LDS Church is in talks to sell an iconic building. There are competing visions for what comes next.

Just as the Salt Lake Valley began to experience its post-World War II suburban boom, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Granger Ward meetinghouse was bursting at the seams.

So leaders decided a new ward — and chapel — needed to be created.

Before they could finalize their construction plans, population growth in the area required the organization of a whole new stake, or regional cluster of Latter-day Saint congregations.

Consequently, a week before Christmas 1949, the big gift was unwrapped: the North Jordan Stake meetinghouse. Adorned with a large glass lamp perched atop its rectangular steeple, the red-brick building later earned another name: the Lighthouse Church, a beacon for people moving into the area.

Now, almost 76 years and many meetings and dances later, members are saying farewell to the structure at 3900 S. 4000 West in what is now West Valley City. What comes next for the beloved building is up in the air.

A home for history?

Some residents want to use a portion of the 23,000-square-foot structure as the first permanent history museum for Utah’s second-largest city.

“We’ve got basements full of the history of West Valley City as residents, and we just need a place to put [those artifacts],” said Sheri Biesinger, who runs a website called West Valley City History. “We need a place to share it and keep it safe and display our magnificent history for future generations, for our generation.”

For now, though, city staffers are in discussions with the church to take ownership of the Lighthouse Church with the idea of converting it into a community resource center run by the MyHometown education nonprofit.

“It is still all under discussion,” city spokesperson Sam Johnson said. “So no agreement has been reached, but both sides are interested in continuing the discussions and see some real benefits to it.”

The building’s beginnings

Designed by architect William Frederick Thomas — also known for the midcentury modern 1958 Bountiful Ninth Ward chapel and the 1972 18th Ward building — the Lighthouse Church features a high entryway, parquet floors and two wings of additional rooms. When it opened in 1949, the structure also had its own coal-heating plant and, remarkably innovative for the time, air conditioning.

More than 5,400 members were a part of the new stake at the time of the building’s dedication. The surrounding neighborhood was set for even more growth, too. A souvenir program from the dedication mentions a residential water expansion, an under-construction Kennecott copper refinery and the then- sparkling new Redwood Drive-In.

“You ask anyone that grew up here, that was the best place to go to dances,” Biesinger said. “It was the best place to have activities, LDS or not. It was a place to go for Scouting. … It’s housed a lot of wonderful things for our community, and so we just love it.”

Biesinger wants to preserve the meetinghouse as a touchstone of postwar suburban growth in Granger and other neighborhoods that now make up West Valley City, where few historic buildings survive.

Now, the church is looking to retire and off-load the building.

“This chapel is being retired as part of a broader effort to align meetinghouse capacity with current needs of the church,” spokesperson Lester Rojas said Friday in a statement. “Built in 1949, this chapel has served church members for more than 75 years and is in need of significant upgrades and maintenance. The church is in discussions with potential buyers to see how this property can best serve the community in the future.”

Other LDS chapels

While municipal officials are still negotiating with the church over the transaction, the idea is for MyHometown to use the building for its litany of community classes, like English language offerings and music lessons. The nonprofit already operates four such centers in West Valley City.

Biesinger, however, hopes the city will dedicate at least a portion of the space for museum purposes. A petition she started to gather support has garnered more than 800 signatures and also requests that the city designate the building a historic landmark. Biesinger said she’s been pushing for a permanent museum in the municipality for about two decades.

The uncertainty over the structure’s future comes as a handful of other former Salt Lake Valley Latter-day Saint meetinghouses have come under threat or been demolished altogether. On Easter last year, the historic Fifth Ward meetinghouse was partially destroyed in an illegal demolition. The Wells Ward chapel burned down almost two months later. And worshippers at an 1894 Latter-day Saint hall-turned-mosque in Taylorsville are soliciting donations to repair that building.