NAUVOO, Ill., July 14 — Sometime in September, a construction crane will hoist a seven-foot statue of an angel atop a spire, about 150 feet above the ground. Striking though it will be, with a skin of gold leaf and a trumpet raised to its lips, the statue is but a detail of a larger structure, a reconstruction of the elaborate temple built by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, back when this Mississippi River village stood at the faith's geographic center.
In American religious history, the 50,000-square-foot building going up here points to a symbolic reversal of fortune: the Mormons are quite visibly back in a place formative of their faith, from which they were driven 150 years ago.
These days, Nauvoo, with 1,067 residents and a half-dozen churches, is a quiet town tucked into a Mississippi River bend, accessible by a winding two-lane blacktop. But in the early 1840's, with a population 10 times as large, it was Illinois's largest city after Chicago.
Had non-Mormons, fearing the church's political power and militia, not driven church members out, forcing them to make the trek west to Utah, Nauvoo might have evolved into something like Salt Lake City, a metropolis with a distinct religious character.
Todd Buchanan for The New York Times
A model of the old Mormon temple in Nauvoo, Ill., sits across the street from the reconstructed building.
In the 11-million-member church, expectation surrounds this project. "Ever since the prophet announced the rebuilding of the temple, it's been the focal point of the church," said Richard K. Sager, president of the Mormons' Nauvoo Mission.
Mr. Sager was referring to Gordon B. Hinckley, who as the church's president is a successor to Joseph Smith Jr., who organized the church in upstate New York in 1830. Smith announced that an angel named Moroni had revealed to him the Book of Mormon, which told of ancient Israelites journeying to the Americas and later being visited by the risen Christ. It is a statue of Moroni that will go atop the Nauvoo temple.
Smith led church members here in 1839; they began the temple two years later. But their stay proved brief. Smith was killed by an anti- Mormon mob in 1844. Under the next president, Brigham Young, Mormons began an exodus to Utah in 1846. (The next temple to be built, in Utah, was not completed until 1877.)
Cornerstones for the reconstructed temple were laid last November. The walls are up, the roof is on and the five floors are in place. A dedication ceremony is set for next year. Church officials declined to say how much it was costing.
In Mormon belief, a temple is enclosed holy ground, open only to church members, who don white clothing as a symbol of purity. Within its walls, they perform such rites as having marriages ritually "sealed" as eternal and conducting baptisms on behalf of the dead, allowing those "in the next life" to choose whether to accept entrance into the church.
Both practices were first taught here by Smith. Here, also, the church began its controversial practice of polygamy, or "plural marriage," which it discontinued in 1890. So formative was the religious experience that one historian has said that Utah effectively began in Nauvoo.
A tour of the temple showed attention to detail and durability. A first- floor assembly room contains a barrel ceiling and decorative molding like the original. Windows are of hand-blown glass. The building's exterior is sheathed in limestone cut to resemble the original stones.
But there are differences. Smith's temple had wooden floors, a weak point. Two years after the Mormons left Nauvoo, arsonists set the temple afire. A tornado knocked down the walls in 1850.
The new building contains a steel frame and reinforced concrete floors. "This building will last over 500 years," Elder Ronald Prince, the construction manager, said.
It will also draw more people to Nauvoo. About 200,000 people sign in annually at the church's longstanding visitors' center, said Elder R. J. Snow, the church's local spokesman. They come to see buildings of the original town that the church has restored and operated as a historic area for years. In one small theater, missionaries stage a musical, presenting a sentimental picture of life in "old Nauvoo."
The prospect of increased tourism has prompted the city to adopt a zoning law and designate bus and truck routes, to keep heavy traffic out of Nauvoo's center in the busy summer.
"Some say we have more than our share of tourists as it is," said Mayor Thomas J. Wilson, who is not a Mormon and who is serving his third term. But Mr. Wilson said he was grateful the church would build a 200-car garage for public use. "That will be a big plus," he said.
Mr. Sager, the mission president, said he kept in mind that Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and four other men who would later become Mormon presidents walked local streets in the 1840's. For the church, he said, it is sacred ground, a place apart.
"There's a calm, sweet, peaceful feeling that you get in Nauvoo that you just don't get out in the world," he said.