Feather River California Temple Photography by 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.
Announcement and Dedication
The temple was announced on October 7, 2018, by President Russell M. Nelson at General Conference. At the time, it was to become 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.
The temple was originally announced as planned for Yuba City, California. Its rendering was released on September 26, 2019.
The groundbreaking and dedication of the grounds are listed as taking place on July 18, 2020, with Area Seventy Paul H. Watkins presiding. The event account also describes a small groundbreaking on Saturday, June 18, 2020, with attendance limited by COVID-19 social-distancing guidelines. These dates do not align: June 18, 2020, was a Thursday, while July 18 was a Saturday.
In his 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. A fitting reminder for the occasion is: “The temple is the house of the Lord.”
Size, Architecture, and Grounds
The Feather River California Temple sits on 9.24 acres at an elevation of 60 feet. It is a two-story temple measuring 41,665 square feet and rising 135 feet. Its exterior finish is cream precast concrete panels. A single attached end spire is topped with a gold-leafed Angel Moroni statue. Inside are four instruction rooms, three sealing rooms, and one baptistry.
The landscape plan draws inspiration from the Sacramento Valley’s Mediterranean climate, local history, and biodiversity. It incorporates mature native oak, redwood, and hackberry trees already on the grounds. A prominent feature is a group of 100-year-old olive trees transplanted from a local orchard, to be arranged in groves in front of and behind the temple.
The grounds are enclosed by a six-foot-tall steel picket fence with a bronze-colored powder coating that matches other metal fixtures. Precast concrete pillars stand at the gated entrances.
Art glass appears in all the temple’s windows. The arched second-level windows and windows in the ordinance spaces depict almond blossoms, connecting the design to the area’s agricultural industry. The design celebrates beauty and the rewards of hard work, using the blossoms’ natural colors against a background that fades from yellow to blue.
Interior Materials and Design
The general carpet pattern takes inspiration from early Christian architecture. Its green color calls to mind the area’s rice fields and agricultural livelihoods. The carved carpet design incorporates the almond flower to coordinate with the art glass. Rug designs evoke an open field of local wildflowers and California poppies, the state flower.
The stone floor uses 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 patterns throughout the temple refer to regional architecture, while the pattern around the baptistry draws from the art glass designs.
Feather River California Temple Interior Details
Decorative paint is used simply along the patron path. In the ordinance spaces, it abstracts local flora and its underlying geometry, accentuating the architecture at key points and connections. The designs express the area’s natural beauty and the principles that contribute to it.
The interior lights are brass, with crystal added in the ordinance spaces. All fixtures have a shallow bowl. In the ordinance rooms, the bowl’s shallow curve contrasts with the vaulted ceiling, evoking 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 draws from early Christian architecture and abstracts the shape of a four-leaf clover.
The font railing abstracts the tall reeds found along the edges of bodies of water and also draws on the shape of the rice plant, which is widely grown in the area.
Woodwork, Wallcoverings, and Ceilings
The doors are made of cherry wood, a nod to cherries as an important local agricultural product. Their hardware is brass and features arches, a reed-and-ribbon motif, and abstract forms of flora.
Simple textured wallcoverings are used throughout the temple. A leaf pattern in the bride’s room recalls the art glass and rug designs and derives from early Christian depictions of the olive branch.
The ceilings in the temple’s ordinance spaces are vaulted, referencing early Christian architecture and the area’s own historical architecture.
Feather River California Temple Photography by LDS Temple News