Provo Tabernacle

Okay, this makes me very sad. The Provo Tabernacle was completely gutted by fire yesterday. It was the most beautiful building in Provo, UT. Tabernacles were a third type of building built by early Mormon settlers in the intermountain west. Not a church building for Sunday services, not a temple to seal marriages to last beyond death, tabernacles were more of a general use building for large assemblies, community concerts, etc. The insides are more like a European church than anything. They aren't built anymore, and so architecturally, they tend to be old fashioned and scenic. Like the Provo Tabernacle. Being situated in Provo, a lot of people are going to have personal memories of this place. Provo is where Brigham Young University is also located, and since it's a private college and meant to attract students from all over the world and not just locally, it "belongs" to a lot of people, not just Utahns. One of the first things I did off campus as a freshman was walk down and admire the tabernacle. It's where I heard Tomas de Vittoria's haunting Christmas song O Magnum Mysterium performed. It's the place where the annual Messiah sing-a-long was held. If you've never been in a church music hall with a choir and full orchestra in front and rows of audience singing the Hallelujah Chorus all around you while stained glass windows smile down on you--well, you should. It's where DH and I heard the German choir Christmas concert when we decided we were more than friends. And it's a place that I just love driving past every time I'm in Provo. So when I read that it might not even be salvageable--well. That just makes me really sad.