For Substantial Renovations, the San Diego Temple Will Close in July 2023

The San Diego California Temple, the Church’s 45th temple, will close in July 2023 for substantial repairs, as stated by the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Monday, April 17th, the news was posted to ChurchofJesusChrist.org.

The temple is 169 feet high and has a footprint of 72,000 square feet; its two main spires are encircled by four smaller ones. The very prominent temple occupies a 7.2-acre location on a ridge above Interstate 5 in northern San Diego, close to the affluent community of La Jolla.

On April 25, 1993, the first of 23 dedicatory sessions held that day through April 30, President Gordon B. Hinckley, then first counselor in the First Presidency to President Ezra Taft Benson, dedicated the San Diego California Temple.

San Diego California Temple
San Diego California Temple

He presided over 13 of the sessions, while President Thomas S. Monson, the First Counselor at the time, presided over the other 10. The decision to build a temple in San Diego was made by the First Presidency on Saturday, April 7, 1984, just before the Saturday morning session of that weekend’s General Conference.

On February 27, 1988, President Benson oversaw the groundbreaking ceremony, and President Monson later dedicated the site. Some 720,000 people took advantage of the free public tours during a four-week open house before the dedication in April 1993.

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Dates for the public open house and rededication will be announced at a later time, and Latter-day Saints who live in the area around the southern California temple are urged to visit other homes of the Lord in the region during the shutdown.

The Newport Beach California Temple (70 miles), the Redlands California Temple (110 miles), and the Los Angeles California Temple (124 miles) are all operational southern California temples within a day’s drive of the San Diego temple.

The Yorba Linda California Temple, set to be completed after its groundbreaking in June 2022, is located 87 miles to the north of the Tijuana Mexico Temple, which is located 36 miles to the south across the Mexico-United States border.

There are about 735,000 Latter-day Saints living in California, spread throughout nearly 1,190 congregations and 12 homes of the Lord. Only Utah has a larger Latter-day Saint population in the United States. There are actually four temples serving members of the Church in California: the ones already mentioned plus those in Fresno, Oakland, and Sacramento.

The dedication of the Feather River California Temple is set for October 8, and two more temples for the state have been announced for Modesto and San Jose, with Bakersfield being the most recent to be revealed at the April 2023 general conference by President Russell M. Nelson.

Use the California Examiner as your go-to source for local news to learn about the state’s best kept secrets.

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