The Relief Society Building

While we were in Utah this past summer, we had about a half an hour to spend while we were in downtown Salt Lake City. I wanted to check out the Primary Resource room and see if they had any great ideas for my ward. The primary resource room is located in the basement of the Relief Society Building on Temple Square. We entered the building and were greeted by a nice lady who offered to give us a brief tour of the building. We agreed and were shown all sorts of lovely artwork and gifts on display. It is very much like a mini-museum. As we were finishing the tour she explained how the building came to be. She said that the Relief Society General President wanted a building in the shadow of the temple for the women to do their work. Belle Spafford proposed a fundraising plan where the women of the church would raise half the cost of the building and the general church fund would cover the other half. The First Presidency approved the plan and in General Conference she presented this to the women of the church asking that each woman donate $5.00 for the building. Our tour guide then informed us that only recently had they entered all the handwritten forms and alphabetized them and placed them in large binders so that we could see who had donated. Trent and I were curious and quickly looked up our great-grandmothers (as the year was 1947). We found my Great Grandmother, Alice Downs. It was touching to see her name and know the sacrifice it must have been. The church website explains that when adjusted for inflation it would be like contributing $50.00 today. You can read more about it here.