Ground was broken Saturday, Nov. 7, in Mason for the Cincinnati Ohio Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, moving Ohio’s third temple into its construction phase nearly three months after the state’s second operating temple was dedicated in Cleveland, according to Church News and the Church’s official newsroom.
Elder Alan T. Phillips, a General Authority Seventy and member of the United States Northeast Area presidency, presided over the groundbreaking ceremony and offered the dedicatory prayer on the site and the construction process, according to Church News. Local Latter-day Saints, faith and government leaders and community members attended, and many took part in the ceremonial turning of the soil.
“May this house of the Lord be a light to this city, pointing all who see it to Jesus Christ, the Light of the World,” Elder Phillips said at the ceremony, as quoted by Church News. In his remarks, he noted that it was in Ohio — at the Kirtland Temple in 1836 — that priesthood keys were restored, and he described Cincinnati as a historic “bridge to freedom” as a key crossing point on the Underground Railroad, calling a temple “a bridge too, a bridge between heaven and earth,” according to Church News.
The temple will be a single-story building of approximately 29,630 square feet, built on a 35-acre site southwest of the intersection of Mason-Montgomery Road and Cedar Village Drive in Mason, about 20 miles northeast of downtown Cincinnati, according to the Church’s newsroom. It was announced on April 7, 2024, by then-Church President Russell M. Nelson at the Church’s April 2024 general conference, Church News reported.
Once built and dedicated, the Cincinnati temple will join two other operating temples in Ohio — the Columbus temple, dedicated in September 1999, and the Cleveland temple, dedicated in August 2026 — according to the Church’s newsroom. Church News reported that Ohio is home to nearly 66,000 Latter-day Saints in more than 130 congregations, and that the Church’s history in the state reaches back to 1830, when missionary work began in Ohio just six months after the Church was organized; Kirtland served as Church headquarters from 1831 to 1838.
What happens next is construction on the Mason site. No completion or dedication date has been announced; temples are typically dedicated only after construction finishes and a public open house is held, and NewsForce247 will report the timeline when the Church announces it.