Brigham Young built the Lion House in 1856, in Gothic Revival style, as second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Designed in Gothic Revival style with 20 gables for 20 small bedrooms, Truman Osborn Angell—Young's brother-in-law by his first wife Mary Ann Angell and the designer of the Salt Lake Temple—was also involved in the design of this home. The house got its name from the statue of a lion, sculpted by William Ward III, above the front entrance; Lion of the Lord was a nickname of Young.
After Young's death the building was used for a variety of purposes. More recently it housed a restaurant called The Lion House Pantry, but the building closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has remained closed for renovation and restoration, with an expected reopening in 2025; the pantry is expected to be replaced by museum space as part of the project. The Lion House stands at 63 East South Temple, near the corner of South Temple and State Street, one block east of Temple Square, and is adjacent to Young's Beehive House, to which it is connected by a series of rooms.
A series of rooms links this house to the Beehive House next door, one block east of Temple Square.