Picture the domed hall once known as the Mormon Tabernacle, famed for its acoustics and its pipe organ here in Utah. It was built from 1863 to 1875 to house meetings for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and construction work is also described as occurring between 1864 and 1867 on the west center-line axis of the Salt Lake Temple. For generations it was the location of the church’s semi-annual general conference until that meeting moved to the new and larger LDS Conference Center in 2000; the tabernacle remains in use for overflow crowds during general conference.
You can appreciate why it is known for its acoustics and its pipe organ, and that the Tabernacle Choir has performed here for over 100 years. The design itself was inspired by an earlier plan for a Canvas Tabernacle in Nauvoo, Illinois, in the 1840s — an oval-shaped idea with amphitheater-style or terraced seating and canvas roofing that never came to be, but left its mark on this place. The choir has filled this hall with song for over a century; picture that same west center-line drawing your ear toward the Salt Lake Temple.