Many years ago, our family lived in Gaithersburg, Maryland, while Scott worked at NIST doing a post-doc. We had this family picture taken on the grounds of the Washington, D.C. temple. The background is hard to see but it is the temple. Scott and I enjoyed going to this temple for the three years we lived in the area.
Recently I read a really good article about the property the Washington, D.C. LDS temple is on: History of the temple site. The article talks about how the interesting part about the property is that it was never developed before the temple was built even though it is in a prime location. As you go west on the freeway called the Beltway that circles the District, you come up a hill and the temple is right there. You can't really imagine how amazing it is until you've seen it that way.
The article by Dale Van Atta (adapted from his book) told how the land was known for centuries as "Joseph's Park" and had 17 owners. It was originally inhabited by Native Americans. Then it was "owned" by King James I. His son, King Charles I was the next owner. He gave his friend Lord Baltimore a huge piece of land which included all of Maryland. Next the land passed to the second and third Lord Baltimore. The latter Lord Baltimore appointed William Joseph as the governor of Maryland and gave him 4220 acres of land including the temple site. This gave it the name of "Joseph's Park."
Daniel Carroll bought the land and built a house; later his son Daniel Carroll II inherited it. This man was prominent in the government and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. After the passage of the Constitution, he worked hard to get the Bill of Rights added which he felt was needed, especially a guarantee of free exercise of religion.
Eventually the land went to Daniel's grandson, William. He named the property "The Highlands" and tobacco was grown there a while until the soil was worn out.
During the Civil War, Alfred Ray bought the farm which was struggling. For a time, a Confederate general occupied the property along with many troops. However, despite the battles that happened in Maryland, no battle took place on the property. In addition, an old-growth forest on the site was preserved despite the Union Army chopping down a lot of forests in the area during the War.
Alfred Ray was a religious man and he would frequently ride to the edge of his property, get off his horse, and kneel to pray in the woods. It had such a special feeling to him, that he took his granddaughter there and told her it was "holy ground." She told a friend later that the spot was where the temple was built.
In 1900 a banker bought the land and he named it Rock Creek Farm. He went to England to buy hunting hounds for the property but sailed back on the Titanic. He died after helping women and children into the life boats. The property was sold in 1929 for to a company for a housing development.
During the 1940's the county population nearly doubled and the company made lots of money developing some of the property. However, the 57 acres of old-growth forest at the edge was never developed and in 1950 it was sold to another company.
In 1962, a developer bought the land and the property was "literally within days of becoming the site for a shopping mall and apartment complex."
But something happened in September of that year. The president of the Washington D.C. Stake, Milan Smith, received a large check from the LDS church with his name on it. The church had decided that the Joseph's Park property was where they wanted the temple. Milan Smith's counselor Robert Barker, a lawyer, had been asked to take the lead in negotiating for the property.
Barker called an acquaintance and fellow lawyer, Morris Kanfer, a Jewish man, who now owned the land along with two other Jewish men. They were looking for a developer to buy the property and had found one. Kanfer told Barker the land was not for sale and they had a great offer pending. Barker called two more times. Kanfer was getting irritated and told him not to call again. Barker said he would do that but only if they could have lunch to discuss it. Kanfer reluctantly agreed.
Before the lunch date, Barker and Milan Smith had a phone call with Hugh B. Brown in the First Presidency to get their instructions. They decided not to identify the church as the buyer and to offer as much as $16,000 an acre.
When Barker woke up that morning, he prayed and was inspired that he should reveal to Kanfer that the property was for a temple for the church. During lunch, Barker told Kanfer he was representing the church and told him it was for a temple. He told Kanfer how he admired the Hebrew people for building temples in Israel. He told him how the LDS people follow that tradition with temples built today. What impressed Kanfer the most was Barker's statement that the main purpose of temples was to unite families eternally with God.
After a long conversation, Kanfer agreed to take the offer to his partners. Two hours later the partners had agreed to it.
During lunch Kanfer told Barker that the competing bid had offered $15K for the 57 acres and Barker said the church might be willing to match that. But when Kanfer called back, he told Barker they wanted to sell it to the church for $14,000 an acre. They considered the lower price to be a donation towards the new temple.
The Jewish men never regretted their decision to sell to the church or give them the discount. In fact, they considered it to be their temple too.
The article closes, when people ask, how did the church ever come to get this property? The answer is, it was meant to be.
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