Rendering provides first look at local Latter-day Saints temple

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has unveiled the first rendering of its planned local temple.

While the Latter-day Saints announced plans for the temple in 2023 and disclosed the location earlier this year, a rendering had not been available to date. The image was shared in a Dec. 16 news release along with renderings for four other temples in North America and the site location for a planned facility in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"Missouri is home to more than 80,000 Latter-day Saints in over 160 congregations," the release notes. "The Springfield, Missouri, temple will be the third temple in the state, joining the Kansas City, Missouri, temple and the St. Louis, Missouri, temple.

"In the 1830s, Independence, Missouri, and its surrounding counties were important gathering places for Latter-day Saints in the early days of the church."

The timeline for the local temple was not shared in the release. Church officials say the 29,000-square-foot temple will be a single story. Intellectual Reserve Inc., which manages the intellectual property of the Latter-day Saints, is given credit for the rendering.

The Latter-day Saints this summer announced the temple would be built on a 38-acre site the church owns at 2720 E. Farm Road 188, located south of James River Freeway and west of U.S. Route 65, near Mercy Orthopedic Hospital Springfield.

“It’s just an exciting time for us,” said Mike Stennett, bishop of the Ingram Mill Ward in Springfield, in a July Springfield Business Journal article. “In this area, we’ve had to travel to be able to enjoy the temple. Now that one is being built here, people will come to the area to go to the temple with us. It will be a wonderful thing.”

Members of the Latter-day Saints faith must travel to temples for certain religious practices, but currently, the closest temple to Springfield is the one dedicated in September 2023 in Bentonville, Arkansas.