Tabernacle Turns 100

By Allison Jones

               

      Saturday, January 7^th, the Rexburg Tabernacle celebrated its 100^th year with speakers and music.  Participants included Roland Blazer, the grandson of the stonemason in charge of building the Tabernacle; Mark Ricks, the last living Stake President who served in the Tabernacle; and the Upper Valley Women’s Choir.

Rexburg’s Tabernacle is the only one left in the valley.  The others were torn down when larger buildings were built to accommodate the growing population using them.  Our building has been declared an historical site and was purchased by the City of Rexburg and restored after the Teton Dam flood, remnants of which still linger in the far corners of the basement.  The Teton Dam Flood Museum resides in the basement of the Tabernacle and was a requirement of the grant the city received from the federal government to purchase the building.  

All the funds and supplies for the building of the Tabernacle were acquired locally.  The grey stone was quarried from the Rexburg Bench and the lighter stone around the windows was quarried in Archer.  No inferior work was accepted by the head stone mason but it still took less than eight months to complete.  The interior contains many purely decorative touches including details on the benches and the delicate cover over most of the organ’s pipes. 

The Commercial Club wanted it to be built on Main Street, but the land was much cheaper where it is now.  Because there was no other development around it, the grounds of the Tabernacle used to be enclosed in a hedge to block the sight of the weed filled lots around it.  Now it is surrounded by a wrought iron fence to separate it from the parking lots around it.

It was built because there was nowhere at the time for large groups to assemble for Stake Conferences or any other activities.  Before it was temporarily abandoned, all community events were held in the Tabernacle.  Dances were held in the open basement and plays, concerts, graduations, and political events were held in the main floor.  Before the Hart Building was constructed all of Rick’s College’s musical concerts, including the annual performance of Handel’s Messiah, were held at the Tabernacle.

There are still events and concerts hosted at the Tabernacle throughout the year.  The Rexburg Tabernacle Orchestra practices every Wednesday, a Hispanic dance group meets there every Thursday, and it is the home of the Upper Valley Women’s Choir.  The building’s acoustics are excellent and it contains both a pipe organ and a piano.

Because the Tabernacle is an historical site, all restorations must maintain the integrity of the original building.  Funding has been raised to replace the windows with more energy efficient versions but they will still match the style of the original windows.  Originally the windows were all able to open to allow air to circulate in the hot summer months, but they are now stuck closed and may even have been painted shut.  This makes the interior somewhat stuffy in the summer, but the new windows will remedy that.  The stained glass windows behind the stage are also replicas of the originals that were destroyed by vandals when the building was abandoned after Stake meetings moved to the larger venue provided by the Hart Building.

The Teton Flood Museum was installed in 1983 and was recently updated.  It is now more professional looking: the handwritten descriptions of exhibits have been typed up, the fantastical taxidermy has been removed, and a children’s section was added.   The Tabernacle and everything in it continues to improve.