Tallahassee Florida Temple
On 5 April 2020, during the closing session of the 190th annual general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, President Russell M. Nelson announced that a new temple would be built in Tallahassee Florida. The Tallahassee Florida Temple will be the third temple in the state of Florida for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The other two temples are the Orlando Florida Temple (1994) and the Ft. Lauderdale Florida Temple (2014). You can read the dedicatory prayer for the Orlando Florida Temple and the dedicatory prayer for the Ft. Lauderdale Florida Temple online.
The location announcement and exterior rendering release were made on Newsroom on Wednesday, 13 January 2021. The temple will be built on a 4.97-acre site located at 2440 Papillon Way in Tallahassee, Florida, the largest city in the Florida Panhandle and the state’s capital. It will stand across from an existing meetinghouse on Thomasville Road. It will stand on a major highway on the north side of Tallahassee, providing good access to members living throughout the region. The project will also include the construction of a distribution center where Church products and materials are sold. The rendering depicts a temple — still in the planning and design stages and with no groundbreaking date yet set — projected to be approximately 29,000 square feet, with a center spire.
Florida is home to more than 160,000 members in 33 stakes, 267 congregations and four missions. Tallahassee currently is in the Orlando temple district, with that temple some 260 miles away.
On the day of the announcement, Tallahassee native Shannon Havlicak Grondel recalled that the four-hour drive to the Orlando Florida Temple was a defining element of her childhood. she said, "While such a trek is minuscule in comparison to those of Saints around that world whose journey can only be made by boat, plane, or countless hours by train — it was nonetheless an obstacle to more regular temple attendance."
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Groundbreaking Announced for the Tallahassee Florida Temple
The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced that the Tallahassee Florida Temple groundbreaking will be held in June 2021.
Elder James B. Martino, North America Southeast Area President, will preside at the event. Attendance at the site will be by invitation only because of current local COVID-19 guidelines.
Photos will be available after the event.
Groundbreaking Ceremony is Held for the Tallahassee Florida Temple
On Saturday, 5 June 2021, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the Tallahassee Florida Temple. Elder James B. Martino, a General Authority Seventy and North America Southeast Area President, presided at the event and was assisted by Elder Victor P. Patrick, an Area Seventy.
Elder Martino said, "This temple will bless the entire land around it and the entire community. It will be a beacon of holiness and a place of peace for all to both see and feel. Here we will seek to draw closer to God, to hear His voice, and seek to follow His teachings."
In his opening remarks, Elder Martino underscored the significance of the word "groundbreaking." He said, "Groundbreaking was considered a representation of breaking the earth, to make a sacred deposit that would endorse a firm foundation. How appropriate of a description. Truly, this is the symbolic act to begin a foundation for a most sacred building."
Similar to other groundbreakings announced during the COVID-19 pandemic, the ceremony was an invitation-only event adhering to local government social-distancing guidelines. Joining the onlookers at the groundbreaking ceremony were local civic and community leaders.
As an alternative way to participate, members and friends of the Church were able to view the groundbreaking ceremony via live stream.
