Temple open houses – the opening of temples to visits by the general public before formal dedication – has been a feature of Mormon life and public relations for a long time. I don’t know how early the practice began, but it was firmly established by 1923, the year the Cardston (Alberta) Temple was dedicated.
But some features of that open house were different from the tours you may see today.
The Primary children of Cardston had watched the rising of the temple there, and doubtless the purpose and importance of temples had been taught to them for many months. Now it was their turn to see the inside of the building they had seen rising from the prairie floor.
One summer day in 1923 – probably late in July, although my source does not provide the exact date – 125 Primary children and their teachers and other leaders gathered at the Tabernacle. There they were assigned partners, and the pairs lined up, hand in hand, then marched in an orderly way to the temple gates.
Learning that it would be about 15 minutes before they could enter the temple, their president, Marjorie Low, marched the children around to the end of the temple court, and had them form neat lines.
As a company of about 100 tourists, led by Pres. Thomas Druce (sorry – I do not know if his title referred to the stake, the temple, or some other unit) saw the children there. When he learned that the children were from the Primary, he asked them to sing a song – “The Army of the Living God,” after which the children were taken to the Assembly Room. They must have had a good song leader and a lot of practice, because they sang again, “Sing with Joy” (too many possibilities for me to know which song of that title to link to). Pres. Druce then talked to the children about the paintings they saw hanging in that room.
Next the children went down to the baptistry, circling the font – still holding hands with their partners – and heard about the paintings displayed there. At a signal from their chorister, the sang again – “In our Lovely Deseret.”
The children were then led to an upper room, where – you guessed it – they sang again, “In the Chambers of the Mountains, ((p. 68)) ” and “Tell Me Dear Lord.”
When they had finished the last song, the children descending the winding staircase to the temple’s front door. Once outside, the children turned and all clapped their hands to thank Pres. Druce for being their guide.
This photo documents the visit of the children and their leaders that summer day in Cardston.
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That’s a nice story, and we’ll eagerly await the arrival of the folks from southern Alberta to identify the mysterious Pres. Druce. Speaking of mysteries, what do you suppose is on the papers some of the children are holding up? Does your source provide any clue?
The source — a 1925 letter written by one of the Primary leaders who was there — doesn’t make any mention of anything the children were given, or were carrying, or otherwise hint at it, Mark. When I enlarge the scan, the little visible on those pages look to me more like a picture than like text, and I wonder if it might not have been a picture or a drawing of the temple itself? I have no clue, though, except what any sharp-eyed and imaginative reader might pick out.
Perhaps a program?
Maybe. I do think it’s more likely something given to them at the Temple — like a program — than something that was passed out to them before they left the Tabernacle, just because it’s hard to expect children to carry paper around with them for a very long time with so much new to look at.
The first temple that had an open house which non-members could participate in was the Salt Lake Temple. The night before it was dedicated an invited group of non members was given a tour.
You might look at an interesting account of the poet Vachel Lindsay taking a tour of the Cardston Temple during the open house in the anthology Among the Mormons by William Mulder and Russell Mortensen published in the 1950’s
Just to clarify it’s Duce, there are still alot of Duce’s in BC and Alberta. I see Pres. Thomas Duce in this picture even, he’s left of centre. Great find!
Thank you, cameron — with the correct spelling, I should be able to find out a lot about him! It seemed really strange that someone who was prominent enough to preside over something, and well enough known to be called “Uncle Tom” in my original source, didn’t show up in searches. This explains it all.