In March of 2006, President Gordon B. Hinckley joined Relief Society general president Bonnie D. Parkin in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the refurbishing of the 50-year-old Relief Society Building. After reflecting back upon those faithful women who contributed of their means to building this “home” for the Relief Society, President Hinckley looked to the future as he stated: “God bless the women of the Relief Society. May they go forward in strength and power, in virtue and capacity, and move forward.”

From the Nauvoo days, the Relief Society sisters had a dream of having a building of their own in the shadow of the temple. In a letter to Sister Belle S. Spafford dated September 16, 1947, the First Presidency—President George Albert Smith, J. Reuben Clark, and David O. McKay—approved the details for the fundraising campaign for the building. Under the inspired direction of Sister Spafford, the Relief Society general president at the time, and with the approval of the First Presidency, a financial plan was created in which each Relief Society sister throughout the world was asked to contribute five dollars to cover a total of half of the building’s construction costs. Within one year the faithful sisters of Relief Society had exceeded that goal.

In the fall of 1956, the building was dedicated to the sisters’ exclusive use by the prophet David O. McKay. As part of the dedicatory prayer, he said:

“To make more effective their service to the needy and suffering to those in the Church and in the World, the Relief Society has erected with the aid of the Church membership this beautiful Relief Society home in which the Presidency and members of the General Board may function more effectively in instructing, guiding, and rendering helpful aid to the Stakes, Wards, and Missionary Branches wherever organized.” [Relief Society Magazine, Dec. 1956, 789; italics removed]