Mesa Temple Visitors’ Center to Close
Contributed By R. Scott Lloyd, Church News staff writer
The Mesa Arizona Visitors’ Center will close on May 19, 2018, for renovations.
The visitors’ center adjacent to the Mesa Arizona Temple will close on May 19 for extensive renovations, its future yet to be determined, the Church has announced.
“Church leaders will make a decision based on the needs and demands of the area,” Church spokesman Daniel Woodruff said Tuesday, February 6.
The closure will coincide with the temple’s closure for renovation (see related story).
The visitors’ center has been home to the annual Mesa Easter Pageant, “Jesus the Christ,” which is presented two weeks prior to Easter on a stage constructed on the front lawn of the center.
Christmas lighting takes place each year on the grounds of the temple, with choral performances in front of the visitors’ center and a Nativity display inside.
Like Church visitors’ centers elsewhere, it has featured a 10-foot statue of the Christus, copied from the original sculpture by Bertel Thorvaldsen in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Dedicated in December 1956 by President David O. McKay, the building was enlarged by 3½ times with the renovation completed in 1981.
