stilts?  Unbelievable.  But, if you missed it, you can see an excellent photo of that in this article.

Photographs of the interior — sadly not including the beautiful murals from the two instruction rooms — are available here:

http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/provo-city-center-temple-public-tours