Lessons from a Summer in Nauvoo

And Eight Ideas for the Future

Apr 23, 2024

The recent news that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has purchased Community of Christ’s Nauvoo and Kirtland properties rocked my world. Such a possibility has been discussed for decades, always being dismissed by Community of Christ historians. It is a sad time for many of my friends, but an exciting time to know that these sites will have significant financial backing in the future. In this set of two essays, I first go down memory lane concerning my own time living in Nauvoo working for Community of Christ and second, I offer to the ether unsolicited thoughts on the future of the sites.

In 2011, my wife, Christine, and I travelled from Tallahassee, Florida, where I was pursuing a doctorate in Religion at Florida State University, to Nauvoo, Illinois, where we would spend the summer giving tours and conducting research for the Joseph Smith Historic Site. This was the name given to the Community of Christ sponsored sites—the collection of properties once owned by Joseph and Emma Smith and their children. Community of Christ offered internships to college students for many years, but this was the first time they had offered spots to active Latter-day Saints. That summer, they had an odd cast of interns and fellows, in addition to the two of us, there was also a member of the Restoration Branches, a Roman Catholic Mormon-phile, and a fellow Latter-day Saint who no longer believed in a traditional sense. This unusual crew joined a staff of Community of Christ members, led by Community of Christ historian, (and later apostle) Lachlan MacKay, who took care of the sites throughout the year.

Christine and I knew something about Nauvoo before arriving but had spent little time there. We also had many acquaintances and a few friends in the historical community within Community of Christ. I even proposed to Christine while we were in Missouri for a John Whitmer Historical Association conference. This welcoming scholarly society with deep Community of Christ ties had provided us with the opportunity to present our research and to meet many of our favorite scholars like Alma Blair, John Hamer, Steve Shields, Bilioine Whiting Young, David Howlett, Brent Metcalfe, Erin Metcalfe, and Jan Shipps. So, Christine and I weren’t entirely novices—we were already would-be historians, but that summer was foundational to our thinking over the following decade. It led us to pursue folklore and historical memory. The research Christine conducted on the Nauvoo history of Joseph Smith’s brother, William Smith, led to her first published article. Likewise, my later work with the Joseph Smith Papers greatly benefitted from the on-the-ground knowledge I picked up in residence.

In this essay, I want to share some of the less obvious things I learned while working for Community of Christ in Nauvoo, but before I do, I am going to include this brief summary of the tours we gave three or four times a day. I published this summary in an article that appeared in Material Religion a decade ago.

As part of the fellowship, I served as a tour guide for those who came into the visitor’s center and contributed a $3 donation. Well over 90% of visitors were affiliated with the LDS Church. The tour consisted of a fifteen-minute video followed by a one-hour walking tour to the homes maintained by JSHS. Once outside the center, guests listened to a brief spiel about the foundations of Nauvoo—how a swampland became a city with the arrival of thousands of British converts. Walking alongside the Mississippi River, we came to “the Riverside Mansion” or “the Nauvoo House,” the last home of Emma Smith. Across the street, we stopped in front of the “Homestead,” Joseph and Emma’s first home on the peninsula. Before entering, I would direct the tour to a large joint monument marking the graves of Joseph Smith Jr., Hyrum Smith, who died alongside his brother, Joseph, in 1844, and Emma Smith, who lived until 1879. There we recounted how the Saints concerned over desecration hid the remains of the two martyrs. They lay unmarked and secretly buried in the homestead yard until they were recovered in the twentieth century.

Inside the homestead, we discussed Joseph Smith’s role in Nauvoo as both a religious and a civil leader, specifically—pointing to a musket on the wall—his military position as general of the Nauvoo Legion. In the final room in the home, we pointed out where a hiding place in the floor once concealed Joseph Smith while constables from Missouri tried to bring him back to face charges of treason. We then walked across the street to the Nauvoo Mansion, where Joseph Smith resided during his final year. Finally, further down the road, we would end up in a rebuilt general store that once housed Smith’s office. In a large assembly room on the second floor, I drew the distinction between Community of Christ and the LDS Church’s understandings of succession. I explained that within that building Community of Christ members believe that Joseph Smith III as a twelve year old boy was appointed his father’s successor, whereas LDS Church members believe the Quorum of Twelve Apostles were given a charge to take the lead of the Church. This was Water Street, the site of the Community of Christ’s current holdings in Nauvoo.

