From the history of the church vol vii by BH Roberts 1957.

The costs of the following temples are given

Logan $770,000
Hawaii $256,000
Alberta $997,000
Arizona $767,000

Cost of course is at the time the temples were constructed. No adjustments for inflation etc.

Gotta multiply by at least 20 to get approximation of modern figures?

Average annual worker's salary in 1900 was around $500.

One thing you can say for the early temples, they were really built well. Solid blocks of rock. None of this plywood framing and drywall crap.

For what it is worth, according to this internet U.S. inflation calculator
https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/

the 2019 inflation costs would be:

Logan Utah $770,000 (finished in 1884) (calculated from the website's earliest date of 1913) $19,922,233.33

Laie Hawaii $256,000 (finished in 1919) $3,790,324.16

Cardston Alberta Canada $997,000 (finished in 1923) $14,934,185.44

Mesa Arizona $767,000 (finished in 1921) $10,975,512.91

These approximated inflation costs seem very, very low to me.

The land for the Hawaii temple was part of a sugar plantation the church bought in the 1860s. That would count in part for the lower cost.

I assume there wasn't a lot of cost for the land for the Logan temple.

I don't know how much "donated" labor was used.

Are there many earthquakes in Hawaii? I know it is volcanically active.

Hawaii lost its faith and went inactive.

I wonder how they came up with that dollar amount.

I've heard lots of stories about people giving "service" by building the damned things.

Also, I seem to remember that the members who lived in the temple district usually ponyed up a lot of that dough, didn't they? I remember when they were building the seattle temple, they shook down the existing membership for building funds, that practice ended some time ago I think.

And speaking of land values, don't you think that it would have been smart of Jesus to have had his little Profit minions go around immediately after world war ii snapping up the prime pieces of real estate for the building of temples? He could have had the Tokyo land for a pittance and probably could have had a landmark temple in Tokyo next to the Imperial Palace. He could have had his pick of the litter in Paris, London & Berlin. Thank GOD nobody had that kind of foresight.....or prophecy.....

The Cardston and Arizona temples are the figures recorded bh the Presiding Bishop in Salt Lake. The Hawaii figures comes from the Hawaii temple. The same with the Logan temple.

The Hawaii temple cost was offset by income from the Sugar plantation.

Why are they spending so much on temples? The church is a cooperation who is all about investment they like their tax free status. I get it temples need to be to receive money from member without being a full tithe payer one can't get a temple recommend and enter the temple. But if they would make cheaper temples they could keep some money. They reduced church from 3 hours to 2 hours. They lowered the mission age. Many policies have been changed. Garments from one piece to 2 piece new fabrics have been added so members can choose the style and fabric of their underwear. The temple movie has been shortened, some penalties have been removed (slitting of the throat and disembowelment).

The Kirtland temple was the first temple ever build now owned by the Community of Christ. Even at the beginning why spend so much money on temples?