Later this summer, members of the public will be able to tour the Ephraim Temple as part of a two-week open house ahead of its Oct. 11 dedication, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Monday.

The tours will run Sept. 2 through 19, excluding Sundays, and offer a chance for anyone to view the interior of the building in central Utah. Afterward, its doors will close to all but devout Latter-day Saints.

The Ephraim edifice is one of the church’s 32 existing or planned temples in the Beehive State. It also is one of 200 named under former church President Russell M. Nelson, who died in September.

Nelson announced the Ephraim Temple in a video message in 2021 at a gathering in nearby Manti, home to a renovated and reopened temple. At the time, a number of Latter-day Saints were concerned that the historic pioneer-era temple would lose its treasured Minerva Teichert murals.

“As we have continued to seek the direction of the Lord on this matter,” Nelson said, “we have been impressed to modify our earlier plans for the Manti Utah Temple so that the pioneer craftsmanship, artwork and character will be preserved, including the painted murals loved by so many. We will leave those murals where they are located now — inside the Manti Utah Temple.”

The plan to build a new temple seven miles away, in Ephraim, was then announced.

Five years later, apostle Ronald A. Rasband, who was on hand at the Manti meeting, will dedicate the two-story, two-towered, 39,000-square-foot Ephraim Temple this fall.

Unlike regular Latter-day Saint meetinghouses, where Sunday services are held, temples are viewed by members as Houses of the Lord, places where they take part in their religion’s highest religious rites, including eternal marriage.