Salt Lake City's street grid is counted outward in blocks north, south, east and west, and the point it is counted from is this ten acre square, set aside within days of the first company's arrival in July 1847. Temple Square remains the administrative and symbolic center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it draws several million visitors a year, more than any other destination in Utah.
The square holds the Salt Lake Temple itself, closed to the public and to members without a current temple recommend, standing behind walls anyone may walk up to but not through. Around it stand buildings anyone may enter freely: the Tabernacle, an oval domed hall completed in 1867 known for its acoustics and home to the Tabernacle Choir; the Assembly Hall of 1882; two visitors centers; and, on the neighboring blocks, the Church History Museum, the Family History Library and the church's principal administrative offices.
Guided tours of the open grounds are given, without charge, by young women serving missions there, and the arrangement makes Temple Square one of the more visible instances anywhere of a faith drawing its inner life and its public face in the same small space: a granite building nobody but members may enter, standing at the center of gardens that anyone at all may walk through.