Over the remainder of the decade, an 1848 fire and an 1850 tornado caused such damage to the structure that only the west wall remained standing. This wall was eventually removed by the Nauvoo City Council in 1865. Salvageable stones were used for other buildings in the area, and remarkably, two of the temple’s large, hand-carved sunstones remained intact and survived relatively unscathed.
To accomplish such an undertaking, several Salt Lake City-based contractors and consultants -- including architectural firm FFKR and general contractor Legacy Constructors -- began working on the project and spent numerous hours studying archaeological remnants, 1846 daguerreotype photo-graphs, portions of architectural plans, journal notes and stone receipts, all from the original temple.