The Old Adobe Tabernacle on Temple Square

Work began in 1851.  It was dedicated April 6, 1852.  Truman O. Angell was the architect.  

The Old Adobe Tabernacle with a Bowery.   By 1854 the congregations had already outgrown the Old Tabernacle so they built a bowery over the outdoor space.  

Joseph Ridges installed his pipe organ in the Old Tabernacle in 1857.  This is the organ Connal Lee heard.  

The adobe Tabernacle was used until 1877 when it was razed to make way for the Assembly Hall built on the same site.  

(The following examples of construction techniques were photographed in the new Tabernacle, completed in 1867.  The notes refer to the old Adobe Tabernacle.)

Since metal nails were a rare and expensive commodity in the newly settled Great Basin, the Saints often used other means of binding timbers, such as the wooden pegs visible in this photo.

Grow notes, "Wherever they were cracked the timbers were wrapped with green rawhide, which contracted when dry and made a tight binding. This rawhide is still steel tight" (original thesis, 74). The builders used leather strips to strengthen timbers without adding excess weight.