Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture and City Planning [Hardcover]

This book is the first comprehensive study of Mormon architecture. It centers on the doctrine of Zion which led to over 500 planned settlements in Missouri, Illinois, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Canada, and Mexico. This doctrine also led to a hierarchy of building types from temples and tabernacles to meetinghouses and tithing offices. Their built environment stands as a monument to a unique utopian society that not only survived but continues to flourish where others have become historical or cultural curiosities. Hamilton's account, augmented by 135 original and historical photographs, provides a fascinating example of how religious teachings and practices are expressed in planned communities and architecture types.

This is an important study of the intersections of religion and material culture. --Choice

Nineteenth-Century Mormon Architecture & City Planningis interesting and readable because C. Mark Hamilton...adeptly handles what could have been, but is not, a dull subject. --Continuum(Magazine of the University of Utah)

Hamilton successfully explains how the architecture of the Mormon settlements was affected by religious beliefs as well as social conditions existing during the Westward expansion of the United States...a clear and detailed description. --Journal of the West

Hamilton's book is an excellent addition to the burgeoning literature on the arts and humanities within the Mormon tradition. --Church History

...this book is important not only for Mormon scholars, but also for scholars of historic architecture and town planning and students of frontier history in Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and Utah. --The Annals of Iowa