L.D.S. Tenth Ward Square

After the organization of the original 19 wards of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City on February 22, 1849, ward squares or blocks were created for each ward’s public buildings. Of those original squares, Tenth Ward Square alone retains the buildings that served settlers’ spiritual, economic, cultural, and educational needs. Still standing are the 1873 meeting house, the first building used exclusively for religious purposes; the third schoolhouse, built in 1887 and one of the earliest known designs of Richard K. Kletting, a prominent architect and Mormon immigrant of 1883; the late Gothic revival church constructed in 1909; and the Tenth Ward store built in 1880. The store is connected to a house built in the 1890s by Adam Speirs, bishop and proprietor of the store. Originally, the Tenth Ward was bounded by Sixth East on the west, the foothills on the east, Third South on the north, and Sixth South on the south. Its first bishopric consisted of Bishop David Pettegrew, First Counselor Daniel Tyler, and Second Counselor Sanford Porter, and all three were members of the Mormon Battalion.

Salt Lake City, Utah · United States