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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
Thu Feb 27, 2020, 12:29 PM Feb 2020

For The First Time In A Generation, The Mormon Temple Will Open To The Public

Surrender Dorothy!

FEB 27, 11:13 AM

For The First Time In A Generation, The Mormon Temple Will Open To The Public

Rachel Kurzius

Children have confused the building with the tall, white spires visible from the Beltway for Disneyland’s epic castle, and apparently at least one person thought it was Medieval Times. Not quite.

The Kensington, Md. building is a Mormon temple for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day, and it has become a landmark in the region.

Like all LDS temples, people who are not a part of the faith are barred from entering, with very few exceptions. And one of those exceptions is coming up: a public open house and rededication ceremony. It marks the first time since the temple first opened in 1974 that the general public will be allowed inside.

The open house will take place from September 24 through October 31, with an online sign-up form that will roll out during the summer. Entrance will be free, though it’s clear the church sees it as an opportunity to spread its faith.

{snip}



Local

‘Surrender Dorothy’ painted on a Beltway overpass — what’s the story?

By John Kelly
June 24, 2011

As I traveled on the Beltway in the early ’70s near the Mormon Temple in Kensington, I was always amused by one re-occurring sight. On an overpass just as the temple comes into view, someone would always spray paints in big letters “Surrender Dorothy.” The line was from “The Wizard of Oz,” and I’m fairly sure it reflected the graffiti artist’s impression that the temple was reminiscent of the spires that Dorothy and company saw as they approached the Emerald City and their subsequent fear when the witch wrote the phrase in the sky. While I recognize that it was illegal to do that, I marveled at the writer’s ability to write it so boldly as to be seen from the highway. I’ve often wondered if anyone knew the story behind it or knew who the person was.

— Christine Mulligan, Germantown

First, allow Answer Man to state that he does not condone breaking the law, especially breaking the law in such a dangerous way. That graffito (singular of graffiti) was on a CSX railway bridge, meaning the perpetrator(s) risked not just falling onto the Beltway below but being flattened by a passing freight train.

Answer Man could find no reference to when it first went up. The temple was dedicated in November 1974, and certainly by the early 1980s “Surrender Dorothy” was a common sight for Beltway drivers — and an irritant for state highway workers, who would periodically be brought in to remove what was seen as a distraction to drivers.

{snip}



A 1986 photo shows the Beltway overpass, close by the glistening spires of the Mormon Temple in Kensington, with the graffito. (United Press International)

{snip}

Send your questions to answerman@washpost.com.

This is the first comment:

Rhea1
6/26/2011 11:57 AM EDT
I miss Baltimore's version too: the "Hon" added to the "Welcome to Baltimore" sign.

Some years ago the Post's Style Invitational ran a contest for jokes that only Washington-area people would understand. One of the entries was:

How long does it take to drive from Georgia to Connecticut?

About three minutes on a good day if you don't wait for Dorothy to surrender.

The graffito has a Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrender_Dorothy

Gridlock

The Beltway’s famed ‘Surrender Dorothy’ bridge gets a timely new message

By John Kelly
Columnist
Feb. 10, 2017 at 3:53 p.m. EST

What may be the most famous canvas for graffiti artists in the Washington area has been tagged with a new message: The words “Bridges Not Walls” now adorn the CSX railroad bridge over the Beltway between Georgia and Connecticut avenues in Montgomery County.

Anyone who drove that stretch of the Beltway regularly in the 1970s and 1980s probably remembers an earlier legend daubed upon the span: “Surrender Dorothy.” That lighthearted message poked fun at the Emerald City-like Mormon Temple that seems to hover beyond the bridge like the skyline of Oz.

