Tampa Florida Temple
The Tampa Florida Temple was among those announced by President Russell M. Nelson during the April 2022 General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Located in Central Florida, the Tampa Florida Temple will be the state’s fourth. [1] Other temples in operation or under construction are the Orlando Florida Temple, Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple, Tallahassee Florida Temple, and the Jacksonville Florida Temple.
There are more than 173,000 Latter-day Saints and some 275 congregations in the state. Possibly the first missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Florida was Phineas Young, who served a two-month mission in 1845. The first missionaries were not well-received. From 1869 to 1929 law officers met each train arriving in Tallahassee and prevented Latter-day Saint elders from getting off. As late as 1895, history notes that two elders were arrested and given the choice to leave or pay a $200 fine. In 1898, one Church congregational leader was murdered.[2] In spite of such persecution, missionaries continued to preach in Florida. The state's first official Church congregation was created in Jefferson County in 1897.[3]
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Location
The Tampa Florida Temple is currently in the planning stages. The single-story edifice of approximately 30,000 square feet will be constructed on a 12-acre site at 9445 Camden Fields Parkway in Riverview, Florida. The new site is the location of the former Tampa Bay campus of the Cooley Law School, with the Church just finalizing the purchase of the property in early 2024.
The new site in Riverview is near the intersection exchange of Interstate 75 and U.S. Highway 301, closer to downtown in the southeast area of metro Tampa. The Camden Fields Parkway site is a nine-mile drive from the previously announced Bell Shoals Road site in Valrico, or a direct distance of just under six miles.
