TEXT: “p[page torn]”. Because of page tears, several words and characters are missing from this document. In such places, text has been editorially supplied. Here and in the following paragraphs, missing text has been supplied from the version of this document in JS Letterbook, pp. 38–41, unless otherwise noted.

The practice of dividing land into squares for settlement in territories northwest of the Ohio River followed guidelines set by the national government. In May 1785, the Continental Congress passed a land ordinance that divided the surveyed land into “townships of six miles square, by lines running due north and south, and others crossing these at right angles.” The ordinance stipulated that the plats of the townships be subdivided into square-mile sections. The one-mile-square city of Zion plat would have filled one section within a township. A typical mile-square plat might have sixty-four blocks, each containing ten acres including surrounding streets, which would make lots smaller than a half acre. As drawn, with forty-two ten-acre blocks and seven sixteen-acre blocks, the entire city of Zion, including all streets, would occupy nearly eight hundred acres, or about one and a quarter square miles. The measurements given on the plat of the city of Zion thus seem to sometimes be approximations or errors in calculation. (An Ordinance for Ascertaining the Mode of Disposing of Lands in the Western Territory [20 May 1785], Journals of the Continental Congress, vol. 28, p. 375.)

Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789. 34 vols. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1904–1937.

Forty square rods is equal to a quarter of an acre.

Instead of “¼ of an acre,” the JS letterbook copy has “½ of an acre.” According to the dimensions listed here, the lots would occupy eighty square perches or rods, which is equal to half an acre. The plat, however, contains several inconsistencies. As drawn, some of the blocks contain only eighteen lots, while others have twenty-two, rather than the twenty implicitly prescribed in the drawing and explanation.

The middle three blocks in this center row of blocks are painted sienna red and reserved for the twenty-four temples to built in the city; the other four blocks contain residential lots. According to the description here, these seven blocks in the center row of the plat measure forty by sixty perches, which amounts to 2,400 square perches, or fifteen acres, since an acre is 160 square perches. As drawn on the plat, the four residential blocks in this row have thirty-two lots each, but if these lots were to be equal in size to all other residential lots on the plat, which each measured half an acre, the size of these center-row blocks would need to be increased to sixteen acres. To keep lots in those blocks the same width and length as all the other residential lots in the city, which are all rectangular, the lots in this row all run north and south; none face east or west.

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Figure 2 refers to the painted square carrying a large numeral 2 between temples 16 and 17.

As drawn, the plat shows 976 lots on forty-six residential blocks.

For the entire projected population of at least fifteen thousand people to attend church at one time, 625 people would have to fit into each of the twenty-four temples. This figure more or less matches the seating capacity according to the specifications of the plans for the House of the Lord sent to Missouri with this plat; built according to plan and calculating one person per eighteen inches, the pews, choir seats, and pulpit seats together would hold approximately 696 people per temple. (See Plan of the House of the Lord, between 1 and 25 June 1833.)

Plan of the House of the Lord, between 1 and 25 June 1833.

In the central blocks, in the middle of the second row, the circle identified by the number 5 is denoted with a cross.

What the lines to the north and the south mean with regard to the placement of barns, stables, or other agricultural facilities is unclear, but assuming the plat is drawn to scale, these lines may indicate that such agricultural structures were to be a precise minimum distance of one block away from residences. The requirement for locating barns beyond the city perimeter reflects life in other period communities, in which “the problem of livestock odor and waste disposal” was a central concern. Therefore, “the concept of small farms outside the town was found in most communities in New England and in the trans-Appalachian settlements.” Cincinnati, for example, was established in 1789 with surrounding lands divided into four-acre farms. (Jackson, “Mormon Village: Genesis and Antecedents of the City of Zion Plan,” 228.)

Jackson, Richard H. “The Mormon Village: Genesis and Antecedents of the City of Zion Plan.” BYU Studies 17, no. 2 (Winter 1977): 223–240.

TEXT: Possibly “plat.”

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Eight perches is equal to 132 feet.

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TEXT: Each of the following cardinal directions is surrounded by a hand-drawn box and appears, respectively, above, to the left of, to the right of, and below the plat, with the plat oriented east side up.