Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple
On 4 October 2008 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced that it would build a new temple in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The temple was originally scheduled to be located at 427 North Broad Street in downtown Philadelphia. However, the church encountered "contamination" problems with that site, prohibiting it from using the entire parcel to construct two buildings. He said the Church was "in the process" of finalizing a sales agreement for 1739 Vine St., now a parking lot owned by Logan Place Associates.
The new property is on the north side of Vine, east of Family Court and near the Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul.
It is assumed that the Church will follow the same pattern it has used in large metropolitan areas such as Hong Kong and New York City, that of building a multi-purpose high-rise building, with offices and a visitors' center on the lower floors and ordinance rooms on the top floors.
Several significant events in Church history took place in Pennsylvania including much of the translation of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of priesthood authority. The Church was first established in Pennsylvania in 1839—growing to 450 members by October 1840. Membership fell following the migration of the Saints to Salt Lake but grew again as Mormon European emigrants arrived. Eventually the first stake was organized in 1960 with 1,100 members located in congregations in southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. Today there are nearly 48,000 members in Pennsylvania alone(LDS Newsroom, October, 2008).
