It was the temple Joseph Smith had been commanded to build. He had seen the Nauvoo Temple of the young Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a vision.
He often gave the workers counsel, such as the following: “In the afternoon, Elder William Weeks (whom I had employed as architect of the temple) came in for instruction. I instructed him in relation to the circular windows designed to light the offices in the dead work of the arch between stories. He said that round windows in the broad side of a building were a violation of all the known rules of architecture, and contended that they should be semicircular — the building was too low for round windows.
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