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Studies & Doctrine

church history

Portraits of the past: Missionary Lodgings

By Kenneth Mays

For Mormon Times

Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009

The Main entrance to the three story building is now on Fox Street, but it wasn't in 1837. Photo by Kenneth Mays.

In 1837, Elders Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde and others began work as the first missionaries of the LDS Church in the British Isles. Their first field of labor was in Preston, Lancashire, England. Their lodging quarters were in a building located on the corner of Fox and St. Wilfred streets in Preston. During the night before the first baptisms in Great Britain, the missionaries experienced a dramatic encounter with what Elder Kimball characterized as "the powers of darkness" and "evil spirits."

In 1837, the entrance was located in what is now an alley (seen in the shadow in the photo) which is on St. Wilfred Street. Photo by Kenneth Mays.

The first image shows the main entrance to the three-story building as being on Fox Street. In 1837, the entrance was located in what is now an alley (seen in the shadow in the second photo) which is on St. Wilfred Street. That is likely the reason that this site is referred to as the St. Wilfred Street lodgings rather than Fox Street. The building is currently privately owned and unoccupied.

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