Hartford Connecticut Temple

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Please follow this link to review frequently asked questions about the Hartford Mormon Temple including unscripted videos of neighbors of other Mormon temples candidly commenting on the impact of traffic and lighting on the neighborhood and on property values.

On Monday, January 23, 2012, Church representatives made an informal presentation to the Town Plan and Zoning Commission of Farmington, Connecticut, to discuss potential plans for construction of the Hartford Connecticut Temple on an 11-acre parcel at the corner of Farmington Avenue and Melrose Drive. Church architect Kerry Neilson noted that the search for an appropriate site had been underway for over a year, having investigated 20 different locations in the Hartford area before selecting Farmington. "The temple is a sacred building," Neilson said. "We consider it a house of the Lord." He explained that a temple differs from a church building where Sunday services are held in large meeting halls. Temples, rather, are reserved exclusively for sacred ceremonies and instruction given to small groups.

If the temple were approved, five houses along Farmington Avenue and the former Whitman Restaurant—a 12,000-square-foot facility with an 80-car parking lot—would be razed. In their place would be constructed the temple, a surface parking lot with over 100 spaces, a residence for the temple president (caretaker), and several acres of beautifully landscaped grounds. A new backage road called "New Town Road," connecting Bridgewater and Melrose, would also be constructed and regulated by traffic lights. Because the site is partially zoned commercial, a zoning amendment or rezoning would be required. Church representatives will make a presentation to the Inland Wetlands and Watercourses Agency in March.¹

No groundbreaking date has been announced for the Hartford Connecticut Temple, which is still in the early planning and development stages.

The proposed Hartford Connecticut Temple will be a 24,000-square-foot, single-story edifice clad in white stone with an elegant steeple rising to 115 feet, capped with a gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni. The grounds will be beautifully and plentifully landscaped with colorful foliage, surrounded by low New England-style stone fencing. High compliments on the design have been paid by members of the Farmington Plan and Zoning Commission including Commissioner Bill Stanford who called the building "shockingly New England."²

Peter Fishman, owner of the intended site for the temple, initially had reservations about the project until he was shown a rendering of the building and given an explanation of its purpose and operation. "[The Church is] proposing to build an incredibly beautiful, very New England-appropriate temple that is going to be a significant landmark in this town for hundreds of years." He added, "I've seen what it's going to look like and it's going to be glorious—like a museum. It's going to be really a fantastic building, exceptionally well-built."³

No site location has been officially announced for the Hartford Connecticut Temple, but the Church is pursuing an 11-acre parcel at the corner of Farmington Ave and Melrose Dr in Farmington, Connecticut, as a possible location for the building. Farmington is the birthplace and childhood home of Wilford Woodruff, the fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

President Thomas S. Monson announced the construction of the Hartford Connecticut Temple in the opening session of the 180th Semiannual General Conference.⁴ Plans had been announced for a temple in Hartford at General Conference 18 years earlier, but it was decided three years later that two other temples would be built in its place—one to the north in Boston, Massachusetts and one to the south in White Plains, New York, later named the Harrison New York Temple. Plans for the Harrison temple were suspended following the dedication of the Manhattan New York Temple.

The Hartford Connecticut Temple will be the first temple built in Connecticut and the second built in New England, following the Boston Massachusetts Temple (2000).

During the Saturday afternoon session of General Conference on October 3, 1992, President Gordon B. Hinckley, First Counselor in the First Presidency, announced plans for a regional temple to be built in Hartford, Connecticut, to serve members in the New York and New England areas of the United States. Plans were also announced for a temple in Hong Kong to serve a large region of Southeastern Asia and for a second temple in Utah County to relieve the overburdened Provo Utah Temple—later identified as the Mount Timpanogos Utah Temple.⁵

Three years after the announcement, plans for the Hartford Connecticut Temple were replaced. President Gordon B. Hinckley explained in the priesthood session of General Conference, "After working for years to acquire a suitable site in the Hartford area, during which time the Church has grown appreciably in areas to the north and south, we have determined that we will not at this time build a temple in the immediate area of Hartford." Plans were then announced for temples in Boston, Massachusetts, and White Plains, New York. "In other words," he said, "there will be two [temples] to serve the needs of the people where originally it was planned that one would do. We have sites in both of these new locations."

To the members of Hartford who had joyed in the announcement of this temple, Pres. Hinckley said, "We apologize to our faithful Saints in the Hartford area. We know you will be disappointed in this announcement. You know that we, and your local officers, have spent countless hours searching for a suitable location that would handle the needs of the Saints in New York and New England. While we deeply regret disappointing the people in the Hartford area, we are satisfied that we have been led to the present decision, and that temples will be located in such areas that our Saints in the Hartford area will not have to drive unreasonable distances."⁶