Groundbreaking of the Cleveland Ohio Temple
The groundbreaking of the Cleveland Ohio Temple was presided over by Elder Vaiangina Sikahema, a General Authority Seventy and first counselor in the Church’s North America Northeast Area presidency, on June 1, 2024. The temple site sits about 20 miles from the Kirtland Temple, the Church’s now defunct first temple, dedicated in 1836. Kirtland, Ohio, was the first official gathering place for early Latter-day Saints, then they abandoned it in 1838 due to various conflicts.
In his dedicatory prayer for the site, Elder Sikahema spoke about Ohio’s “special place in the history of Thy restored gospel” and asked that the Saints in the Cleveland area be “endowed with power from on high.”
Timeline of the Cleveland Ohio Temple
The Cleveland Ohio Temple was announced April 3, 2022, by Church President Russell M. Nelson. Just over two years later, ground was broken for the temple on June 1, 2024, with Elder Vaiangina Sikahema presiding.
Architecture and Design of the Cleveland Ohio Temple
According to site plans released by the Church on Dec. 19, 2022, the Cleveland Ohio Temple will be a single-story building of approximately 9,900 square feet. The sacred edifice will be constructed at Brecksville Road, south of Longano Drive, in the suburb of Independence.
Architectural renderings of a temple in Cleveland, Ohio, show an off-white exterior surrounded by vertical, rectangular windows. A green, domed cupola with eight arched, stained-glass windows stands above the center of the building. Tall trees, shrubs and flower gardens adorn the grounds.