Tithing Office/ Relic Hall

In the early years of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a revelation to Church President Joseph Smith indicated that members of the Church should pay tithing as stated in the Bible.1 Almost 50 years after the first revelation, Church President Lorenzo Snow reinstated the same call for all Saints of the Church to pay tithing.2 Tithing in the earlier days of the Church was not like today where Latter-day Saints typically tithe only a tenth of their paycheck or cash. Most settlements had a bartering, or trading, system and hardly had any cash at all. Members would tithe cattle, sheep, chickens, money, furniture, and even food. To hold all these items, tithing offices were built across settlements in Utah, Idaho, and Arizona.

In January 1907, Alma Merrill—Stake President of the Benson Stake—and his brother Bishop Thomas H. Merrill of the Richmond Ward, sent a request to Church headquarters to build a tithing office in Richmond. They would also use the building for other Church affairs such as Stake office meetings. The Presiding Bishopric of the Church was in charge of all tithing affairs and gave a bill of means as to how to construct the building. Richmond citizen James L. Burnham was hired to construct the building. The Tithing Office was completed in 1907-1908.3

The Tithing Office did its job of containing all tithes that the citizens of Richmond would donate. The Office was owned and operated by the Church until 1968. The city purchased the building and today allows a local chapter of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers to use the building as a local museum, containing photos of early Latter-day Saint Pioneers, and artifacts of city and Church histories. They named the building the Pioneer Relic Hall: James Hendricks Camp after the purchase. In 2015, they changed the name to the James & Drusilla Hendricks Daughters of Utah Pioneers Relic Hall.3

The Tithing Office was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.3

1. Doctrine and Covenants, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sec. 119, July 8, 1838.

   1. Genesis 28:22; Leviticus 27:30; Luke 18:12

2. Reexamining Lorenzo Snow's 1899 Tithing Revelation, Dennis B. Horne, 2014.

3. United States Department of the Interior. National Register of Historic Places (1983). National Register of Historic Places Registration Form: Richmond Tithing Office. National Archive Catalog. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71999247