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A Home of Our Own

The Story of the Relief Society Building

Contents

    Inspired by Dreams of the PastIn the Shadow of the TempleSealed Together as SistersThe Building Rises“This House Our Mothers Built for Us”
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    • Inspired by Dreams of the Past

    • The Relief Society was founded on March 17, 1842, in Joseph Smith’s store in Nauvoo. The society quickly outgrew this space and began meeting outdoors in the shadow of the rising temple. But the cold prevented their gatherings during the winter and left them wanting a building of their own. Joseph Smith donated a lot and a house the sisters could repair and use for their meetings.

    • Upper room of Joseph Smith's Nauvoo store (reconstructed) in which the Relief Society was founded on March 17, 1842
    • The Saints’ abrupt departure from Nauvoo in 1846 prevented the Relief Society from establishing a permanent home there.

    • The Relief Society was founded in Joseph Smith's Red Brick Store in Nauvoo.
    • Beginning in 1868, local ward Relief Societies in Utah began to construct halls in which to meet, care for the poor, conduct business, and sell goods.

    • The Salt Lake 15th Ward Relief Society built the first hall.
    • The earliest Relief Society halls in Utah were patterned after the store in Nauvoo in which the society was founded in 1842.
    • Over the next 50 years, dozens of local halls sprung up, dotting the landscape of Utah and the surrounding areas. But the General Presidency and general board of the Relief Society did not have a permanent home. For about 29 years they borrowed space in the offices of the Woman’s Exponent, a newspaper for women. But this space was limited and moved several times over the years.

    • Sarah Granger Kimball insisted the women needed their own building in the shadow of the temple.
    • In 1896, Sarah Granger Kimball proposed that the sisters construct a building for the General Presidency. The sisters sustained her proposal with a unanimous vote.

    • As Relief Society President, Bathsheba Smith oversaw fundraising for the planned Relief Society Building.
    • Thousands of Relief Society members donated to the building fund. Some gave money they earned selling the eggs their chickens laid on Sundays.

    • By 1909, the sisters had raised over $21,000. President Lorenzo Snow donated to the society a lot east of Main Street in the shadow of the Salt Lake Temple.

    • But the sisters were disappointed to learn in 1909 that offices would be furnished for them on the second floor of the new Bishop’s Building instead.

    • Emmeline B. Wells said that Bathsheba Smith was so shocked to learn they would not have their own building she fainted.
    • The Bishop’s Building was on Main Street between South Temple and North Temple Streets in Salt Lake City. It housed the offices of the Presiding Bishopric and the women’s organizations from 1910 until 1956.
    • Though reluctant at first, the Relief Society General Presidency remained comfortably housed in the Bishop’s Building for many years. They even declined an offer by former board member Elizabeth McCune to donate her mansion in 1920 for the use of the women’s organizations of the Church. But by the late 1930s, they began to outgrow the space.

    • Reception room for the women's organizations in the Bishop's Building
    • In the Shadow of the Temple

    • In 1939, Belle S. Spafford was editor of the Relief Society Magazine. Her office in the Bishop’s Building was so noisy she could hardly concentrate.

    • She asked President Louise Y. Robison if she could have her own office. Robison replied, “Before you can get a new room we will have to get a new building.”

    • Editor of the Relief Society Magazine from 1937-1945, Belle S. Spafford became the Relief Society General President in 1945.
    • When Spafford was called as Relief Society General President in 1945, a new building was among her first priorities. In July she wrote to President George Albert Smith about this “proposed undertaking which has been dear to the hearts of Relief Society for many, many years.” He approved the idea and added, “I don’t care how ... beautiful it is, it will not be better than you deserve.”

    • George Cannon Young was hired as the architect for the new Relief Society Building.
    • Plans for the building included a sewing room and kitchen as well as offices.
    • George Cannon Young's rendering of the Relief Society Building
    • With architectural plans in hand, the sisters awaited news from the First Presidency, who had offered to donate a lot near the temple but had yet to select it. In October 1952, they gave the Relief Society a site across the street from Temple Square, north of the Bishop’s Building. Sister Spafford felt that the site fulfilled “the dreams and express designs of our sisters of the past.”

    • Belle S. Spafford and George Cannon Young inspect the site of the Relief Society Building.
    • President Spafford and her counselors provided the vision for the new building.
    • Sealed Together in Sisterhood

    • As with earlier efforts, the Relief Society needed to raise funds for the building. But how would they gather the almost $1 million the plans called for? Sister Spafford’s stake was the first to donate. “I feel now with this tangible evidence we will have a new building,” she said. Spafford and her counselors proposed a financial plan at the 1947 Relief Society Conference.

       

    • The plan called for a $5 donation from each of the over 100,000 Relief Society members. The First Presidency agreed to match the sisters dollar for dollar.

    • Members of the Mexican Branch Relief Society in the Salt Lake Temple View Stake were the first to fill their quota.
    • The 1947 Relief Society Conference at which the financial plan was proposed and sustained
    • The women responded enthusiastically. Within weeks the branches and stakes began to send in donations. Many sent letters describing how they raised the money.

