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Final Farewell To LDS Logandale Chapel

Final Farewell To LDS Logandale Chapel
By VERNON ROBISON
Moapa Valley Progress
Published Sept. 16, 2009

Demolition began last week on the historic LDS Logandale Chapel which was destroyed in a fire last February. The demolition project, which was awarded to local contracting company, Savanic Transport, began on Friday, September 4 and is expected to continue for the next two weeks. Heavy equipment operators have been busy tearing down the old cement block structure which was built by local volunteer labor and completed in 1951.

Work crews demolish the remains of the historic LDS Logandale Chapel which was destroyed by fire earlier this year.
The historic nature of the building, and its sentimental value to local church members, has brought a few unique elements to the demolition project. Crews spent the first day carefully removing the steeple of the building so that it could be preserved.

“They were asked to save the steeple, as it has some real historic significance to people here,” said LDS Logandale Stake President Matt Messer. “We have plans to display it in the Heritage Park that is planned to be built behind the Hinckley Chapel.”

Crews carefully remove the steeple of the LDS Logandale Chapel. Local church leaders plan to display the steeple in a proposed Heritage Park. But removing the old steeple proved a difficult job. Crews carefully unbolted the wood structure from the concrete base and, with a crane, gently lifted it from the building. Damage from the fire had made the lower part of the steeple very delicate to work with, said Savanic owner Chris Whitney. To make things more challenging, thunderclouds began gathering as the afternoon wore on. “We were worried that the wind would pick up and cause us trouble,” Whitney said. “It did get a little tricky. But, in the end, everything turned out okay.” The old steeple was removed to a safe corner of the site.

The stake had also requested that a number of the bricks from the building be saved and made available to members of the community who wanted them as keepsakes of the old building. The 35,000 bricks used in the building’s construction were all handmade by crews of church members who volunteered on countless Saturday mornings in the brickyard.

While there has been a lot of interest in the bricks, Whitney emphasized that these bricks are not entirely ideal souvenir pieces.

“They aren’t like those little souvenir bricks you get in Nauvoo (Illinois),” Whitney said. “They are great big heavy concrete blocks. I’m not sure what people will do with them.”

Plans are still in the works for a chapel to be rebuilt on the site. Logandale congregations that had met in the old building are currently cramming into the meeting schedules of other existing LDS Chapel buildings in the area. There is no disputing that another building will be needed. President Messer stated that the Church has recently acquired additional property just west of the church property. But he was still unsure of what the new building would look like, or exactly where it would be placed. “The land owned by the church there is more than adequate for a new building,” Messer said. “But as to the size or style of a new building, we don’t know yet.”

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