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LDS Church Architecture 317 millwork, massive and steeply pitched roofs, metal steeples at the crossing of the roof ridges, half timbers on the upper gables, and square window bays. These buildings had great strength and ecclesiastical character. A significant forerunner of this style was the Payson Second Ward meetinghouse, built in 1896 and still standing. Though constructed four decades earlier, it displayed many of the same design features as the churches built during the 1930s. While the Gothic influence was felt in church architecture of the 1870s and 1880s, it was by no means the dominant style. Buildings combining vernacular forms and materials with classical decorative elements were still erected throughout the church well into the 1890s. This was especially true of the more remote or recently settled towns. General developments in late pioneer meetinghouse architecture included the engaged central tower and steeple introduced in 1879, the common usage of stone and brick as main building materials, larger and more varied window and door bays, the split-level plan with an assembly room situated above a central aisle and classrooms on either side, sloping floors for better viewing of the speaker, vaulted ceilings and galleries, and diversity of forms and detailing. Meetinghouses were clearly churchlike in character by this time. The United Order. Some new and unique types of buildings appeared in the territory with the churchwide establishment of the United Order in 1874. Among these were United Order co-op stores (similar to earlier Zion's Cooperative Mercantile Institutions established in 1868), United Order dance halls, dining halls, meetinghouses, schools, factories, storehouses, and many other related buildings intended to serve the needs of a specialized, communal economic system. In their architecture, most United Order structures did not vary from earlier styles or construction methods for the simple reason that the people doing the building were the same. T h e United Order lasted for less than a year in most towns and as long as ten years in others. Of the few United Order buildings standing today, the two-story rock school and tithing office in Virgin (187475) is perhaps most impressive. Social Halls. Brigham Young resisted the idea of having social or recreational events in wardhouses. 24 Feeling that separate facilities should be provided for these nonreligious activities, he encouraged the early building of the Social Hall and the Salt Lake Theatre. Soon communities throughout the church had social halls, concert halls, opera halls, dance 24 Journal of Discourses, 9:194-95.