Dallas Texas Temple Fun Facts

The Dallas Texas Temple is the 30th dedicated temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The Dallas Texas Temple was the first temple built in Texas.

In 1981, President Spencer W. Kimball announced plans to build nine temples in different parts of the world. These temple were designed to be smaller and more economical to build than earlier temples. One of these temple was the Dallas Texas Temple.

The Dallas Temple is sister temples to the Boise Idaho and the Chicago Illinois Temple.

When choosing the location of the Dallas Temple they found a property twelve miles north of downtown Dallas. This property included an orchard of pecan trees. During a visit to examine the site, Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles described the site as peaceful and serene. He stated that it was an appropriate location for a temple.

The Dallas Temple stirred up struggles with the Southern Baptists of the area, with major news outlets encouraging fear of the Latter-day Saints. There was opposition in magazines, radio stations, and news outlets all were fearful of a potential influx of Latter-day Saints.

A group opposed the temple even went as far as going to the local meeting house of the Latter-day Saints, writing the members license plates down to find out their addresses and encouraged them to leave the Latter-day Saint Church. This was not affective to getting the members to leave and after the building of the Temple persecution and problems ceased for the members of the area.

On January 22, 1983 at the groundbreaking a prayer was offered the Lord to easy the animosity towards the temple and help the local people come to appreciate the temple.

The Dallas Temple was dedicated on October 19, 1984 by Gordon B. Hinckley. The Dallas Temple was remodeled in 1987 to increase it's size and make it more functional and efficient. The addition added 22,000 new square feet.

References:

"Temples of the New Millennium" by Chad S. Hawkins p.62

https://churchofjesuschristtemples.org/dallas-texas-temple/