The treasured Salt Lake Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints won’t reopen until 2027, but another beloved staple of the faith’s downtown campus will return much sooner: Lion House rolls.
The soft, fluffy pastries — salivated over by generations of Latter-day Saints — will be available when the renovated Beehive House and Lion House welcome back visitors between October and December this year, church government and community relations manager Juan Becerra told the Salt Lake County Council on Tuesday.
“That is the second most-asked question,” Becerra said of the Temple Square revamp. “Number one: ‘When is it going to be done? And will there be Lion House rolls?’”
It’s unclear if those mouth-watering morsels will return to a Lion House Pantry (the name of a former restaurant) or if a new eatery in one of the buildings will have them on the menu.
Beyond the boasted-about baked goods, Becerra gave council members a taste of what else to expect when the overhaul of Temple Square wraps up and one of Utah’s most popular tourist attractions again appears on visitors’ must-see itineraries.
Becerra said the church expects 3 million to 5 million people to file through the iconic Salt Lake Temple between April and October of 2027.
After all, outsiders haven’t been inside the global faith’s most famous building since just before its original 1893 dedication.
The church is working with Visit Salt Lake, Becerra added, to reserve hotel rooms for visiting dignitaries and ambassadors who want to attend the public tours.
“You want visitors to see Temple Square,” County Council member Aimee Winder Newton said.
“We love visitors coming to Salt Lake County because they buy food and stay in hotels, and that generates revenue for us, too.”
For now, the temple, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and much of the surrounding grounds remain under construction.
While work continues, Becerra explained, the church has set up seismic monitoring and 24-hour fire personnel on-site to ensure the area is protected and to prevent anything similar to the 2019 fire during a restoration project of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.
The southwest portion of Temple Square, south of the Tabernacle near the Assembly Hall, is open.
The church also has been returning former monuments and adding new statues to the square.
The Christus statue — which once dominated the now-demolished North Visitors’ Center — will be relocated to a new western pavilion.
Guided and self-guided tours of the Assembly Hall will restart in the fall, Becerra noted.
The Joseph Smith Memorial Building, which for decades served as the Hotel Utah, is close to completion.
The first floor Garden Cafe, formerly known as the Nauvoo Cafe, will open along with the remainder of the lobby by the end of June.
“We want this square to be the centerpoint of the city,” Becerra said, noting that Temple Square will no longer be walled off.
“We want people to come and see, regardless of what your faith or affiliation may be.
We want people to just come.
And if you want to come and sit and enjoy the landscaping — the trees, the shade — or just walk around and have a quiet time of meditation and just take a load off your feet and enjoy, we would love for people to come and visit.”
Here’s what else is coming:
• An addition to the northern portion of the Salt Lake Temple, including 22 new sealing rooms for marriages.
• Two smaller visitors’ centers on the southern portion.
• Two blocks of landscaping, complete with more than 200 trees.
• Street improvements to North Temple and South Temple.
• Seismic improvements to the temple, including 98 base isolators, which can support 8 million pounds each and isolate the movement of the earth from the building during earthquakes.
The massive undertaking will allow up to 10 feet of horizontal movement during temblors.
• Restoration of the original wall decor from 1893 in the temple lobby.
Workers found the hidden jewel, Becerra said, under seven layers of white paint.
image source from：https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2025/04/17/some-slcs-lds-temple-square/