Historic Sites as Stages

On one memorable day, Lach led the interns to the Homestead and presented on how the current structure came to be and how it reflected (perhaps poorly) the building in Joseph Smith’s lifetime. I think Lach knew it would be a disappointing tutorial. Some of the nineteenth-century wood was still there, but it has been reconstructed so that that wood was not in its original location. Of the furniture, few pieces had been owned by the Smith family even if it was “period.”

In retrospect, I realize I was like other visitors to Nauvoo, eager to believe the city was untouched by time. We used to find it humorous how often people would ask if any of the trees had been there during the Saints time in Nauvoo. I remember one woman expressing her disinterest in the Red Brick Store, knowing it had been reconstructed in 1980 and was not the original building though it sat on the same space with the same dimensions.

What Lach instilled in us that day was that the historic homes, like all other properties in Nauvoo, were stages to present interpretations of the past. Their front doors didn’t function as time machines and there was nothing magical in the City of Joseph to prevent the decay of material. On another occasion, Lach emphasized the subjectivity of the stories told on the sites. He didn’t pretend there were not biases that were part of the Community of Christ approach to historical narration. This was paradigm shaping for me. History is told by winners, as they say. It’s told by those who have access to the stage and its audience.

The Longer Community of Christ History on Site

I once asked Lachlan McKay: if Community of Christ had the resources, would they finish the Nauvoo House? The Nauvoo House was a divinely commanded five-story luxury hotel to be built alongside the Mississippi River. It would be a place for people to stay while seeing the city of the Saints. Nauvoo would be something like a light on the hill and we wanted all to see it. Surely, Lach would agree it was the missing gem of Nauvoo, especially now that the temple had been rebuilt in 2002. Lach seemed a bit more ambivalent than I had anticipated—he wondered what that would do with the building that stood there now, the Riverside Mansion, which we often just called the Nauvoo House. The Riverside Mansion was Emma’s home in her final years, completed from the unfinished and abandoned construction project the Saints left behind. This was Emma and her children’s home. Replacing what was there—the Riverside Mansion—for what had been anticipated—the Nauvoo House—at least from one perspective, would be a tragedy. It would erase more than a century’s worth of Community of Christ history on the site. This was an important lesson on how Nauvoo could mean different things to different people and that while, for us, historic Nauvoo was designed to preserve 1845, for Community of Christ it was a much longer story.

Community of Christ-Latter-day Saint Relations

During the summer, I often heard people say that things had changed between Latter-day Saints and Community of Christ in Nauvoo. They once despised one another and now there was a mutual respect and cooperation between the two denominations. I witnessed the truth of this change firsthand. I was present at multiple events where Lachlan McKay and the LDS mission president sat next to each other as they conducted public ceremonies.

At some point in the twentieth century, the two churches found their own distinct identities. Community of Christ no longer focused on proselytization and the international Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints realized they were no longer a threat. There was no reason to fight. In fact, at times, Community of Christ had not seemed all that interested in preserving their “Mormon” identity in the first place. Lach assured me that while there was some truth in that perception, in recent years they were developing their identity with the lessons of the Restoration intact, even if they no longer championed some of its more distinctive beliefs (i.e. the literalness of the Book of Mormon, the Great Apostasy, a Godhead theology distinct from the Christian trinity, a tiered heaven, etc.)

This said, one of my real takeaways from living in Nauvoo and working for Community of Christ was that while leaders and institutions cooperate and respect one another, individuals don’t always follow their lead. There were those Latter-day Saints who would avoid Community of Christ sites even though they were the historical sites of most interest on the flats. Some of these folks would bring their own guidebooks to read outside Joseph and Emma’s homes. Others would reveal continuing hard feelings by asking when Community of Christ would sell these sites to the church. Some would be irritated when asked to pay a $3 donation for the tour. Not everyone had gotten the message that the conflict was over. At the same time, my Community of Christ friends were often open with their distaste for the current LDS Church, but largely this was confined to social issues. There were moments Christine and I experienced what the current generation might term “microagressions,” as can be expected. One of our co-workers played songs from Book of Mormon musical. Another would occasionally comment on “unfortunate” moments in LDS history. But I never took this too seriously and the microaggressions from LDS visitors certainly outweighed these in my mind. We were treated extremely kindly by Lach, even as he would half-seriously comment on us being “too LDS.”

I believed we were mutually benefitted by the joint ownership of these sites in Nauvoo in that it facilitated continued relationships between the two churches. We were forced into each other’s worlds. The truth is that Community of Christ members tend to feel more camaraderie with mainline Christians than they do the “Brighamites.” Once our financial dealings are complete, I worry we will have fewer interactions and fewer cross-denominational friendships.

