Paris Tabernacle and museum

The Paris Tabernacle is an LDS historical site that is open for tours daily in the summer (9:30 am-5:30 pm). It is a beautiful building completed in the 1880s and very much resembles the old Provo Tabernacle (now the Provo City Center Temple). You will find the Paris Tabernacle at 109 S Main street in Paris, Idaho—it’s hard to miss.

Paris was settled by Charles C. Rich, a famous figure in Mormon history as he was an early member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. Rich had the Paris Tabernacle built, but did not live to see it completed.

Inside the tabernacle are 2000 seats, including a large main floor and a balcony that runs along three sides of the structure. There is also a beautiful organ which has 200 pipes. They were letting visitors play the organ on the day we visited.

The building is huge and beautiful and looks a little out of place in such a tiny town. It is built in the Romanesque style (I think) and is still being used as a meeting house by local residents for conferences and other meetings. One unique feature is the ceiling. It was built by a ship builder, and if you look straight up, it looks like you are looking into the bottom of a ship. It is quite strange to see the wooden ceiling.

I love to look at these buildings and think about how it was all done by hand. All these benches, the ceiling, the windows, the finish work…it would be hard and take a long time.
If you’re at Bear Lake, be sure to make the short drive north to Paris and check out the Tabernacle. The Paris Ice Cave is also nearby, as well as the Paris Historical Museum.

There is a tiny museum located in downtown Paris, Idaho just across the street from the Paris Tabernacle. The museum is free, and will only take a few minutes to walk through, but our kids enjoyed it.

The City of Paris Historical Museum is just 1 small room and 1 large room and features Charles C. Rich, the early Mormon Apostle prominently as he is was an early settler of this area.

Featured in this museum are old pioneer artifacts and farm equipment. There is a large section that honors people who served in the military. Our boys especially loved the old typewriters and cash registers, even though they called them old computers. Ha ha!

We only spent about 20 minutes in this museum, but we always enjoy these small hometown nuggets. Everyone is very nice and it’s fun to look back at the historical items, too. The Paris Historical Museum is located at 34 S. Main Street in Paris, ID, and is open M-F from 10-4.