The Honolulu Tabernacle, which was dedicated in 1941, was the final tabernacle built by the Church anywhere in the world, said Brooks Haderlie, the now retired BYU–Hawaii archivist. In a 1997 archived article from thechurchnews.com called “Honolulu Tabernacle to be Renovated” by Thomas E. Daniels, it says the Honolulu Tabernacle was dedicated in August 1941, only four months before the Pearl Harbor attack of December 1941.
Daniels wrote, “In his dedicatory prayer, President David O. McKay, then second counselor in the First Presidency, blessed the edifice that no missile would strike it in any war.”
Haderlie explained, “Most people knew when war was coming, but at that point, literally no one knew Hawaii would be bombed. Everybody assumed Hawaii would be invaded by Japanese troops, but they were not expecting a bombing.”
From its miraculous protection from war to its unique stature, the Honolulu Tabernacle is an icon on Oahu.
James Emerson Hallstrom Jr., former temple president of the Laie Hawaii Temple, said, “When you look at the tabernacle from the street, it’s an icon that’s not typical of a [Latter-day Saint] building. You see it from the street and it pulls you in.” He said what makes the building unique is the Christus and its high tower, which was one of the highest landmarks in downtown Honolulu for many years.
Daniels says, “Perhaps the [Honolulu] Tabernacle’s most identifiable feature is the large tile mosaic representing Christ which adorns the front of the chapel. It was done by Eugene Savage, who was head of the art department at Columbia University. The mosaic is made up of at least 100,000 tiny ceramic tiles.”
Daniels explains in the article, “For many years the illuminated tower of the tabernacle, rising 141 feet, served as a beacon even for ships at sea. It was exceeded in height only by the Aloha Tower. Today, the skyline is dominated by numerous high-rise apartments, hotels and office buildings.”
He adds Harold W. Burton, who designed the Laie Hawaii Temple, was the tabernacle architect. The Oahu stake, “the first stake to be organized off the United States mainland,” attended meetings in the Honolulu Tabernacle.
Haderlie said, “People sometimes refer to the tabernacle as the temple of [The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints], and vice versa."
Hallstrom added, "A temple is where [Church] members go to make higher order covenants with their Father in Heaven, whereas the tabernacle is open to the public for all the common worship and socialization in the gymnasiums." The Honolulu Tabernacle is “clearly not a temple [and] was never dedicated as a temple. … There’s really no difference between a tabernacle and a normal meeting house,” he said, emphasizing how the structure is still one of a kind. He added the Church has built other tabernacles as meeting houses, such as the Brigham City Tabernacle in Utah.
Hallstrom said the tabernacle was always the gathering spot. “Everything that was done, whether it was social, athletic or religious, it was always at the tabernacle.” He said the Church didn’t have a lot of other buildings back then, so the tabernacle was the central place.
We already had strong membership and wonderful saints, but to have a building … really helped the church gain a foothold and establish itself.
Because the Honolulu Tabernacle is the final tabernacle that was built, Haderlie said some of the others “are in disrepair … They’ve torn them down and replaced them with nice modern church buildings.”
Hallstrom said the tabernacle was built in the city because that’s where the majority of the population lived. In addition, traveling to Laie took several days because the tunnels, which pass through the mountains,weren’t built yet.
“Coming to Kailua was an all day trip over the mountain and down and up the mountain and down the mountain. Laie was on the other side of the earth. … It was a long trek and you couldn’t have a building like the tabernacle [in Laie] because Laie was a refuge and rural,” he explained.
In Hallstrom’s opinion, the Church’s construction of the Honolulu Tabernacle in 1935 helped the Church’s establishment as a mainstream religion in urban Honolulu.
“The building helped give credibility from an urban sense,” he said. “[At that time], we already had the Book of Mormon in Hawaiian. We already had strong membership and wonderful saints, but to have a building … really helped the church gain a foothold and establish itself,” he said. •
