Wednesday, August 30, 2023

LET'S CALL IT WHAT IT REALLY IS.. (NOT A RESTORATION, BUT A MODERN RECREATION)

The Church has announced the completion of the RESTORED home of Joseph and Emma Smith in Kirtland, Ohio.  This "restored" home was dedicated last Saturday on August 26, 2023, and is now open for visitor tours in Kirtland, Ohio — immediately north of the Kirtland Temple and historic cemetery.

Elder David A. Bednar, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said this home where the first prophet of the church lived is more than just a historic building.
I am not sure if I would call in a historic building now.. maybe the land and the location of where the original home was built, but this is far from being a "restored" home. I think it would be best for the Church to call this a "Recreated Home" and not the Restored Home of Joseph Smith.

 
 
Here are the definitions and distinctions:

RESTORATION:
a return of something to a former, original, normal, or unimpaired condition. restitution of something taken away or lost. something that is restored, as by renovating. a reconstruction or reproduction of an ancient building showing it in its original state.

RECREATION:
a reenactment or simulation of something,  the process of making it exist or seem to exist again in a different time or place. 

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One of the earliest photos that the Church Archives has of the original Joseph Smith Home was taken in 1907. This photo is on display in one of the visitors centers in Kirtland Ohio.


Here is a photo of the home that I took last year in March, 2022. 


Many of the beautiful large trees (maybe even that were existing at the time of Joseph Smith were being cut down to accommodate for the new parking lot that the Church was building. 


Over the past year, the Church demolished this historic home that has stood for their "restoration". The first took down everything except the front part of the 2 story home. 


They need put in a new foundation and removed almost the entire rest of the home. 


The Church then rebuilt what they are calling the "Restored" home of Joseph Smith. To me, it looks like a pre-fabricated home with aluminum sidings. Nothing about this home is "restored"... it would be better to call it .. 
"our best guess in recreating a home that Joseph Smith lived in"


Here are some of the photos from inside. For those of you who have seen the Barbie movie.. it looks like the interior could be "Barbie's Pioneer Dream home" 

I find in interested that they have placed a top hat in almost every room. Super odd, but maybe that is a "hat tip" to the historic records on how Joseph received some of his revelations.







7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is this the place Joseph had the bad dteam about?

Anonymous said...

Yes

Anonymous said...

Certainly resembles the current state of the restoration, the religions who claim to represent it have a good " front", and may even resemble at first glance what it was Joseph restored, but have removed almost the entire foundation of what Joseph taught. What it appears to be here is a facade of what the home was, the same as it is spiritually. There is a different feel to both as what once was.

William Wright (WW) said...

So it looks like church leadership answers in the affirmative to the question posed in the Ship of Theseus paradox...

Anonymous said...

I felt the same gut punch seeing all the work on the Salt Lake Temple and grounds. We have lost a piece of our collective soul with these "interpretations". Joseph would not recognize it, nor probably claim it. Knife fights in the barn are one thing. A complete modern remodel of the barn by the victors of the knife fights is what I see here. And the trees! They cut down the old trees on temple square, and they cut down Joseph's trees - for a parking lot? No wonder the earth weeps.

Anonymous said...

Cutting down trees east of the Mississippi isn't the sin we think of here in the west. Trees, big hardwood trees, grow spontaneously and profusely there. They get cut, trimmed or removed and they grow back.

Anonymous said...

There is a society/organization that a builder/remodeler has to comply with in order to call a historical building historical. You really can't do that with those kind of window panes. From what I'm seeing, that's modern glass. At least you can see how it was on the inside.