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The basics of Cincinnati Ohio Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Cost: Close to $7.9 million for land purchase; construction price tag not released.
Address: Southwest corner of Mason-Montgomery Road and Cedar Village Drive, in Mason, Ohio.
Contractors: General contractor Big-D Construction and architect Richardson Design Partnership, both located in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Building type: Temple.
Size: 29,630-square-foot building on 35-acre parcel.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced plans to build a temple in Greater
Cincinnati more than two years ago.
On Nov. 7, those plans will be fully underway, as the church stages a groundbreaking event in Mason to kick off construction.
When completed, in about three years, the Cincinnati "house of the Lord" will join two others in Ohio for church members, who are sometimes referred to as Mormons.
The building will sit on about 35 acres at the southwest corner of Mason-Montgomery Road and Cedar Village Drive, surrounded by retail and residential properties.
The temple is "long waited for, prayed for and fasted for," said Jared Mattingley, one of six church presidents in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky/Dayton area. "It's a tremendous blessing to have it close by."
What is a Latter-day Saints' Temple?
Temples are considered sacred spaces by Latter-day Saints' members. They gather for Sunday worship in meetinghouses or chapels, and travel to temples to make sacred promises to God called covenants. Those include commitments to obey God, follow Jesus, be morally pure, and dedicate time and talent to God, according to the Latter-day Saint website.
Temples include spaces for specific uses, the website said. Among them:
- Church members check in at the "recommend desk," showing a card issued by their local church leader indicating they are prepared to enter the temple.
- Brides and grooms kneel at the "sealing room" altar to be sealed for life and eternity. Later, their children can be sealed to the family.
- Church members can enter the baptismal font on behalf of family members and others who died without being baptized.
Members of the church wear white clothing in the temple, to acknowledge entering a holy place and to symbolize purity.
Cincinnati temple will join hundreds worldwide
The Mason temple will be one of about 350 across the world either open, planned or under renovation, according to the church.
In Ohio, the church dedicated its 11,000-square-foot Columbus temple in 1999, a year after construction began. In Cleveland, it dedicated its 9,900-square-foot temple in August, after two years of construction.
The Kirtland Temple, located about 25 miles east of Cleveland, now operates as a historic site. The 15,000-square-foot site, the church's first-ever temple, was dedicated in 1836.
Ohio is home to about 65,000 Latter-day Saints, who meet in more than 130 individual congregations, a church press release said.
About 20,000 of them reside in Greater Cincinnati, attending Sunday worship in 25-30 different chapels, Mattingley said.
As a stake president, Mattingley provides spiritual direction for about 4,000 members. That includes "helping them navigate life's challenges," he said.
He volunteers for the position, with a day job as a top executive at Mason-based uniform giant Cintas Corp.
When the new temple opens, he'll need 600 to 700 other volunteers to staff it, he said.
Temple open only to members after dedication
The new temple, at 29,630 square feet, will be Ohio's largest. The grounds will include gathering spaces and extensive landscaping.
The church bought the Mason land from JHHA Real Estate in September 2023. That entity has ties to the Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati, which declined to comment about why it sold the parcel. JHHA dissolved last December, according to a filing with the Ohio Secretary of State.
When construction is complete, the church will open the temple for public tours.
Once it is officially dedicated, only church members will be admitted.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Work on giant Latter-day Saints temple in Mason to start Nov. 7
