History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

PUBLIC BUILDINGS. 293
ing its construction, the saints in every part of the
world were urged to self-denial, and it was voted to
dispense with the use of tea, coffee, snuff, and tobacco,
the sums thus saved to be also used for the building
of the temple, which was to stand on the same block.
The latter was to be built of stone quarried in the
mountains, and a railroad from temple block to the
quarry was chartered for the conveyance of building
material.
Adjoining the tabernacle was the bowery, 100 by
60 feet, made of posts and boarding, completed three
or four years later, and large enough to contain 8,000
people, a temporary structure having been erected in
1848. Among other buildings may be mentioned the
tithing office, the social hall, and the seventies' hall of
science. Several bridges were also built, which were
paid for by the one per centum property tax. 18
Thus at the western base of the Wasatch Mountains
was laid out the city of Great Salt Lake, its
buildings being distributed over a greater area than
that on which stood, in 1850, the commercial metropolis
of the United States. 19
Its site was on a slope,
barely perceptible except toward the north, where it
was enclosed by the Wasatch Range and a spur trending
to the westward. Besting on the eastern bank of
the Jordan, it was watered by several creeks; a canal,
twelve miles long, crossing three streams, being proposed
to convey the waters of the Big Cottonwood
to the farm-lands south of the city; and through
each street flowed a rivulet of pure water, which was
thence diverted into the garden plats.
On the 24th of July, 1849, was held the second
anniversary of the arrival of the pioneers. 20 At day-
18 Resolved that a tax of one per ct per annum be assessed on property to
repair public highways. Hist. B. Young, MS., 1849, 5.
19 Kane's The Mormons, 74; New York Tribune, Oct. 7, 1S49.
20 The 4th and 24th of July were at first celebrated together, but on the
latter date because bread and vegetables were more plentiful at the end of this
month than at the beginning. Utah Early Records, MS., 91.