Meetinghouses in the Mormon Mind: Ideology, Architecture, and Turbulent Streams of an Expanding Church*

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Early work by D. W. Meinig delimiting “The Mormon Culture Region” focused on the spread of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‐day Saints (lds) in a core, domain, and sphere scheme that recognized diffusion of a fast‐growing group bent on shifting its station from cultural edge to religious mainstream. Such a changeover from fringe belief to international force lacks any widely circulated rule book. The lds and its followers today extend influence through diverse, distinct pathways: making missionaries a recognizable global force, offering education on church‐controlled university campuses, emanating wholesomeness, entering high‐security federal service, and attaining national political power. But nothing so locks in an lds message as the standard‐plan meetinghouses, in uniform styles, that mark church presence in North America and other continents. This work analyzes that architecture and examines its fit within lds expansion and presentation of self, not just in the Salt Lake City church but even as imitated by outcast outliers.

UTAH: 800: Christine Armbruster’s Photo-Essay and the Continuing Documentation of Small-Town Utah

“…As Starrs observed, the ever-present, standard-plan ward house is still a central feature of small, rural communities throughout Utah and the surrounding states. 13 Importantly, Armbruster was cognizant of this omission in Utah : 800. According to the photographer, I realize that Mormonism was a very big part of the history of these towns and that it was an important theme in previous works on small towns across Utah.…”