Honolulu Stake Tabernacle
The Honolulu Stake Tabernacle, once known as the Oahu Stake Tabernacle, is situated on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The Oahu stake, which was organized in 1935, was the first stake to be organized off of the United States mainland. The tabernacle serves as a meetinghouse for six wards (or congregations) (including Tongan, Chuukese, and young single adult wards), and as the stake center for the Honolulu Hawaii Stake.
It is the final tabernacle built by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The property for the tabernacle, located at 1560 S. Beretania, was selected and purchased by the church from the Campbell family in 1935 for $24,000. The design was completed by Harold W. Burton, who lived in a shack on the plot for a period of time. Ground was broken to begin construction in 1940 and construction was contracted to local church member Ralph Woolley, who built the Laie Hawaii Temple." The building cost $275,000 to complete. The tabernacle was dedicated on August 17, 1941, by David O. McKay, who was serving as second counselor in the First Presidency at the time.
President McKay specifically prayed that the tabernacle would be protected in the event of a war. Pearl Harbor, located 10 miles away, was bombed less than four months later. Brooks Haderlie, a former BYU–Hawaii archivist, explained, “Most people knew when war was coming, but at that point, literally no one knew Hawaii would be bombed. Everybody assumed Hawaii would be invaded by Japanese troops, but they were not expecting a bombing.”[1]
In the years that followed the attack, the downtown Honolulu tabernacle became a spiritual sanctuary for Latter-day Saint servicemen, Utt said.
- Burton called for a complex rather than a single building. The proposal consisted of five principal buildings that were connected by covered walkways or lanais. The main building was the tabernacle itself. This 120-foot-by-45-foot chapel was designed to comfortably seat one thousand people. A choir loft, located behind the off-centered podium at the front of the tabernacle, seated 150 people and housed both a piano and an organ.
- Connected at a right angle to the tabernacle chapel was a cultural hall with a hardwood floor. This 120-foot-by-40-foot hall would be separated from the chapel by heavy curtains. When the curtains were opened, chairs could be set up in the cultural hall, and seating for the tabernacle chapel would be doubled. The cultural hall was to be used for games and dances and would also have a stage at its far end for plays and entertainment.
- The remaining buildings proposed for the complex included a long row of classrooms designed to flank outside courtyards, a building housing offices for ecclesiastical leaders, another chapel large enough for four hundred people to be used for local ward services, and a 141-foot tower to be built at the intersection of the two main structures to “balance the ensemble.”[38]
- Burton designed the buildings so they could be opened on three sides to “take full advantage of the cooling trade winds and the shade of the fine old trees.”[2]
The tabernacle's most identifiable feature is the large tile mosaic representing Christ which adorns the front of the chapel. It was done by Eugene Savage, who was head of the art department at Columbia University. The mosaic is made up of at least 100,000 tiny ceramic tiles.[3]
Eugene Savage's mosaic was created in his studio in New York, but delays due to the war prevented it being included for the tabernacle's dedication. The mosaic was finally installed and dedicated in 1943. Eugene Savage actually declined payment for his work on the mosaic of Christ because he felt it was an “honor and the peak of an artist’s career to be commissioned to do the Christ.”[4]
Thomas E. Daniels said that “For many years the illuminated tower of the tabernacle, rising 141 feet, served as a beacon even for ships at sea. It was exceeded in height only by the Aloha Tower."[5]
The building was upgraded and remodeled in 1974, 1987, and 1997.[6]