The Veil is Thin in Nauvoo

Seth Bryant was a doctoral student at Vanderbilt University in the summer of 2011. Seth was a convert to Community of Christ from the LDS Church. And this summer he had been hired to teach a nightly course to the interns on Nauvoo history. On one evening, Seth pointed out Joseph’s 1844 plans to have the Saints scatter throughout the United States but return to Nauvoo when they needed temple work. This, he argued, would largely make the Nauvoo Temple a space for the dead and Nauvoo a city for the dead. (In this paradigm, the eventual Independence Temple would play other roles, perhaps.) Of course, Nauvoo was currently a city of the dead.

You don’t need to believe in the reality of life after death to take my word that Latter-day Saints experience a particular closeness to the dead in Nauvoo. Maybe it’s the presence of actors performing scenes—vignettes—from the past throughout the Nauvoo flats. In the evenings, they would be on the stage taking part in pageant. Parley Pratt, once beloved apostle and now narrator, welcomed the audience assuring them that “when you’re here, we’re here because we are in you.” Even while recognizing the saccharine nature of such a performance, I also felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end and warmth settle into my body. I was in sacred time and I had no doubt the dead were about.

Maybe its pageant, but it’s not only pageant. I remember visiting Joseph’s grave and imagining his presence. Would the man I revere as many other Christians revere their saints come to me there? Many have professed encountering him in the vicinity. Why not me? Since 2002, the once-demolished temple had again materialized on a prominent hillside visible throughout the historical flats. There, a series of missionaries remained in residence throughout the year providing rituals for spirits with the aid of passersby and some locals. The veil was thin—the veil that separated my mind from the past and my spirit from their spirits.

Of course, Lach warned us not to tell ghost stories and I respected that. But it was a big ask.

There were other lessons I learned while working for Community of Christ at Nauvoo. It was Christine’s and my first opportunity to work closely with one another on Latter-day Saint scholarship. I learned that I really wanted to do work that was relevant to Latter-day Saints. It was even while helping host a visiting group of new BYU professors that I realized I wanted to work at Brigham Young University. It was a life altering summer and on top of all of that, the week before we came home, Christine invited me to go to the temple and told me she was pregnant after the ceremony. Nauvoo forever changed our family, like it has so many others from the nineteenth century to the present.

Eight Ideas for the Future

If I were called up tomorrow to advise on the future of Nauvoo, these are eight ideas I would make sure to include. There are many, many more to be considered (e.g. a new Steamboat Nauvoo!)

In reflecting on my suggestions, I think they bounce around between four considerations/desires: (1) the restoration of the sites as they were in the Nauvoo period; (2) the fulfillment of revelation; (3) appreciation for Joseph Smith’s unique Nauvoo teachings; and (4) the continued recognition of the Smith family’s history in the sites.

Finish the Nauvoo House. Let’s start with my most radical suggestion. We should complete the Nauvoo House. It seems like a very important project to the Lord in D&C 124. The Nauvoo House was intended to be a five-story luxury hotel that would house visitors to Nauvoo. The Hotel Utah served much the same purpose when it was completed across from the Salt Lake Temple. Currently, the Nauvoo House is a smaller structure completed by Emma Hale Smith and Lewis Bidamon in the 1870s. It is currently set up for summer camps with bunk beds and limited furnishings. What could the Church do with such an incredible building in Nauvoo? Well, it demands brainstorming for sure. Perhaps it would be the start of a BYU-Nauvoo program or become a place for the Nauvoo Temple missionaries to reside. It would not be a financially sound decision, but to fulfill a revelation would come with its own rewards.

