Red Brick Store - Nauvoo, Illinois
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 40° 32.453 W 091° 23.593
15T E 636069 N 4489033
Reconstructed store originally built by Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, Illinois.
Waymark Code: WMF9VA
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/16/2012
Views: 3
Text of historical marker:
Red Brick Store
The original Red Brick Store opened for business on January 5, 1842, with Joseph Smith as owner and proprietor. The main floor was a general store. At the back on this floor, Bishop Newell K. Whitney had a an office where people cound pay their bills and tithing.
On the second floor was a small office for Joseph Smith and a large meeting room. Council meetings were held there as were Masonic Lodge meetings and the organizational meeting of the "female Relief Society" with Emma Smith as president. Also in this room, "Endowments" as later practiced in Nauvoo Temple were introduced and Joseph Smith III (son of Joseph Smith Jr. and church president and prophet from 1860 to 1914) was designated by his father as his successor. By the fall of 1860 the Olive Branch, an early congregation of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now Community of Christ) was meeting on the sencond floor.
By 1890 the building had deteriorated to the point that it was torn down. It was reconstructed on the originally site and opened to the public in April 1980.
The store now sells books and various gifts along with items it would have sold when originally opened.