Willamette Valley Oregon Temple dedicated in Springfield, serving 28,000 members

The Willamette Valley Oregon Temple opened in Springfield as a new regional anchor for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving more than 28,000 members across central-western Oregon. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf dedicated the building June 7, putting a major religious landmark at 300 International Way in a part of Springfield that now joins Portland and Medford as home to one of Oregon’s three operating temples.

The temple sits on a 10.29-acre site at International Boulevard and Corporate Way, a visible addition to Lane County’s south Springfield corridor. The building rises 119 feet including the spire and covers 30,635 square feet, a compact but prominent footprint for a structure designed to serve members from communities including Eugene, Springfield, Corvallis, Newport, Lebanon, Albany, Roseburg, Coos Bay, Florence, Brookings, Redmond and Bend.

For local Latter-day Saints, the dedication marked the end of a process that began when the temple was announced in April 2021. Ground was broken on October 29, 2022, by Elder Valeri V. Cordón, then first counselor in the North America West Area Presidency, and the building later opened to the public for tours from April 23 through May 9, excluding Sundays. Media members toured the temple April 20 ahead of the dedication.

Church leaders said the new temple’s design was shaped by the region around it, with art glass reflecting the green vegetation and blue water of the nearby McKenzie and Willamette rivers. That local influence gives the Springfield temple a distinctly Lane County identity even as it becomes part of a broader statewide network.

The dedication also underscored how much the church has grown in Oregon. Nearly 150,000 Latter-day Saints meet in about 280 congregations across the state, and the Springfield temple is now the third operating temple in Oregon, a sign of how the church’s footprint has widened beyond its existing centers in Portland and Medford. The dedicatory session began at 10 a.m. and was rebroadcast at 2 p.m., with the ceremony broadcast to all units in the temple district, extending the moment to members who could not fit inside the Springfield building itself.