Dedication of the Denver Colorado Temple
In 1975, the Littleton Colorado Stake started regular stakewide drives to the Manti Utah Temple, despite residing 350 miles away. “Before we started the bus trips, members in our stake were doing only 200 endowments a year,” later recalled President Raymond A. Kimball, who was serving as stake president at the time these trips started. “I told them if they wanted a temple in Colorado, they had to prove they were ready for it. One way was to increase our number of endowments.”
A bus left from the stake center to Manti on the third Thursday of each month. Every seat was usually taken. With these efforts, Latter-day Saints in the stake multiplied their temple efforts and performed around 2,000 endowments each year.
These bus trips to the temple continued in the stake until 1986, when Colorado received a temple of its own — a house of the Lord adjacent to Littleton. And President Kimball was called as the temple’s first president.
The Denver Colorado Temple was dedicated in 19 sessions from Oct. 24 to Oct. 28, 1986. President Ezra Taft Benson, President of the Church, offered the dedicatory prayer in the first session, Oct. 24. He was joined by his counselors in the First Presidency — President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson.
The Prophet also spoke in the two other sessions that first day, while President Hinckley and President Monson offered the dedicatory prayer in the next two sessions. President Benson returned to Salt Lake City after the first day of dedications, then President Hinckley read the dedicatory prayer in sessions held Oct. 25-26, and President Monson offered it Oct. 27-28.
The temple district at the time comprised about 85,000 Church members in Colorado, as well as parts of South Dakota, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, North Dakota and Wyoming. Latter-day Saints came from as far as Bismarck, North Dakota — a 13-hour drive — to attend the dedication. Members began lining up before sunrise for the first dedicatory session.
Why have these Saints made such sacrifices to attend the temple? To gather in holy places away from the adversary’s influence. During the temple’s cornerstone ceremony, which preceded the first dedicatory session, President Benson said, “Though we live in a fallen world — a wicked world — holy places are set apart and consecrated so that worthy men and women can learn the order of heaven and obey God’s will. I testify that temples are places of personal revelation.”
He invited listeners, “Let us make the temple a sacred home away from our eternal home. This temple will be a standing witness that the power of God can stay the powers of evil in our midst.”
Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “Touch the hearts of Thy people that they may look to this temple as a refuge from the evil and turmoil of the world. May they ever live worthy of the blessings here to be found. May they be prompted to seek the records of their forebears and to serve here in their behalf, under the plan which Thou hast revealed for the salvation and exaltation of Thy children of all generations.”
Read the dedicatory prayer of the Denver Colorado Temple here.
Timeline of the Denver Colorado Temple
The Denver Colorado Temple was announced March 31, 1982, by President Gordon B. Hinckley. Just over two years later, a groundbreaking ceremony was held May 19, 1984, with President Hinckley presiding.
After a public open house from Sept. 8 to Sept. 27, 1986, President Ezra Taft Benson and his counselors — President Gordon B. Hinckley and President Thomas S. Monson — dedicated the Denver temple from Oct. 24 to Oct. 28, 1986.
Architecture and Design of the Denver Colorado Temple
The 27,006-square-foot Denver Colorado Temple is made of precast stone walls. Standing on a 7.56-acre site, the edifice features a steep spire above the entrance.
In addition to the baptistry and celestial room, the temple has four ordinance rooms and six sealing rooms. The interior includes detailed carved walnut, extensive hand-painted mortices on the walls and ceiling, cherry-wood interior trim, multicolored glass windows, Swiss wall coverings, and intricate gold-leaf work performed by Danish craftsmen.
This house of the Lord, said President Raymond A. Kimball — the temple’s first president — to the Church News in 1986, was exceptionally well built and may feature the best workmanship of any building in Colorado.