Another project under works. I am hopeful that I will be able, in the near future, to find decent reference material for as many as the homes as possible . Additionally, I am hoping that more details on teh original temple might come to light.
In the mean time, here are some development images from my new Nauvoo City model, currently in progress.
Nauvoo, City of Joseph
A view from the river. The homes in the foreground are the Jonathan and Rebecca Wright home, left, and the Aaron and Polly Johnsohn home, right. Behind that, the low white building is the Blacksmith shop, with the Post Office, John Taylor Home, and the printing office, with the Cultural hall off to the right edge of the image.An overview of the city. I had just fixed many errors with the road layout, but had not yet fixed the placement of the buildings. So, while the roads are right, the building placement was not yet. The trees are temporary placements, with more corrections to come.A view of the city from the top of the temple tower.The temple itself.
The outside is not the only portion of the temple and grounds within this particular model. I am also working on the inside of the original Nauvoo Temple as well. Some artistic liberties have been taken to make the images more appealing. However, anytime information about the layout and design of the rooms in the interior was available, it was strictly adhered to.
The Temple
The Baptistry
In my baptistry model, the font is correct, including (based off a William Weeks drawing) the stones making the font. The oxen are correct. The slope of the floor is correct, as well are the large buttresses between the side doors.
The wainscotting, the lamps, and all the furniture are added for look. (Including the side doors, which may have been curtains.)
The Lower Assembly Hall
The Lower Assembly Hall of the temple was finished and dedicated for use prior to the Saints left Nauvoo. Long term plans of the temple called for the side sections to be partitioned off, first with Curtains. and eventually with walls. This would have left the Assembly hall to be just the center section with doors on the sides.
I still have the initials that were on the pulpits to add. Other than that, this is fairly close to done.
Upper Assembly Hall
The Upper Assembly Hall was meant to look just like the one below. Unlike the lower hall, the upper hall did not get the chance to be completed before the Saints left. How far along it was is not know. In my model, I have added framing for the mezzanine, which was at least partly finished. (A second set of stairs was added to this mezzanine for attic acces
The Attic
Most of this is accurate. For artistic purposes, I have added thew Wainscotting, the lamps, and the side buttresses. The paintings, however, are ones known to have been in the Attic of the original temple. The beams are as they would have been in the original, as are the skylights. I do not know if the ceiling was flat, or sloped as I have placed it here.
The Rest of the interior
The rest of the interior is featured in my model here. You can see that I have added the original tower framing, again from William Weeks’s drawings. I have also included the tower stairs, the bell, and the clock mechanism, or a reasonable facsimile of a mechanism from the time.
I look forward to hopefully making the model larger and more accurate.