    • When sisters could not afford to donate, wards held fund-raisers to help the women earn money. They created cookbooks, organized bazaars, and put on dances. 

    • The Salt Lake 34th Ward Relief Society created and sold this cookbook as a fundraiser for the new building.
    • The six member Relief Society in Kimberley, British Columbia raised funds by organizing a dance.
    • President Marena H. Grigsby of Martin, Kentucky, wrote: “Every Saturday one of the sisters bakes a large cake and we sell it amongst ourselves for 10¢ per slice. The sister getting the dime hidden in the slice bakes the cake next time and so on. We have turned in $18 on the building fund in this manner. ... To say I am grateful and proud of them is putting it mildly.”

    • The Honeyville Utah Beehive girls each contributed $1 to the building.
    • Agnes Kunz Danzie sold eggs from her chickens and raised enough to make a donation for herself and each of her daughters and granddaughters.

    • Handmade Japanese dolls donated to the Relief Society Building
    • The worldwide missions of the Church were not given quotas, and the sisters in Europe—in the aftermath of World War II—were not expected to donate at all.

    • But women around the world responded, donating cash as well as gifts reflective of their native cultures to adorn the building. View album showing gifts.

    • Relief Society Presidency receives gifts from Church members around the world to adorn the building
    • Certificates of achievement, such as this one belonging to the Fairview Utah North Ward, were given out to all Relief Societies who fulfiled their quota.
    • By the close of 1948, every stake in the Church had filled its quota and the necessary amount had been raised. President Spafford later remarked: “From the far north lands, to the sunny south, from the little villages of the islands of the sea to the great metropolitan centers [the building program] has sealed together in one the great sisterhood of Relief Society.”

    • The Building Rises

    • The long-awaited groundbreaking ceremony for the Relief Society Building was held on October 1, 1953. President Spafford addressed the crowd, choked with emotion: “I think this is the happiest day of my life,” she said. “We are deeply grateful for the goodness of our Heavenly Father to his daughters in opening the way whereby we might have a home of our own.”

    • "This is a happy and a history-making occasion."
    • "Women of the past," said Spafford at the groundbreaking, "are looking upon us and sharing our joys."
    • Members of the First Presidency and the Relief Society Presidency prepare to break ground for the building.
    • Members of the Relief Society General Board pose for a photograph on the building site.
    • Excavation for the building surrounded by the buildings of the Latter-day Saints' University
    • Relief Society Building excavation site and environs
    • "It is the opinion of the Presidency that no more choice site exists for the Relief Society home in all the world."
    • By September 1954, the foundations had been laid, and the building was ready to receive its cornerstone. The stone would be hollow and contain, among other things, a list of every person who had donated to the construction.

      Browse the complete list of donors.

    • Marianne C. Sharp, Belle S. Spafford and Velma N. Simonsen prepare the cornerstone deposit.
    • Crowd gathered to witness the cornerstone ceremony for the Relief Society Building
    • President David O. McKay applies a level to the cornerstone during the October 1954 ceremony.
    • Relief Society Presidency standing in front of partially complete building
    • Construction continued until the late summer of 1956, when the building was completed and the Relief Society readied for the dedication and opening reception.

    • “This House Our Mothers Built for Us”

    • Invitation to the Relief Society Building dedicatory services
    • Representatives from each local Relief Society were invited to attend the open house and the dedicatory service held on October 3, 1956.

    • Representatives of Relief Societies from around the world at the opening of the new Relief Society Building
    • Marianne C. Sharp remarked, “We look forward to the future, when our daughters shall be Relief Society builders,” and admire “this house our mothers built for us.”

    • At the opening, one sister admired the building and said to another, “We didn’t know our five dollars would buy you so much, did we?”

    • Cover of the December 1956 Relief Society Magazine picturing the new building
    • The Relief Society General Presidency greets visitors at the building's open house in October 1956.
    • Front lobby of the new Relief Society Building
    • Belle Spafford hoped every Relief Society member would “feel the pride of ownership” in the building. Since 1956, it has been more than simply an office for the General Presidency. It has been a place where the women of the Church can gather, work, and learn together and reflect on the sisterhood of the Relief Society.

    • Today, visitors to the Relief Society Building can view many of the gifts past generations of sisters donated. Since 1984 the building has also housed the Young Women and Primary General Presidencies.
    • Further Reading

      Heidi S. Swinton and LaRene Gaunt, “The Relief Society Building: A Symbol of Service and Sacrifice,” Ensign, Sept. 2006, 54–57.

      Alphabetical list of donors to the Relief Society Building, Church History Catalog.

      List of donors arranged by stake, Church History Catalog.

      Proceedings of Relief Society Building dedication, Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1956.

      Jill Mulvay Derr, Janath Russell Cannon, and Maureen Ursenbach Beecher, Women of Covenant (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1992), 195-98, 363-66.

      “A Worldwide Circle of Sisterhood,” in Daughters in My Kingdom: The History and Work of Relief Society (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2011), 81–101.

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