The Nauvoo Temple was the second temple to be completed by members of the Latter Day Saint or Mormon movement. The first temple was completed in Kirtland, Ohio.

The Latter Day Saints made preparations to build a temple soon after establishing their headquarters at Nauvoo, Illinois in 1839. On 6 April 1841, the temple's cornerstone was laid and Sidney Rigdon gave an oration. At its base the building was 128' x 88' — a 60% increase over the dimensions of the Kirtland Temple. Like Kirtland, the Nauvoo Temple contained two assembly rooms, one on the first floor and one on the second, called the lower and upper courts. Both had classrooms and offices on the third floors. Unlike Kirtland, the Nauvoo Temple had an excavated basement which included a baptismal font, used for baptisms for the dead.

The Nauvoo Temple was designed in the Greek Revival style by Mormon architect William Weeks, under the direction of church founder Joseph Smith Jr.  It made use of distinctively Latter Day Saint motifs, including Sunstones, Moonstones, and Starstones, representing the Three Degrees of Glory in the Mormon conception of the afterlife (see also Telestial Kingdom).

Construction was only half complete when Smith was assassinated in 1844. After a succession crisis, Brigham Young assumed control of Nauvoo. He encouraged the Latter Day Saints to complete the temple prior to their expulsion from the city. Young also altered the original plans to add a large pediment beneath the cupola. While still under construction during the winter of 1855-56, the temple began to be used for ordinances, including the Nauvoo-era Endowment and plural marriage sealings.

Most of the Latter Day Saints left Nauvoo in February of 1846, but a small crew remained to work on the temple. Still not entirely finished, the building was finally dedicated on 30 April 1846. It was subsequently abandoned. Vigilantes from neighboring Carthage, Illinois entered the near-empty city and vandalized the temple.

Brigham Young's agents tried to sell or lease the structure, but found no takers. On 19 November 1848 the vacant temple was set on fire by arsonists. Nauvoo's residents — mostly non-Mormons and former Mormons — vainly attempted to put out the fire, but the temple was entirely gutted. James J. Strang, leader of a rival faction of Latter Day Saints charged Young's agents with destroying the temple, but these charges were never proved.

Years later, the temple was struck by a tornado and the City Council eventually ordered the demolition of the remaining walls in the interests of public safety. Many of the original stones for the temple were used to construct other buildings in Hancock County. Three of the original sunstones are known to have survived and are on display — one is on loan to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Visitor Center in Nauvoo, one is in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C, the third and only one that has not been touched up, along with the only moonstone on display is at the Joseph Smith Historic Center (Community of Christ)

In 2002, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints built a new temple on the site of the original. The exterior is a replica of the first temple, but the interior is laid out like a modern Latter-day Saint temple.