Open house begins for renovated San Diego California Temple

SALT LAKE CITY — The San Diego California Temple is opening again after three years of renovations, but before its dedication, community members who have seen the unique 10-spire building from the outside will have a chance to walk through and see what it looks like inside — something that hasn’t been available in over three decades.

Elder Neil L. Andersen, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, told members of the media on Monday during an open house media day that everything in the temple points to Christ.

“This is a time for us to declare very strongly our knowledge of Jesus Christ and our belief in him, our faith in him, our hope in him,” he said. “We’re so happy to be able to declare his name.”

The reopening of the temple is a “major event” for San Diego, according to Eder Andersen, noting that the temple in San Diego is unique and beautiful.

“The temple is the most sacred place on earth to us as members of the church,” he said. “It is a place of holiness, of peace, of revelation, of receiving our answers to our prayers. It’s very, very important to us. It is a testament to us of the immortality of the soul.”

‘Our temple’

After three years of traveling farther to reach a temple, many Latter-day Saints are excited to have their local, unique temple back.

“To know that San Diego Temple — our temple — is going to be reopening and we can be here as frequently as we want and not have it be an all-day affair … it just really makes us feel joyful,” said Jan Draper.

Public tours begin on Thursday and go through July 11, Monday through Saturday. The temple will be dedicated on Aug. 23.

Deon Travers, a local church member, said the open house provides an opportunity for him to show the temple to friends and neighbors.

“They’ve seen it driving by. They’re so curious. … Now we can offer them a little opportunity to come in and join us and see what it’s all about,” he said.

Sheantala Abello, another local church member, said her friends refer to the temple as a castle.

A ‘stunning’ temple

The San Diego California Temple was dedicated in April 1993 and was the church’s 45th temple. It sits just off the freeway near the La Jolla community.

Spencer McBride, a historian with the Church History Department, said the view of the temple from the freeway is “stunning.”

“It’s white, and the people who built the temple blew chips of marble into the plaster on the exterior to give it kind of a glisten, especially when the sun hits it,” he explained.

A similar method was used on the church’s first temple in Kirkland, where dishes were broken and placed into the stucco to make the building shine.

McBride said other unique aspects of the San Diego California Temple include a two-level celestial room and an atrium at the center of the temple.

He said there was a lot of excitement when the temple was announced, as it would make a temple more accessible to many Latter-day Saints in the area. Now, about 50,000 church members will be assigned to the temple, from the southern side of Riverside County to Yuma, Arizona.

A statement from the church said the need for renovation was primarily due to aging art glass windows that were cracking; those windows were redesigned and repositioned to allow the glass to breathe and prevent future cracking.

During the renovations, the marble-crate facade was all restored, staining from the freeway traffic and marine growth was arrested and the landscaping was updated. Inside the temple, paint, carpet and bathrooms were updated and the cafeteria and dining room were modified into a worker’s break room and a large marriage waiting room. Two sealing rooms were combined to create one larger sealing room.

Joshua Young, special projects manager with the church, said keeping that sparkle was the biggest challenge — “but also the most rewarding.”

“I’m excited for the open house, excited for the dedication so that it can return and be operational as it’s meant to be,” he said.