Anchorage, Alaska | Monday, 23 January 2023 |

The First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announces that the Anchorage Alaska Temple will be reconstructed. The significantly larger temple will be built on the same property where a meetinghouse is currently in use. The existing Anchorage Alaska Temple will remain open during construction.

The construction is expected to start in early 2024 with completion by the summer of 2026. The square footage of the temple will increase from 11,930 to approximately 30,000. It will be a standard plan two-room, 40-seat building.

The address of the reconstructed temple will be 13111 Brayton Drive, Anchorage, AK. Once the temple is dedicated, the current temple will be decommissioned, and a new meetinghouse will be built on the existing temple location.

Dates for the public open house and dedication will be announced closer to the completion date.

The Anchorage Alaska Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley in January 1999. The temple is 1,400 miles northwest of the next-nearest temple in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Latter-day Saints consider temples as houses of the Lord and the most sacred places of worship on earth. Temples differ from the Church’s meetinghouses (chapels). All are welcome to attend Sunday worship services and other weekday activities at local meetinghouses. The primary purpose of temples is for faithful members of the Church of Jesus Christ to participate in sacred ceremonies, such as marriages, which unite families forever, and proxy baptisms on behalf of deceased ancestors who did not have the opportunity to be baptized while living.