As related by Matthew Richardson, VP of advancement:

I would like to highlight one particular story. In 1915 BYU was in dire financial difficulties and was preparing to sell the very land on which our campus now stands. The commencement speaker, a student named Alfred Kelly, was given an assignment to promote selling the property in his speech, but the idea troubled him. Early one morning he walked to the land that was to be sold. He prayed, and then it happened: he saw what he called a “strange vision” with “thousands of young people who approached me, their arms laden with books.” Kelly continued:

I turned around to find the area behind me illuminated as well. In that light I saw hundreds of buildings, large and beautiful temples of learning. Those young people passed by me and entered in. Then, with cheerfulness and confidence, they turned toward the east and lifted their eyes heavenward, where, again becoming part of the sunlight, they gradually disappeared from my view.⁵

He decided to share this experience in his commencement speech instead of promoting the land sale. He then sat down, and everyone was silent. I have always loved how Elder Jeffrey R. Holland (BS ’65, MA ’66), when he was BYU president, told what happened next:

Longtime BYU benefactor Jesse Knight jumped to his feet and shouted, “We won’t sell an acre. We won’t sell a single lot.” And he turned to President George Brimhall and pledged several thousand dollars to the future of the university.⁶

Why was Alfred Kelly’s vision of BYU’s future so important? Was it simply needed to inspire and motivate those like Jesse Knight to invest in BYU with confidence and to ensure its future? Was the ultimate goal only to ensure that degrees would be awarded, jobs secured, and LinkedIn contacts amassed? It is true that Kelly’s vision did describe thousands of young people laden with books entering into large and beautiful buildings. It showed that this educational enterprise was all going to work out in the end.

But I believe Alfred Kelly’s vision did much more than just save the campus. I believe it also defined our campus. Alfred Kelly not only saw future buildings but purposefully described them—as Karl G. Maeser had earlier⁷—as “temples of learning.” And this was not all. Those temples of learning were illuminated by light. Sixty years later President Spencer W. Kimball said that all subject matter at BYU should be “bathed in the light and color of the restored gospel.”⁸

More than just buildings and a campus, Alfred Kelly saw future BYU students coming out of those temples of light “with cheerfulness and confidence,” who “turned toward the east and lifted [their] eyes heavenward.”

I love this imagery. If you stand on campus and turn to the east, what do you see? The mountains. In his inaugural address, President Kevin J Worthen (BA ’79, JD ’82)taught that “mountains are places of spiritual communication and revelation.” He also explained that “mountains are . . . locations where people can be enlightened, uplifted, and changed.”⁹ BYU is nestled in a revelatory setting unlike any other, and the very posturing of students described by Alfred Kelly with their eyes lifting heavenward evokes in my mind images of other learners, such as Joseph Smith in a grove of trees.

Finally, it must not be lost on us that Alfred Kelly was a student at the time of his impactful vision. It is rather astounding to think that such a dream was had by a visionary student about future visionary students! Every time I read BYU’s foundational documents I am reminded that this place is a place of revelation and vision.

https://magazine.byu.edu/article/four-byu-mementos/