The Tabernacle

Posted in Free Activities / Indoor Adventures
Updated January 18, 2023

The Tabernacle on Temple Square is an iconic building known for it’s oval shape and large dome. This building is a quick visit on Temple Square, but has lots of history and also houses many free events.

When you enter the Tabernacle, one of the missionaries will greet you and ask if you have any questions and often times they will share a quick message with you. Then you are free to walk around the ground floor of the Tabernacle. The stairs to the upper floor were blocked off, much to the chagrin of my boys, but we still admired everything we could see.

The pillars in the Tabernacle don’t seem to be ideal for viewing.

We began by sitting in one of the carved wooden benches and realizing they aren’t very comfortable. We also looked at the pillars and saw how inconvenient they were since they blocked people’s view and cut into many of the benches. We might have been a little biased after taking a tour of the Conference Center and we know all the things they changed in that building to fix the problems from The Tabernacle.

Those pillars are really in the way, but very beautiful!

We also walked down as close as we could to admire the beautiful organ. We had planned to attend the daily organ recital, but we didn’t quite make it. Still the amount of pipes always amazes me.

We had fun walking through this beautiful historic building.

We loved the huge doors that you enter through. Make sure to go to Door 11 to enter The Tabernacle.

That’s about it for the self-guided tour. It’s a fun stop because it is super-simple and you can go as quickly or as slowly as your children allow. If you can make it happen, we recommend attending one of the FREE events at the Tabernacle that happen daily.

We visited during one of the daily organ recitals. They began the recital with a demonstration of the acoustics of the Tabernacle. It was so amazing. They dropped a pin and we could hear it all the way in the back where we were sitting. Then the organist performed quite a few numbers showing off the different sounds and stops on the Organ. The recital was only 30 minutes, so it was just right for the kids. And they were amazed at the different colors that lit up behind the organ.