"THE TEMPLE LOT" Independence Things to Do Tip by mtncorg

During the summer of 1831, Joseph Smith, Jr., came out from Kirtland, Ohio to where one of the first significant gathering of adherents to his new religious movement was taking place, in order to gain a better appreciation for the efforts of missionaries he had set out to make contact with the native Americans of the nearby Indian Territories - what is now Kansas. Joseph was duly impressed by what he found and he revealed that it was here that the Garden of Eden had actually been located and it was here that Jesus Christ would appear at the Second Coming in time to usher in the New Millennium. Smith placed a stone to mark the spot where a future temple was to be erected. The land was owned by the State of Missouri at the time but was purchased in December of 1831 by Jones Flournoy who then sold a 63.33 acre lot - 'Temple Lot Property' - to the local Mormon bishop, Edward Partiridge. Two years later, Flournoy would be among those that banished the Mormons from Independence. The original lot was subsequently divided into city lots and sold into private hands, but today most all of the parcel belongs to one branch of the Mormon tree or another - maybe 2/3 belongs to the RLDS/Community of Christ branch in grounds occupied by their Temple and Auditorium and associated parking areas; a little over 1/4 belongs to the Utah-based LDS church with a Visitor Center, local congregational church and park taking up their section; and a large grass covered empty vacant lot with a smallish church on the north side taking up the area between the RLDS Temple and Auditorium. This last area is owned by the Church of Christ and it is on their land that the cornerstone laid down by Joseph Smith was rediscovered in 1929. From this stone, the other cornerstones of the future temple are marked out in the grassy expanses.

Mormons believe that at least one temple will be erected on the lot prior to the Second Coming of Jesus and the New Millennium, but there is widespread disagreement among the various branches as to the timing or purpose of that structure. The Church of Christ actually started to build a temple in the 1920-30's on the lot site and it was during the excavation phase that Joseph Smith's cornerstone was uncovered. Money problems and schisms within the church's ranks led to an eventual discontinuation of their efforts and the excavations were refilled, awaiting later developments.

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Lot