Criticism of Mormonism/Books/Passing the Heavenly Gift/Comparing the cost and size of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples

Response to Passing the Heavenly Gift


A FAIR Analysis of:
'
Passing the Heavenly Gift'
A work by author: Denver C. Snuffer

Comparing the size of the Kirtland and Nauvoo temples[1]

Square footage

Kirtland

Heber C. Kimball wrote that the Kirtland temple “was 80 x 60 feet, and 57 feet high to the eaves. It was divided into two stories.”[2] The temple also had a full attic. Thus:

3 levels x 80 feet x 60 feet = 14,400 square feet.

Nauvoo

Nauvoo had a basement baptistery, and a first and second floor. Each of the first and second floors had a half floor or “mezzanine” on either side (labeled “a” and “b” in the table below). The temple was crowned by an attic, and a multi-level tower. A bill for temple construction reports 2,225 square feet of flooring used for the entire tower, and so I have used that value here.

Level Length (ft) Width (ft) Total area (sq ft) Source
Basement baptistery 80 120 9,600 Colvin, 182
1st Floor 80 120 9,600 "
2nd Floor 80 120 9,600 "
1st Floor Mezzanine (a) 18.5 100 1,850 Colvin, 207
1st Floor Mezzanine (b) 18.5 100 1,850 "
2nd Floor Mezzanine (a) 18.5 100 1,850 "
2nd Floor Mezzanine (b) 18.5 100 1,850 "
Front attic section 86 37 3,182 Colvin, 214
Main east attic 88.2 28.75 2,536 "
Tower (multi-level) 2,225 Colvin, 213.
TOTAL: 44,143 Colvin, 213.


Costs by population

Notes

  1. Portions of this wiki response are based upon Gregory L. Smith, "Passing Up The Heavenly Gift Part 1 Part 2," Interpreter: A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship7(2103): 181–341. The text here may have been expanded, reworded, or corrected given the nature of a wiki project. References in brackets like this: (xx) refer to page numbers in Denver C. Snuffer, Jr., Passing the Heavenly Gift (Salt Lake City: Mill Creek Press, 2011).
  2. Whitney, 100.