A private groundbreaking is set for January for Jacksonville's first Latter-day Saints temple in Mandarin. | Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Published on November 11, 2025 at 4:24 pm
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A groundbreaking is planned Jan. 24 for Jacksonville’s first Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple on Loretto Road in Mandarin.
The private groundbreaking service will be by invitation only. Elder Massimo De Feo, first counselor in the United States Southeast Area Presidency, will preside at the event.
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The 29,000-square-foot temple was announced in April on the 6.6-acre site just east of San Jose Boulevard. The temple will join four other Florida temples built or planned in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tallahassee and Tampa, church officials said.
The property was once the site of the two-story Fleming Bowden home, built in 1907. Bowden is said to have been one of the first to own a car in Mandarin when he bought some Ford Model T’s in the early 1920s. Bowden also was Duval County supervisor of elections for 21 years.
The property was rezoned for a subdivision in 2020, but a change.org petition was started in an attempt to stop the development. Proposals to save the house by moving it fell through, and the subdivision was never built. Then the land was ultimately fenced in. Since the house did not have historic designation, it was demolished in early 2024, according to local historian Tracey Arpen.
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Mormon missionaries first arrived in 1845 in Florida. The state’s first congregation was created in 1897 in the Big Bend region.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints bought the Mandarin property for $7.15 million in early 2024, and construction will cost $27 million, officials said.
Temple concerns
There were some neighborhood concerns about the effect the temple would have on two-lane Loretto Road, which averages about 14,500 vehicles a day, according to state traffic figures. But the temples do not have open worship space, only rooms designed for specific events like marriage, baptism and religious instruction. So Mandarin’s temple will have two instruction rooms, two sealing (marriage ceremony) rooms and a baptistry.
The temple would join 280 other Mormon congregations in Florida, with about 180,000 members, the church website said.
