New Temples in Hartford, CT & Fort Collins, CO Break Ground for Construction

The Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Hartford, CT temple was held Aug 17, 2013 by President Thomas S. Monson.

The Hartford Temple was the 156th announced temple. there are 141 in operation, 15 under construction and 14 announced for a total of 170.  This is the first temple in Connecticut, which has two stakes. Although the Yorktown, NY stakes has 5 strong CT wards in the south west corner above NYC in the "Tri-state area"

President Thomas S. Monson announced the construction of the Hartford Connecticut Temple in the opening session of the 180th Semiannual General Conference (Oct 2010). Plans had been announced for a temple in Hartford at General Conference 18 years earlier, but it was decided three years later that two other temples would be built in its place—one to the north in Boston, Massachusetts (100th Temple, Oct 2000) and one to the south in White Plains, New York, later named the Harrison New York Temple. Plans for the Harrison temple were suspended following the dedication of the Manhattan New York Temple. (119th Temple June 2004)

I grew up in New York and the Harrison New York would have been in our ward. The Hartford Temple was just one stake over and should have replaced Washington D.C. as "our" temple in NY (before Wash D.C., New York was in the London Temple District or you could drive to Salt Lake)  So to have a temple in Westchester County, NY instead of CT, we were OK with. The Saints in CT were sad and President Hinckley personally flew out and apologized when they canceled the Hartford, CT temple the first time.

Now they will have NYC, Boston and Hartford. Yeah

The Temple design is reminiscent of the historic First Church of Christ Congregational church in Farmington, completed in 1772.  The Temple will be approximately 25,500 square feet.

One week later the Fort Collins, CO held it's Groundbreaking Ceremony on Aug 24, 2013.

The Fort Collins Temple was the 159th announced temple. there are 141 in operation, 15 under construction and 14 announced for a total of 170.  This is the second temple in Colorado, which has 31 stakes.  The Fort Collins temple is only 65 miles North of the Denver, CO Temple (40th, 1986) but will serve members living in northern Colorado, southern Wyoming, and western Nebraska.

and a map from ldschurchtemples.com/maps/unitedstates

Click to view larger