First Building Outside Salt Lake City for Religious & Education Instruction

Salt Lake City had its meeting houses first; the rest of the valley waited. This monument marks what was, by its builders' reckoning, the first structure raised anywhere in the valley outside the city for worship and schooling together — put up in 1853, when the settlements ringing Salt Lake were still mostly tents, dugouts, and open ground. It served the double duty frontier buildings always did, sheltering both the Sunday sermon and the weekday classroom. The Millcreek Ward priesthood placed the marker in 1931 to keep the vanished building's spot remembered.

What the plaque says

To commemorate the first building in the valley outside of Salt Lake City erected for the purpose of religious and educational instruction. Built 1853. Erected by the Priesthood of the Millcreek Ward, July 26, 1931.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• International Peace Gardens — 3.6 mi
  A hidden garden where 28 countries are represented in miniature
• Gilgal Sculpture Garden — 4.5 mi
  A surreal and eccentric sculpture garden hidden in a residential neighborhood
• Liberty Park — 4.6 mi
  Salt Lake Citys beloved 80-acre urban park since 1882
• This Is The Place Heritage Park — 6.3 mi
  A living history village at the mouth of Emigration Canyon

More markers nearby

• First Millcreek Ward Chapel — 0.8 mi
• Welsh Settlement — 1.3 mi
• Archibalt Gardner Mill — 1.5 mi
• Pony Express Station — 1.6 mi