Anchorage Alaska Temple

The Anchorage Alaska Temple is the 54th operating temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In 1997, President Gordon B. Hinckley, 14th President after Joseph Smith, announced the building of smaller Mormon Temples. The first of these smaller temples was built in Monticello, Utah and the second in Anchorage, Alaska.

After the groundbreaking of the Anchorage Alaska Temple in 1998, the construction of this 6,800-square-foot (630 m2) temple took only nine months.

The west side of the Anchorage Alaska Temple features the seven stars of the Big Dipper pointing to the North Star, a symbol found on the Alaskan flag and on the Salt Lake Temple. The temple walls are covered with gray and white quartz-flecked granite, and the temple design incorporates Alaskan motifs, such as likenesses of fir trees on the doorway pilasters. The stained glass is reminiscent of water, and stylized evergreens with patterns resembling native designs are used to adorn interior furnishings.

President Gordon B. Hinckley dedicated the Mormon Temple on January 9, 1999, with more than six thousand members from as far away as the Yukon braving the freezing weather. After remodeling that nearly doubled the size of the temple, President Hinckley rededicated the temple on February 8, 2004. The Anchorage Alaska Temple now has a total floor area of 11,937 square feet (1,109.0 m2), two ordinance rooms, and one sealing room.