Red Brick Store

The Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois, was a building that was constructed and owned by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Original Red Brick Store ca 1840s

Original building
Red Brick Store in 1885, showing disrepair

Smith constructed the Red Brick Store in 1841. The building became a center of economic, political, religious, and social activity among the Latter Day Saints. In addition to being a mercantile store, the second floor of the building also served as the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints for a period of time. Members would visit the store to pay their tithing and other offerings to the church.

Notable events

A number of important events in Latter Day Saint history occurred in the Red Brick Store, including:

  • the organization of the Relief Society, the church's organization for women, on March 17, 1842; and
  • the first performance of the Nauvoo Endowment ordinance, on May 4, 1842.
The rebuilt Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois

Destruction and rebuilding

After Joseph Smith was killed and the majority of Latter Day Saints left Nauvoo, the Red Brick Store fell into disrepair. Eventually, it was torn down and the bricks were used to construct new buildings in Nauvoo.

In 1980, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints rebuilt the Red Brick Store on the original foundation as part of its 1980 sesquicentennial celebrations. Today, the Red Brick Store is owned and operated as a tourist attraction by the Community of Christ. The Store sells goods that are similar to the kind that were sold in the Store in the 1840s.

Manti, Utah
The Red Brick Store in Manti, Utah, headquarters of the TLC Church

In Manti, Utah, the headquarters of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days (TLC Church) is located in a building named the Red Brick Store in honor of Smith's original structure in Nauvoo.

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See also

References
  • Robert T. Bray (1973). Archaeological Investigations at the Joseph Smith Red Brick Store, Nauvoo, Illinois (Columbia: University of Missouri Press)
  • Roger D. Launius and F. Mark McKiernan (1985). Joseph Smith, Jr.'s Red Brick Store (Macomb: Western Illinois University Press) ISBN 99966-62-69-1

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