St. Paul Minnesota Temple

Dedication of the St. Paul Minnesota Temple

After the first stake was organized in Minnesota in 1960, Elder Thomas A. Holt, an Area Seventy and resident of Minneapolis, helped pick a site for a second stake center in Minnesota to accommodate the growth of the Church in the state. He “looked at several sites and felt nothing,” he later recounted, until he came to one “beautiful site heavily wooded with oak trees,” which would become the location of the stake center.

Nearly 40 years later, the same site he helped choose would become home to the first house of the Lord in Minnesota as well. On Sept. 26, 1998, at the groundbreaking ceremony prior to the temple’s construction, Elder Holt said that “the Lord chose this place” for the temple.

During the public open house, the chief administrator of a Baptist college said, “I appreciate the opportunity to hear about your church firsthand instead of through the usual rumors.” Some 27,042 visitors toured the temple during the holiday season, including 1,282 community leaders and other special guests.

Multistake Director of Public Affairs Vicki Reid said the mayor of St. Paul attended, along with three U.S. congressmen and several judges. She said the mayor commented that it was “really great that you are opening this up to the public.” Twenty-one children’s choirs sang for open-house guests.

More than 8,000 Latter-day Saints from the temple district gathered to watch Church President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicate the St. Paul Minnesota Temple on Jan. 9, 2000.

One of the first patrons who attended the temple on its first day of operation said, “I went to the first session, and it was wonderful. Everything went so smoothly. For years, I’ve been saying to my husband that I want to move to Salt Lake City, where I could be close to a temple. Now, I have no excuse to move. I’m 10 minutes away. We’ll stay here.”

Dedicatory prayer excerpt: “We pray for all who shall come as patrons, that they may ever look upon this service as a labor of love performed in the spirit of the Redeemer, who gave His life for all mankind. May the wonder and the majesty of that great act of atonement enter the minds and hearts of all who serve here in behalf of those beyond the veil of death.”

Read the dedicatory prayer of the St. Paul Minnesota Temple here.

A temple for Minnesota was announced by the First Presidency of the Church on July 29, 1998. The groundbreaking ceremony for the house of the Lord was held Sept. 26, 1998.

Some 27,042 visitors toured the temple during its open house from Dec. 18-31, 2000. Church President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the St. Paul Minnesota Temple on Jan. 9, 2000.

Architecture and Design of the St. Paul Minnesota Temple

The 11,411-square-foot St. Paul Minnesota Temple was built on 7.5 acres of land, which it shares with an adjoining meetinghouse. A light-gray granite veneer makes up the exterior finish.

The temple interior features two instruction rooms and two sealing rooms.