The First Presidency approved a proposal in 1902 to open a Bureau of Information on Temple Square to provide tourists with accurate information about the Church. The Bureau opened a small kiosk on August 4. A four-person committee under the First Council of Seventy worked with over 100 men and women who served part-time "home missions" at Temple Square. Benjamin Goddard was called to chair the committee.
Temple Square guides wore badges showing a metallic design of the tabernacle and the initials L. D. S. An attached ribbon read, "Bureau of Information and Church Literature." The missionaries were told not to proselytize, but to make friends who could then contact missionaries serving in their home towns to learn more.
After two years a permanent building was built—the forerunner of all Church visitors’ centers. It was expanded three times before being replaced with the South Visitors’ Center in 1978.