Restore the Riverside Mansion. If finishing the Nauvoo House is not an immediate priority, I would call for a restoration of the Riverside Mansion. This was Emma Smith’s final home and as a boarding house supported the family for many years. The Riverside Mansion would provide the opportunity to establish a museum to preserve the story of the Smith family. This is a Community of Christ story only in part, of course. We have incredible Joseph Smith descendants who have joined the Church and share their testimonies of their forebearers. This building could also be restored to include functional apartments.
Make Use of the Full Homestead. What Community of Christ has called the “homestead” is the first Nauvoo home of Joseph and Emma Smith. It was already constructed on the banks of the Mississippi before the Latter-day Saints arrived. There are so many stories about this wonderful home—stories that reveal Emma and Joseph Smith’s compassion, the sorrows of loss, the persecution they faced even in Nauvoo, and the anguish that came with Joseph’s death. I will leave it up to the fine historians associated with the Church History Department to contemplate just how much of the structure is currently set up as it would have been during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. Of course, half of the building is an addition made by Joseph Smith III. I hope we don’t entirely reduce it to the Nauvoo period home. However, in its current state guests tour only the first floor of the homestead. I think it would be nice to have the second floor (which a decade ago was a storage space) integrated into the tour.
Complete the Mansion House, or the Nauvoo Mansion. Today, the Mansion House, or the Nauvoo Mansion (its historical name), is a fraction of its once large size. I propose that the building be restored completely. Of course, this is a more modest (and perhaps more realistic) construction project than completing the Nauvoo House. When I was a tour guide for Community of Christ, we would use a scale model to narrate the story. In the 1970s, an ambitious RLDS plan for the future of Nauvoo declared “the hotel wing is a vital part of the building and should be restored if the mansion house is to be a true biographical museum.” (Qtd. P. 110)
What should we do with the hotel wing? It would allow missionaries to discuss the martyrdom and envision the mass viewing of Joseph and Hyrum’s bodies in the summer of 1844. They could tell the story of the Egyptian papyri which were kept in Mother Smith’s quarters. And we could also narrate the story of Jane Manning James, an African American occupant in the mansion. There is so much that could be done in the completed structure.
The Community of Christ Visitor’s Center could become a Semester BYU Program or a museum on the Smith family. The Joseph Smith Historic Sites Visitors center is a fine and practical building—comparable in quality (but not size) of the current Nauvoo Historic Sites visitor’s center. There is a public area that includes a small museum, bookstore, and theater. Behind the reception desk, there is a meeting room/historic library and a handful of offices. I propose this building be used as a tiny BYU program—plenty of room for a classroom, two professors’ offices, a receptionist, and study space. Plus, with BYU’s push towards experiential learning, Nauvoo could be an ideal location to learn hands on history, archaeology, literature, and even the life sciences.
The Latter-day Saint purchase of these sites has removed the decades-old internship program headed by Community of Christ, an incredible opportunity of college students to learn about Nauvoo. Since 2011, this has included several Latter-day Saint students as well. (I have sent at least three of my own students to the program and recommended it to many others). If we decide to go in this direction, please consider this open letter my declaration of interest in heading the program or taking a position on the custodial team.
Move the Relief Society Monument to the front of the Red Brick Store. Today a 90-year-old monument to the Relief Society rests in the Monument to Women Memorial Garden. This is a backup plan, although not a terrible one. The monument was originally made to be placed at the location of the Red Brick Store then fully demolished. With Reorganized Church permission, it stayed on that site until the 1950s when they asked for its removal. It stayed on the Nauvoo Temple lot until it was eventually relocated to the memorial garden. I would like to see its return to the Red Brick Store. It weighs six tons, so this isn’t a simple task, but if you read the monument it makes much more sense.
Some recognition of the Endowment in the Red Brick Store. The Red Brick Store will provide many opportunities to memorialize different elements of Nauvoo history. Community of Christ did so by creating a general store on the first floor and both Joseph Smith’s office on the second floor and a larger meeting room with chairs. This is a good attempt for Community of Christ, but I would love to see some recognition of the endowment in this holy space. This is the first location in which Joseph Smith revealed the current form of the endowment ceremony. I believe a think tank should imagine how this could be enacted in the space. I would include veils/curtains and potted plants at the very least and then I would encourage the guides to discuss the original set up of the celestial room of the Nauvoo Temple. It’s such incredible material and would again point the Saints to the centrality of the temple in this historical space.
Incorporate the pageant into the new sites. As you know, the Nauvoo Pageant includes the main performance, as well as a series of theatrical vignettes performed throughout historical Nauvoo. I love how the pageant spills out on to the rest of the grounds during the day. It reminds us that these people were real, and we are connected to their story. You can find Joseph Smith preaching the King Follett Discourse in a grove of trees. At another time, you can catch Emma and Joseph reciting love letters in front of the Mansion House. I mention this last vignette intentionally. Community of Christ has generously allowed the pageant to use the exterior of the Mansion House as a stage. This is to say, that my final suggestion could have been done previously, but since we are (at least hypothetically) reconsidering everything, let me propose additional scenes for the former Joseph Smith Historic Site properties.
First, we could implement an adolescent Joseph Smith III interacting with his father. I don’t know the specific story we might want to perform, but we are fortunate to have an entire collection of “Young Joseph’s” memoirs. Second, let’s include a scene of Jane Manning James approaching the mansion house. Her memoir of her initial meeting with Joseph and Emma might be the perfect addition. Third, we should be able to attend the first Relief Society Meeting in the Red Brick Store.