City of Zion
The city of Zion is a Mormon pioneer urban planning concept that Joseph Smith developed and put into practice in Nauvoo . According to this model, Brigham Young designed the cities and villages founded in Utah , Salt Lake City first . The idea comes from the theological concept that “the saints” separate themselves from “Babylon” (the world) and create their own society according to divine law. This community is called Zion by the Mormons , after the promise of Isaiah in particular , who made the original name of a hill in Jerusalem the place of the end-time promise, the New Jerusalem .
Basic theological concept
The city of Enoch serves as a model. According to the Mormon scripture, Pearl of Great Price , Enoch , who is only briefly mentioned in the Bible , was given the task of calling people who had sunk in general wickedness to repentance. He gathered those willing to repent and founded the city of Zion with them. After all, the people of Zion were so righteous that they were taken to heaven as a whole.
The statement "Zion are those who are pure of heart" serves as a further basis.
One goal of the missionary work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is to find those who are or want to be pure in heart and to gather them to build this Zion of pure hearts (the new Jerusalem) with them. In the early days of the Church, all the Saints were gathered in one area, though not necessarily in a single city. First it was Independence in Missouri, after the expulsion from Missouri it was Nauvoo in Illinois and then Utah.
It was not until the twentieth century that the idea expressed by Joseph Smith was taken up:
"Every place where the saints gather is Zion, which every righteous person will establish as a place of security for his children."
Since then, a stake in Zion has been planned wherever possible, offering a refuge from the wickedness of the world.
Underlying urban planning idea
In the 19th century, Mormonism was shaped by the idea of the "literal gathering of the saints". This was also reflected in the Prophet Joseph Smith's concept of settlement. He wanted to cover the country, and indeed the world, with “cities of Zion” of around 20,000 inhabitants, which should be supplied with food from farms in the vicinity. In cities, certain areas should be designated as commercial and others as residential. The city center should be reserved for community buildings that should serve both secular purposes (schools, theaters, town hall) and religious purposes (worship, religious instruction, priesthood councils).
All buildings should be solid structures with an attractive exterior, made of stone or brick. Gardens with fruit and ornamental trees, vegetables and flowers at every house should loosen up the city.
The original plan from 1833
During this time it was planned to set up “Zion” in Missouri, a community that was both secular and religious. For this purpose, Joseph Smith envisaged a special type of settlement that would combine the advantages of urban and rural life without bringing out the negative sides of a large city with its ill-reputed quarters of violence, prostitution, alcohol and gambling.
The total built-up area of the city is said to be a square 1 mile by 1 mile on each side. Through streets with a width of 8 rods (approx. 40 m), which are exactly aligned with the cardinal points and run at the same distance, the city should be divided into square blocks 40 by 40 rods (approx. 200 by 200 m) with an area of Each 10 acres (approx. 4 ha) can be divided. Each block intended as a living area is to be divided into 2 by 10 plots of half an acre each (approx. 2000 square meters), 4 rods wide and 20 rods long (approx. 20 x 100 m). The parcels should alternate north-south and east-west in neighboring blocks. In this way, two rows of houses are never facing each other.
In the city center, two blocks should be earmarked for public buildings. This comprised 24 temples for the various departments of the priesthood and warehouses and barns for the bishop according to the "United Order" practiced at the time.
Because of the persecution in Missouri , which culminated in the extermination order of 1839, these plans could not be fully implemented there. To some extent these plans have been realized in Kirtland, Ohio, Far West and Adam ondi Ahman, Missouri. Because of the short time the Mormons were able to settle there, it was not a very in-depth test.
Realization in Nauvoo from 1839
Adapted to the location in a bend in the Mississippi, the plans in Nauvoo were basically implemented with the wide streets, the center with public buildings and the temple as well as the farms outside the city. Unlike in Missouri, there were no central warehouses for the bishop; the “united order” had been replaced by the “law of tithing”. Instead, a "Main Street" was planned with shops, public buildings and craft shops. However, the temple should be the absolute center of the city. The blocks were smaller with four parcels and the owners were more free to build on them as they saw fit than in the original plan.
Nauvoo soon reached the population of around 20,000 intended for a city of Zion. Here it was possible to study the concept of the city of Zion in practice and to adapt it to the needs.
The community fell into disrepair after most of the Mormons left in 1846. The central building and the pride of the residents, the temple, fell victim to an arson attack in 1848 and was then further destroyed by a tornado and used by the later residents of Nauvoo as a source of building blocks.
Realization in Salt Lake City from 1847
When the Mormons arrived at the great salt lake, the memory of Nauvoo was still fresh. One of Brigham Young's first acts was the establishment of a temple lot between the branches of City Creek, which would be the center and starting point for planning the new city of Salt Lake City . The advance department, which had reached the Salt Lake Valley in July 1847, passed a vote that the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles should direct the town planning of Salt Lake City.
It was decided, starting from the temple, to divide the city into square blocks of 10 acres each, which were aligned exactly north-south. The original plan of 40 acres for the temple was dropped in favor of a uniform block size. The streets between the blocks should be 8 rods (about 40 m) wide. Each block was divided into eight parcels of 10 by 20 rods (approx. 50 by 100 m), namely in each block alternating the narrow sides to the south and north or to the east and west. Only one house should be built on each parcel, at a distance of 20 feet (approx. 6 m) from the road.
This basic structure can still be seen in part in Salt Lake City today, although mostly four, in the city center also 16, blocks have been merged.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Pearl of Great Price, Moses chapter 7
- ↑ Doctrine and Covenants 97:21
- ↑ Letter from Joseph Smith to the Elders of the Church, published in the Church magazine Messenger and Advocate , Nov. 1835, cited in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, p. 206, Intellectual Reserve 2007
- Jump up ↑ Doctrine and Covenants 57
- ↑ Joseph Smith's speech in Nauvoo, quoted from Martha Jane Knowlton Coray's notebook in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: Joseph Smith, p. 204, Intellectual Reserve 2007
- ^ A b W. Ray Luce: Building the Kingdom of God: Mormon Architecture before 1847 . In: BYU Studies Quarterly, Vol. 30 (1990) Iss. 2 (accessed May 15, 2019)
- ↑ Map of the city of Zion by Frederick G. Williams
- ^ Lowry Nelson, cited in Milton R. Hunter: Brigham Young the Colonizer , The Deseret News Press, Salt Lake City, 1940, p. 135
- ^ Milton R. Hunter: Brigham Young the Colonizer , The Deseret News Press, Salt Lake City, 1940, p. 134
literature
- C. Mark Hamilton: Nineteenth-century Mormon architecture and city planning , Oxford University Press, 1995