#44 Philadelphia Temple- A

 

12/16/2022

After a trip to New York with Sam to see Kessa play in Carnegie Hall, I took advantage of the close proximity to get a train to Philadelphia, so I could visit the Philadelphia temple.  The temple is only open 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening, so it's making travel a bit tricky, as I have to leave really late at night in order to be able to do all of the sessions.  

I left our hotel at 6:00am to get to take the subway to the Amtrak station.  My train was supposed to leave at 7:05, but didn't leave until 7:45!  They said there was congestion on the lines.  I'm not sure how often that happens, but that was quite the delay.  It was a good thing that I had a bit of a cushion.  I was supposed to arrive an hour before my Intiatories at 9:30, which would give me plenty of time to walk the 20 min from the station to the temple.  We made up a bit time, and arrived only 30 minutes late.  I booked my Uber as I ran off the train and made it to the temple at 9:20.

The temple is right in the middle of the city, not the normal large landscaped suburban area.  It's a very tall with spires at each end, reminiscent of Logan & Manti temples.  It looked much darker grey in person, but it has been raining, so maybe that affected it.

I started with the Intiatories.  A super sweet lady saw that I had extra names and offered to do some.  It was a good thing, because I only was able to do 3 names before I had to leave for the Endowment.  The Initiatory area was nicer than average.  It had a very colonial square column in the center behind the faucet that had the very colonial looking vertical grooves in it. It also had crown molding around the booths.

For the Endowment, the creation room was bigger than I expected.  It also had a colonial feel.  It had the mural around the wall, which kind of reminded me of the sacred grove.  It was a bunch of trees, and a small river.  It had a very dark, maybe oil-rubbed brass candelabra chandeliers.  The terrestrial room felt like a colonial/Victorian mix.  It still had candelabra chandeliers, but they were made of glass, and were beautiful!  There was quite a bit of beautiful colonial type moldings throughout.

The celestial room was stunning!  I would say the ceiling is about 40 ft. tall.  I love the really tall celestial rooms.  There was a huge chandelier in the center.  Probably about 7' wide and 15' tall.  It was also the candelabra style, and on top the the glass that made the core of it, It had probably 100 something dangling crystals, which made it so beautiful!  There was quite a bit of carved trim in the celestial room, but it was all painted ivory, so it looked tastefully done.  The table under the chandelier was a beautiful dark wood, probably mahogany.  One interesting thing that I noticed on here was that the rim around the edge of the table had quills around the edge.  I wonder if that's in commemoration of the Declaration of Independence signed here.

The stained glass was simple and elegant and carried the beautiful powder blue and gold colors that appeared to me most strongly in the sealing rooms.  The Sealing rooms were beautiful!  The ceilings were tall, maybe 12-15'.  The powder blue velvet on the altar cushions was mouthwateringly beautiful.  The carpet was one of my favorite carpets ever!  The carpet was designed to look like a rug as it was cream for about a foot from the wall, where then a gold border then began the pattern on the inner part of the rug.  The pattern was made of gold hexagons, maybe 5" wide.  These hexagons had a thin gold border, with a flower in the center.  The pattern and the texture were just stunning!  The chairs also had light gold pattern fabric with powdered blue dots

I forgot to take a picture before I left for my 5 hour break until the temple reopens to do baptisms.  Hopefully I can still get some light in my picture.  It's completely overcast, so we'll see.  I've spent the last 5 hours hanging out at Panera Bread with several homeless.  But at

Favorite things- The carpet in the sealing rooms, the powder blue velvet on the altars, the quill around the table in the celestial room & the doors with brocade trim in the celestial and sealing rooms.