The original sketch concept of the Washington, D.C. Temple, by Keith W. Wilcox.
By Lynn Arave
SOMETIMES it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.
I'd heard the tale of the miraculous Washington, D.C. LDS Temple "guard dog" for years, but wondered if it was really true, or was it one of those "faith-promoting rumors" -- an urban legend of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?
-Finally, on Oct. 27, 2014, I got a chance to visit with and interview Sister Viva May Wilcox, widow of one of the D.C. Temple's four architects, the late Keith W. Wilcox of Ogden, Utah. (Wilcox's sketch was used for the Temple's outside design.)
She said the story was true. (She didn't recall what the dog was called, though.)
Later, I found out the dog was a German Shepherd, who was eventually named Zacharias.
This is NOT an actual picture of Zacharias the Temple Guard Dog, but rather a generic German Shepherd photograph. Photo from Wikipedia Commons.
The large dog did indeed strangely show up at the temple grounds right when it was needed, to help curb the theft of construction materials and vandalism at the isolated temple site overnight.
(Otherwise, temple officials were considering hiring more security employees.)
A temple office worker, Judy Emily Cox, gave the dog his Biblical name. Zac the Temple Guard Dog was how some referred to the animal.
On one occasion, the canine even lessened the damage from a fire that had started in the Temple's Annex building one night, when it refused to leave that area.
The dog would sleep under the desk of the construction site superintendent during the day and patrolled the temple grounds at night.
Sister Wilcox said no one knows where it came from. The animal simply acted like it was supposed to guard the grounds after the workers left for the night.
A temple worker eventually adopted the dog after the Temple was completed.
When the dog died, probably in the early 1980s, it was buried on the temple grounds and there was even an official headstone.
The dog’s grave was apparently located on the west side of the Temple grounds. Another church member said he took a special tour of the temple grounds in 1998. He said the grave was still there then and that the Temple President had referred to it as the only known grave of any type on the grounds of any Latter-Day Saint temple.
Peggy Ennis Schmidt said she and her husband served in the
DC Temple from 2005-2007. During their introduction to the temple, they were
shown a video of the construction phase, with the volunteer guard dog included.
They also visited the burial site/memorial of the dog, just a short walk from
the Visitors Center. Later, according to Sister Schmidt, a succeeding temple president didn't care for the apparently popular practice of people coming to the temple grounds to see the grave of a dog. He had
the memorial removed, possibly around the early 2010s.
One church member in the Washington, D.C. area contacted the author years later and said he recalled that his ward building library at one time had a VHS videotape of the dog, but that someone had discarded it when the meetinghouse was remodeled.
So, there's the canine miracle of the LDS Church.
And, ALL dogs do go to heaven ... especially Zacharias.
A stained glass-like rendition of the Washington, D.C. LDS Temple, that the Wilcox home has hanging in the front window.
SOURCES:
-Interview with Viva May
Gammell Wilcox, at her home in Ogden, Utah on October 27, 2014.
Sister Wilcox is the wife of the late Keith Wilcox, Washington, D.C. Temple
architect.
-KSL-TV documentary, “Washington DC Temple — A Sacred
Monument in a City of Monuments,” by Carole Mikita, October 2, 2022.
NOTE: If you like dogs, search for my related blog entry on "All Dogs go to Heaven -- and to the Spirit World too! The 'Henrie" Miracle."
NOTE 2: This article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
