Feather River California Temple Media LDS Temple News
The Feather River California Temple is the 184th dedicated temple in operation. Located at 1470 Butte House Road, Yuba City, California 95993, it is the first temple built in Sutter County and the eighth in California.
The House of the Lord stands on 9.24 acres and has two stories. It measures 41,665 square feet, reaches 135 feet in height, and sits at an elevation of 60 feet. Its exterior is finished with cream precast concrete panels.
Announcement and key dates
The Feather River California Temple was originally announced as a temple planned for Yuba City. Prophet Russell M. Nelson announced it to the public on October 7, 2018, during General Conference. At the time, it was to be California’s eighth temple, joining the Los Angeles California Temple (1956), Oakland California Temple (1964), San Diego California Temple (1993), Fresno California Temple (2000), Redlands California Temple (2003), Newport Beach California Temple (2005), and Sacramento California Temple (2006). California was then home to more than 760,000 Church members organized into nearly 1,300 congregations.
A rendering of the Feather River California Temple was released on September 26, 2019.
The information provided lists the groundbreaking and grounds dedication as July 18, 2020, presided over by Paul H. Watkins, an Area Seventy. It also describes a small groundbreaking event presided over by Elder Watkins on Saturday, June 18, 2020, with attendance limited by COVID-19 social-distancing guidelines. These dates do not match, and June 18, 2020, was a Thursday.
In the dedicatory prayer for the grounds, Elder Watkins said: “As the temple foundation is poured, and the walls are placed, and the roof is formed, let us all revitalize our foundational faith in apostles and prophets with Jesus Christ being our chief cornerstone.”
A public open house took place from August 19 through September 9, 2023. Apostle Ulisses Soares dedicated the Feather River California Temple on October 8, 2023. Elder Soares described the temple as “the house of the Lord.”
Feather River California Temple Exterior and landscape
The temple’s architectural design includes a single attached end spire topped with a gold-leafed Angel Moroni statue.
The landscape plan draws inspiration from the Sacramento Valley’s Mediterranean climate, local history, and biodiversity. It incorporates several mature native oak, redwood, and hackberry trees already on the property. Among the landscape’s notable features are 100-year-old olive trees transplanted from a local orchard. They are arranged in groves in front of and behind the House of the Lord.
A six-foot-tall steel picket fence, powder-coated bronze to match other metal fixtures, encloses the temple grounds. Precast concrete pillars mark the gated entrances.
Art glass and interior details
Almond blossoms appear in the art glass in all the temple’s windows. The second-level arched windows and windows in the ordinance spaces feature the blossoms, reflecting the area’s agricultural industry. The design celebrates beauty and the rewards of hard work, using the almond blossom’s natural colors against a background that fades from yellow to blue.
The general carpet pattern takes inspiration from early Christian architecture. Its green color reflects the area’s rice fields and agricultural life. The carved carpet design includes almond flowers, coordinating with the art glass. Other rug designs evoke an open field of local wildflowers and California poppies, the state flower.
The stone floor includes Crema Beige marble from Iran, Emperador Light from Turkey, Inca Gold from Pakistan, Verde Lichen from Iran, Rojo Alicante from Spain, and Vanilla from Turkey. The colors were selected to coordinate with the fabrics and reflect local flora. The stone pattern throughout the House of the Lord references other buildings in the area, while the pattern around the baptistry draws on the art glass designs.
Paint, lighting, and woodwork
Decorative paint is used simply along the patron path. In the ordinance areas, its abstract designs draw on local flora and its underlying geometry. The paint accents the architecture at key points and connections, expressing the area’s natural beauty and the principles that contribute to it.
The interior lights are brass, with crystal added in the ordinance spaces. Each fixture has a shallow bowl. In the ordinance rooms, the bowl’s shallow curve contrasts with the vaulted ceiling above it, bringing together two complementary elements that complete a circle.
Decorative millwork appears on the altars, recommend desk, baptismal font, and doors leading into ordinance spaces. Its modified quatrefoil pattern comes from early Christian architecture and abstracts the form of a four-leaf clover.
The font railing abstracts the tall reeds found along the edges of bodies of water. Its design also draws on the shape of the rice plant, which is extensively grown in the area.
Materials and patterns
The doors are made of cherry wood, reflecting the importance of cherries as an agricultural product in the area. Their hardware is brass and features arches, a reed-and-ribbon motif, and abstract forms of flora.
Simple textured wallcoverings are used throughout the House of the Lord. A leaf pattern in the bride’s room connects with the art glass and rug designs. The pattern is derived from early Christian depictions of the olive branch.
The ceilings in the temple’s ordinance spaces are vaulted, drawing on early Christian and local historical architecture. The temple contains four instruction rooms, three sealing rooms, and one baptistry.
Feather River California Temple Media LDS Temple News
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