Less than a year after St. George was settled, Brigham Young directed residents to build a commodious, substantial, well-furnished building with seating for 2,000 that would be an ornament to the city and a credit to its people's energy and enterprise. The result was the red sandstone St. George Tabernacle one block south of here. Its cornerstones were set in June of 1863. Parts of the structure were completed and the first meeting was held in the basement in March of 1869, but the building was not fully completed and dedicated until May of 1867. During 13 years of construction, workers, most of whom had not yet built suitable homes for themselves, received foodstuff as compensation. Limestone for the three-foot-thick basement walls was hand-quarried from the foothills north of the city, and red sandstone boulders for the two-and-one-half-foot walls were hand-quarried from a site near the Red Hills Golf Course and hand-cut into serviceable stones, with the markings of individual stone masons' tools still evident on close inspection. Its interior plaster and woodwork illustrate the pride and dedication to excellence among the founders of Dixie. Because currency was hard to come by in the settlers' hardscrabble lives, raising cash for items such as the building's 2,244 panes of glass required great sacrifice. The Tabernacle's bell was cast in Troy, New York, in 1872 and the clock was made in London; both were shipped to California and then hauled by team and wagon to St. George. Considered one of the most architecturally beautiful buildings in the West, it was and continues to be an ornament to the city, and its completion while the Temple and courthouse were also under construction stands as a tribute to the energy and enterprise of Dixie's pioneers.