Los Angeles California Temple

257 feet of white and a gold angel — the landmark spire you can see for miles from the lanes.

Key facts

The Los Angeles California Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands 257 ft (78 m) tall.
It was dedicated on March 11, 1956 (by church president David O. McKay) — and at its dedication it was the largest temple the church had built.
Atop the spire stands a gold-leafed statue of the angel Moroni (~15½ ft, sculpted by Millard F. Malin, placed in 1954) — the first Moroni statue added to a temple since the Salt Lake Temple.

Narration transcript

To your left, tall and white and crowned with a figure of pure gold, is the Los Angeles Temple — the big Mormon temple on Santa Monica Boulevard, and one of the most visible landmarks on this entire freeway. It is two hundred and fifty-seven feet of smooth white stone, and when it was dedicated in 1956 it was the largest temple the church had ever built — a deliberate statement, planted on a rise where the whole Westside could see it.

That glint at the very top is the angel Moroni, covered in gold leaf, trumpet raised to the sky. It was the first time in generations the church had put that golden angel on a temple, and from down here in the lanes, on a clear afternoon, it catches the sun and seems to float over West LA — a spire of quiet certainty above ten lanes of honking traffic.