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The Red Brick Store in Nauvoo, Illinois, was a building constructed and owned by Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.
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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 was also for a period of time the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. 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.
- In May 1842, Joseph Smith proposed to 19-year-old Nancy Rigdon in the upper room of the store. Smith locked the door, before proposing polygamous marriage. Nancy refused, saying she would "alarm the neighbors" if not allowed to leave. Joseph unlocked the door, and his scribe, Willard Richards, delivered the Happiness Letter to Nancy shortly after, in an attempt to convince her to agree to the marriage.[1][2][3]
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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 (now known as Community of Christ) rebuilt the Red Brick Store on the original foundation as part of its 1980 sesquicentennial celebrations. The reconstructed Red Brick Store is now owned and operated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which purchased the structure on March 5, 2024, as part of a larger sale of historically significant artifacts and properties by the Community of Christ.[4]
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In Manti, Utah, the headquarters of the True and Living Church of Jesus Christ of Saints of the Last Days is located in a building named the Red Brick Store in honor of Smith's original structure in Nauvoo.
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