Hartford Connecticut Temple

 Temple 117

September 24, 2021

Hartford, Connecticut 

We had been to the Hartford Temple before, years before when we lived in Pennsylvania, but it wasn’t completed yet so we only saw the exterior during its construction. We couldn’t wait to go back now that it was finished. After we went to the Pennsylvania temple, and had a wonderful time there, we went to New York City. We took a Lyft into the city to our hotel that was right on Times Square. New York City was a blast to say the least. We went to the top of the Rockefeller building, we rode bikes around Central Park and down to the World Trade Center, and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge. All of this we did with Zoey, and she did amazing and loved it all!

After two days in New York City we took a train up to Albany, a beautiful ride alongside the Hudson River. We then stayed a few days at my brother Greg’s home, which was tucked away in an area of winding roads and forests of maple and oak. My parents flew out to Gregs before we got there and spent a week there. One evening my parents watched Zoey and my brother’s kids so we could go to the temple. 

It was about a two hour drive to the temple from their house, yet only 82 miles away. The roads back East have no rhyme or reason, and do nothing but wind and wiggle through the hills and valleys of the region. It makes driving anywhere take longer than it should, and it all looks the same as you drive.

The Hartford temple is located in Farmington, Connecticut, a smaller city just outside of Hartford. The temple was on the outskirts of Farmington too, and so there wasn’t much around it. It first seemed like an odd area, maybe a little out of place, but when we researched the temple we found out why it was where it was. 

Farmington, Connecticut was where Wilford Woodruff was born and his family lived for years. In 1772 Wilford’s great uncle designed a church in Farmington, and so his family had strong roots in the area. To commemorate Wilford Woodruff and his family, the Church put the temple in Farmington, and also had the steeple of the temple made to match the steeple of the church building which Wilford’s great uncle designed. The steeple is more colonial and unique than most other temple steeples, but is beautiful in so many ways. 

The temple has some of the same looks as the Philadelphia temple, since they were both based off of the old colonial style of building. There were roman style pillars holding up the front entrance of the temple, dental molding crown everywhere, and marvelous millwork and molding throughout the temple. It was sunset as we got there, so we hurried and took pictures, and then more pictures, and couldn’t stop taking photos as the sky lit up beautifully behind the temple. 

An old, iron looking chandelier lit the front entrance as we entered the temple. We had to borrow some temple clothes from the temple, which they so kindly did, and while we were waiting I noticed a portrait of Wilford Woodruff on the wall. At first I didn’t know why his portrait was there, out of all the prophets, but I later figured it out when we made the connection between Wilford Woodruff and the Hartford temple.

We did a session and it was wonderful as always. It was fun to go through the temple with my brother and sister-in-law, and my brother taught me some things that I never thought of, mentioning how the temple reminds us of what’s most important and how we need Christ to pull us up from the depths of sin and of this world. After the temple we went straight home since it was about 9:30, and we had to leave the next morning around 5 to get to the airport. 

Through covid we weren’t able to travel much, or go to the temple much, and so to be able to travel and visit two new temples was so fulfilling and uplifting! And on top of it we were able to visit my brother and his family, which just made the trip even better. Family, traveling, and temples, it can’t get any better than that!