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| - The city of Independence, Missouri became important to the Latter Day Saint movement starting in 1831, only the second year of the religion's existence. The movement's founder, Joseph Smith, had received revelations designating this city as the "Center Place" of "Zion", and many early adherents believed that the Garden of Eden had been located there, though this was never officially promulgated as church doctrine. Although Smith had designated the Temple Lot site as the heart of his new City of Zion, the Latter Day Saints were expelled from Jackson County (late 1833) and later from Missouri (early 1839) before a temple could be constructed.
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| abstract
| - The city of Independence, Missouri became important to the Latter Day Saint movement starting in 1831, only the second year of the religion's existence. The movement's founder, Joseph Smith, had received revelations designating this city as the "Center Place" of "Zion", and many early adherents believed that the Garden of Eden had been located there, though this was never officially promulgated as church doctrine. Although Smith had designated the Temple Lot site as the heart of his new City of Zion, the Latter Day Saints were expelled from Jackson County (late 1833) and later from Missouri (early 1839) before a temple could be constructed. Ownership of the property later became the subject of court challenges among some sects of the Latter Day Saint movement that arose from the succession crisis following Smith's assassination, most notably between the Church of Christ (Temple Lot) and the Community of Christ, formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In 1891 the Reorganized Church, founded by Smith's son Joseph Smith III, sued in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri to take possession of the property. It won in lower court, but lost in the United States Court of Appeals. The United States Supreme Court refused to review the case. The Temple Lot is currently owned by the small Church of Christ (Temple Lot), which acquired the land in 1867. This organization made a failed effort in 1929 to build a temple of its own on the property, which represents to date the only attempt to erect such a structure since the time of Joseph Smith. Currently this body has its headquarters on the site, which has twice been damaged by arson attacks. The Temple Lot church has insisted that it will never cooperate with other Latter Day Saint or Christian denominations in building a temple, nor will it sell the Lot, regardless of any price that might conceivably be offered. Some members of other Latter Day Saint groups have described the Temple Lot church as "'squatters' on the location," but that organization steadfastly defends its right to possess the property as its physical and spiritual "custodian". The Community of Christ, the second-largest church within the modern Latter Day Saint movement, now owns the bulk of the original 63 acre (26 ha) property around the Temple Lot, often referred to as the greater Temple Lot. This land had been purchased in the 1830s by Latter Day Saint bishop Edward Partridge to be the central common and sacred area according to the Plat of Zion. It maintains its world headquarters in this area, opening its Auditorium to the south of the Lot in 1958, while in 1994 it dedicated its Independence Temple just to the east. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) operates an interpretive visitor center one block east and south of the Temple Lot. It also maintains a Stake Center, LDS Social Services center, and mission headquarters on its portion of the greater Temple Lot.
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