Elephant at the Tabernacle

Today might have been the most beautiful fall day ever.

I had a lot of fun taking pictures.

I met two new friends at last week's lecture, Mark and Beth Marshall.  Mark is the grandson of Fred Taylor, a doctor who practiced in Provo at the turn of the previous century.

Dr. Taylor, a son of President John Taylor, took beautiful photographs on glass slides.  Mark shared several of these pictures with me.  This one is of the Old Tabernacle in 1902.  The detail in this photograph is so clear that it is easy to see the quoines on the corner of the building.

This photograph was taken by Geneve W. Pingree in 1897, as she stood along Main Street, which is now University Avenue.  This used to be a dirt road.

This is how that scene looked this morning.  I waited a minute or two for cars to clear the intersection.  This is definitely not a dirt road anymore.

I have posted a very low resolution picture of this scene before, but Mark had a high res version.
Dr. Walker took this photograph from the steeple deck of the tabernacle in 1902.

I had to settle for taking this picture from the ground, but many people looked out these windows to see the tabernacle grounds.

Provo has always been a bustling town.

The Knight Building, northeast across University Avenue from the temple, has housed offices for Jacobsen during the construction period.  They are now moving out.

This old picture, which I took from a photo hanging on the wall in Los Hermanos, shows the Knight Building and a movie theater in the early 1900s.  The fountain disappeared decades ago.

A new fountain is now just a block away.  In real life, this is as beautiful to listen to as it is to watch.

Dr. Taylor took this beautiful picture of the Old Tabernacle. Notice the picket fence.

The new temple has a wrought iron fence. 

The resolution in the photograph Mark gave me is wonderful. The lintel stone can be seen above the entrance.  This building was made from adobe bricks, which was the case with many, many early homes and public buildings in Utah.

That very lintel stone now rests just a few feet from where the Old Tabernacle used to stand.

This is my current favorite photo taken by Dr. Taylor.  The circus came to town in 1902, and Dr. Taylor captured this wonderful image.

I tried to guess where Dr. Taylor was standing when he took his photo.  I was not concerned about being trampled by an elephant, but I did find it necessary to stay off the street.

The City of Provo is not expecting elephants.  Instead, preparations are underway to be ready for hundreds of thousands of visitors this winter.

Open house tickets will be available January 4th.

In the meantime, the temple is not quite finished.

Furniture will be delivered all week long, I was told.

I watched people sweeping the interior of the pavilion.

The sign on the door says the temple is closed.

This isn't the entrance we will go in, anyway.

The stone in the front of this picture is the base for a statue which has not yet been delivered.

The right steeple window in this picture has borne the indignity of a plywood door for over a year, but that has recently been replaced with glass.

However, another window is receiving attention.

I don't want to think about what might have happened.

I suspect the window will be repaired by my next visit.

As long as there is work to do, the south parking lot remains full of workmen's vehicles.

And it looks like there is still work to do.

A beautiful view is waiting when these trucks go home.

In the meantime, I can be happy with views from the west side.

If we didn't know better, we might think the temple is complete.

It won't be long now.

I can be patient.

As patient as I need to be.