Church History Museum

The Church History Museum is a free museum in downtown Salt Lake City, standing just west of Temple Square and north of the Family History Library. Inside, art, artifacts, and interactive media trace the early history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members’ role in settling the Salt Lake Valley.

Exhibits are self-guided, so visitors move through the galleries at their own pace, with museum docents stationed throughout to answer questions and offer short, informal talks. The main floor houses the museum’s flagship exhibit on the Church’s founding years, while the second floor holds a dedicated children’s exhibit alongside rotating temporary shows. The museum also maintains an art gallery and collection, including a juried competition that brings in work from Latter-day Saint artists around the world, plus a museum store selling books, art prints, and other keepsakes.

A quick visit can cover the highlights in well under an hour, while seeing everything the museum offers, including the galleries and children’s activities, takes closer to an hour and a half to two hours. That range makes it workable for a family with young children, a solo visitor filling a spare hour downtown, or anyone looking for an indoor stop on a cold or rainy day. The building and its exhibit areas are wheelchair accessible, with free wheelchairs available at the front desk, ample seating throughout, and accessible restrooms.

The museum sits directly on West Temple Street, an easy walk from most of downtown Salt Lake City. The Temple Square TRAX station is about half a block away, and TRAX and city buses run free within the downtown area. Drivers can look for the Conference Center parking garage nearby, though it fills quickly, along with metered street parking in front of the museum and pay lots at City Creek Center a block away. Parking downtown gets tighter during the busy summer months and again in December, so it is worth building in extra time.

Being indoors, the museum makes a reliable stop regardless of season, useful for balancing an otherwise outdoor day around Temple Square’s gardens and historic buildings. It pairs naturally with a Temple Square visit, since the two sit right next to each other, with downtown dining options at City Creek Center close by for before or after. The museum’s own site publishes current hours, holiday closures, and details on temporary exhibits, since these can shift throughout the year.