On a couple of occassions, I’ve been driving back to DC on 495, and I notice this GIANT castle looking building on the right before the Connecticut Ave exit. Anyone know what is?
If it’s white it’s a Mormon temple.
Damn! I was too late with my answer. There used to be grafitti painted on the nearby overpass that read “Surrender Dorothy.”
It does look like the castle in Oz.
It shows up once in a while, but is promptly painted over. You can see the painted-over blocks quite clearly.
This thread has made me oddly homesick.
Mormons can only marry in a temple, not a local church. It used to be they had to travel a long way to find a temple in some areas. About 10 years ago the Mormons started building a lot of smaller temples around the US and world. They built one about 1/2 mile from my house. Before that people here mostly went to that DC temple which is about 250 miles away.
The only piece of grafitti (that I know of) with its own Wikipedia entry:
Actually it reminds me more of Cinderella Castle in Disney World.
Thank you for posting this question. I saw that thing a little over a month ago on the way to a company picnic, and never did figure it out.
That’s it! Thank you.
What a strange building.
I love learning little details like that, especially the graffiti.
That’s hysterically funny.
Not a single piece of graffiti, but Cool “Disco” Dan has his own entry…you used to see that everywhere back in the 90s.
Actually that’s not correct, Mormons can marry in church buildings or even civil locations just like anyone else, however to be eligable for the most heavenly rewards in their belief system you must be married in a temple (along with following a number of other rules).
There’s also this monstrosity outside San Diego.
And one looming over Oakland.
An Arky, I once got an honorable mention in the Style Invitational in The Washington Post where the contest was to come up with a conspiracy theory. My theory was that Cool “Disco” Dan was actually Dan Quayle. The time that Cool “Disco” Dan was most prolific in his grafitti writing fits very well with the period of the Vice-Presidency of Dan Quayle. (Cool “Disco” Dan did most of his work in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.) Unfortunately, there’s no online archive of all the winning entries of the Style Invitational, but there’s a website correlating names of the winners to the weeks they won, so I know it was either week 85 or 102.
I don’t have a picture but there is a fairly new one in Belmont, MA. Sited on the highest land elevation in the metro Boston area, I believe. Also, only temple on the Northeast Coast, IIRC.
As a point of interest - is it the proper term that Mormons get ‘married’? I believe I heard they don’t have a ‘marriage ceremony’ but a "sealing’ or something like that. Pardon my ingnorance…just curious.
Parts of the Mormon Temple are open as a tourist attraction, at least around Christmas time. They have decorated trees and dioramas with Christmas and Mormon themes.
You’re probably talking about Temple Square in Salt Lake City. They do very elaborate lighting and decoration at Christmas time, but the temple grounds of all the temples are open to the public at any time. Many of them even have Visitor Centers to explain LDS beliefs to visitors.
Whenever a new temple is built, there is always a public open house for several weeks before it is dedicated, to allow people to see what the inside of our temples are like, and the purpose of the various rooms and other things.
After the temple is dedicated, only members in good standing are allowed inside. We feel that the temples are literally “The House of the Lord” and feel that it is a very sacred place.
It was the same with the Temple in Old Testament times. The outer court, or Court of the Gentiles was open to all, but only the priests could go into the temple and perform the sacrifices and other offerings.