The railroad bridge over the Beltway near the Mormon Temple has new graffiti: "Bridges Not Walls." It's not the first message painted there



Reportedly, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints did not care for that snarky message, but for years, every time it was painted over, it would reappear. (The person who painted it first has never come forward, but in 2011, two Catholic school girls confessed to Washington Post columnist John Kelly that they had inspired the message. At a sleepover in 1974, 13 students who went to Holy Child in Potomac, Md., snuck out and stuffed wadded-up newspaper in the chain-link fence on the Linden Lane bridge over the Beltway. A photo of their message — “Surrender Dorothy” — appeared in the Montgomery Journal, where it was apparently seen by that first Picasso with a spray can.)

[Search for ‘Surrender Dorothy’ scrawler pulls back curtain on schoolgirl prank]

In 2014, someone painted the name of acclaimed District hardcore band Fugazi on the bridge: A request, perhaps, that the band — which played its last gig in 2002 — get back together.

[Fugazi, a standout from D.C.’s musical past, pops up in an unexpected place]

{snip}

John F. Kelly
John Kelly writes John Kelly's Washington, a daily look at Washington's less-famous side. Born in Washington, John started at The Post in 1989 as deputy editor in the Weekend section. Follow https://twitter.com/JohnKelly
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yonder

(9,631 posts)
2. Fun fact: Whenever they do temporarily open a temple to us heathens,
Thu Feb 27, 2020, 01:18 PM
Feb 2020

they replace the carpets (and probably other interior things) before it reverts back to its intended use. They can't have the average Joe defiling their sacred spaces.

A brand new temple was constructed some 30+ years ago in our area, and after the 2 or 3 week open house they pulled up the brand new carpet and replaced it with more brand new carpet.

More_Cowbell

(2,190 posts)
3. We wore booties when we visited the pre-consecrated one in La Jolla
Thu Feb 27, 2020, 07:31 PM
Feb 2020

There were lots of protesters outside yelling things like "Ask them about the holy underwear!"

Algernon Moncrieff

(5,780 posts)
5. I toured it prior to the opening in '74
Fri Feb 28, 2020, 11:31 AM
Feb 2020

If you have the opportunity, you should go.

I have a friend/coworker who is LDS who tells me that the main temple in SLC will be similarly opened when the remodel is completed.

EarnestPutz

(2,087 posts)
11. We toured it back in 1974 too, and it was surprising. It's not like a cathedral, with a large....
Sat Feb 29, 2020, 03:53 AM
Feb 2020

....soaring space, but is more a multistory office building with numerous small classrooms and chapels, all done in white and gold to create an effect of being in "heaven". The people who guided us were also dressed in white robes to appear angelic. We were told that after the period that the public would be allowed in, the entire temple would be cleansed and afterwards only Mormons "in good standing", as confirmed by their local elders, would be allowed in. When I asked what constituted being "in good standing", they mentioned tithing ten percent to the church, but couldn't think of another criterion to mention. As we rode up in the elevators we skipped one or two floors and they said they were just mechanical spaces, something I don't think is put in the middle of a building.

malchickiwick

(1,474 posts)
6. As a teenager, I was baptized for and in behalf of some three dozen-odd dead guys there.
Fri Feb 28, 2020, 03:14 PM
Feb 2020

We made the trek down from Massachusetts, b/c DC was the closest temple at the time. Fun Fact: None other than Mittens Willard Romney conducted my "worthiness interview."

And, yes, I escaped not long after.

Hassler

(3,326 posts)
7. Besides Mormons, who would want to visit? The only way
Fri Feb 28, 2020, 08:32 PM
Feb 2020

I'd go is if they were displaying Joe Smith's tablets.

NNadir

(33,368 posts)
12. A friend and his wife prevailed on my wife and I to go on the tour of the San Diego temple.
Sat Feb 29, 2020, 08:25 AM
Feb 2020

It was just before it opened. You could see it from the freeway.

We worked together and I, being from the East, as was my friend, kept calling it the "Giant Carvel Ice Cream Factory."

It wasn't memorable. I vaguely recall the big giant gilded baptismal font supported on the back of giant cows, some large murals of Jesus that looked kind of like the cover art on books from Sunday School classes when I was a child and the blank smiling faces of the guides who I remember as being very white and very blonde.
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