Centerville Utah LDS 1st Ward Church Building...

It's been several decades since I stepped foot in the historic Centerville LDS First Ward chapel. 

Almost three, to be exact.

Back in the late 1980s I was part of a group of church members known as Single Adults. Our religion places so much emphasis on marriage that those who aren't married are "officially" branded as such (as opposed to the unofficial titles we give ourselves...). And, in an attempt to change the unwed masses from Single to No Longer Single, the church created congregations of single people. They did this so we could worship together, but more importantly, be together. Depending on who you ask, these congregations are either successful, or not. And finding a spouse doesn't necessarily translate to successful.

We singles met in this church. A few days ago I posted a picture of the chapel as my Pic Of The Day on Facebook. One comment said this is the oldest LDS church building to continually be used for weekly meetings. That's interesting to me. But, what I found more interesting was the building itself.

It has a fireplace in one of rooms. I don't know if it's functioning or not, but it was cool nevertheless.

In the same room it has an original LeConte Stewart paining--beautiful!

The chapel itself is very unique. Immediately left and right of the podium are overflow areas so you can listen to the messages while watching the speaker(s) in profile.

I wanted to go see every room to see what other treasures it held, but I only saw a few rooms. Which begs the question--how could I have missed it's awesomeness back when I attending meetings as a Single Adult?

I guess I was concentrating on other things back then...