GPS City GuideSalt Lake CitySalt Lake Assembly Hall

Stop 4 of 36 · Salt Lake City audio walking tour

Salt Lake Assembly Hall

Temple Square · Victorian Gothic congregation hall

What you'll hear here: about 90 seconds on Salt Lake Assembly Hall — the story behind what you're looking at, playing hands-free as you arrive.

Look up at the twenty-four spires ringing this small Gothic cathedral on the southwest corner of Temple Square. Owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the hall seats approximately 1,400 people and looks at first like a small Gothic cathedral. Its rough granite walls are laid out in a cruciform plan, and twenty-four spires mark the perimeter while a single tower rises where the arms of the cross meet.

High above each entrance you will notice Stars of David circled into the stonework — a symbol of an LDS perception that they are a re-gathering of the Biblical Tribes of Israel. Step closer and the contrast becomes clear: the deceptively Gothic exterior conceals a more modern interior that lacks the vaulted ceilings you might expect. The stones themselves are quartz monzonite from the same quarry as the nearby Salt Lake Temple, but here they remain unhewn and not cut as exactly as the temple's.

That choice gives the Assembly Hall its dark, rough texture and the broader masonry joints between stones, a deliberate, tactile character. Broad masonry joints and unhewn quartz monzonite give the twenty-four spires and cruciform walls their dark, rough character.

Where it is

Coordinates
40.7697, -111.8932
Area
Temple Square
Era
Victorian Gothic congregation hall
Start the Salt Lake City tour →

Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.