All together, there are rooming accommodations in the new structure for 104 persons. However, the adjoining apartment building eventually will provide living quarters for an additional 250 or so members of the headquarters family.

EXPANSION OF THE HOME

During the dedication program the president of the Watchtower Society, Nathan H. Knorr, described the expansion of the headquarters of Jehovah’s witnesses since its move to Brooklyn in 1909. In 1908 the old four-story brownstone parsonage of Henry Ward Beecher at 124 Columbia Heights and a similar building adjoining it had been purchased. These were converted into a home for the Society’s headquarters staff of thirty persons.

But due to rapid expansion, in 1911 spacious new housing accommodations adjoining the rear of the home on Columbia Heights were completed. Then in 1927, N. H. Knorr explained, further expansion at headquarters necessitated tearing down the buildings on Columbia Heights and putting up a new nine-story structure there, providing, in all, approximately 120 rooms. At that time there were about 180 members of the headquarters family.

By 1949 this number had increased to 284. Also, New York city planned a superhighway and for this purpose condemned a fifty-foot-wide portion of the Furman Street building. Thus, in 1949, a new twelve-story home was constructed on Columbia Heights and it was tied in to the 1927 structure. This made room for 450 persons.

However, in just ten years, the headquarters family had nearly doubled in number, and so construction was begun on another building directly across the street on Columbia Heights. In 1960 this huge structure, containing some 12,658 tons of concrete, 472 tons of steel and 230,000 bricks, was completed. This structure has a large auditorium, lecture hall, four classrooms and spacious office, and it more than doubled the living quarters of the home to about 950 persons.

Thus the brand-new 1969 seven-story building is only the latest expansion of the headquarters facilities of Jehovah’s witnesses. By means of underground tunnels these buildings, erected over the years, are joined together.

EXPANSION OF PRINTING FACILITIES

It is the demand world wide for Bibles and Bible literature that necessitates this headquarters expansion. Back in 1919 Jehovah’s witnesses secured factory space at nearby 35 Myrtle Avenue and began in 1920 its printing of the Watchtower magazine and other Bible literature.

Soon this place was too small, and in 1922 the move was made into a six-story building at 18 Concord Street just a few blocks away. Practically overnight there was, need for further expansion! So in 1927 a new eight-story factory was erected at 117 Adams Street, only about a ten-minute walk from the home on Columbia Heights.

Then, in 1949, factory space was almost doubled when a new nine-story addition was tied in to the Adams Street factory. This filled out the entire present city block! But demand for Bible literature did not let up, and just seven years later, in 1956, another block-large, thirteen-story factory was completed. Then in 1958 the nine-story factory on an adjoining city block was purchased and has been used almost exclusively for paper storage.

This provided a total of 436,000 square feet of factory floor space. But from 1957 to 1964 the number of Kingdom publishers placing Bible literature leaped from about 650,000 to over a million, and factory space was again cramped. Thus, in 1966, on an adjoining city block, construction was begun on the largest and newest factory of Jehovah’s witnesses. It is an eleven-story building with 226,000 square feet of floor space. Even though occupied less than two years, this factory, too, is rapidly being filled to capacity!

Since the fall of 1967 a total of seventy-one large, brand-new motor-operated machines for printing and binding books and Bibles have been installed here, and twenty-seven more of such machines are due for delivery soon. Four of the installed machines are mammoth forty-ton printing presses, raising the total of these in the factories to twenty-two. And seven more will be added by the end of next year! Also, three complete new lines for binding books and Bibles have been installed and two more will be installed this year.

KINGDOM MESSAGE SPREADING WORLD WIDE

This expansion at the headquarters of Jehovah’s witnesses is an indication of the spread of the Kingdom message world wide. For just the first eight months of this production year—September through April—17,718,518 books and Bibles were bound to meet the demand world wide, compared to 6,548,791 for the same time the previous year. So great has been the demand for Bible literature in all languages that it was necessary, not only to purchase more printing presses and bookbinding equipment, but also to arrange for a second shift of worker. Also, more than 132 million Watchtower and Awake! magazines were printed during these months, which is about 21 million over last year’s record production for the same period. The magazines printed in the Society’s plant at Brooklyn alone are in thirty-one languages; sixty-nine different magazines being produced here every month. In such quantity are they sent out that several trailer truckloads of magazines move out of the factory every day.

However, it is not only in Brooklyn that factories of Jehovah’s witnesses are expanding because of the demand for Bible literature. In Wiesbaden, Germany, for instance, the production of books leaped from 469,719 for the first seven months of last year to 1,911,981 during the same period this year! Also, the production of magazines went up from less than 17.5 million to over 24.5 million during the same period.

Truly it is thrilling to see such wonderful evidence of the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy regarding the worldwide spread of the Kingdom message! It is additional proof that we are living in the last days of this system of things.—Matt. 24:3, 14.

Be There Right from the Start!

THE start of what? The start of the 1969 “Peace on Earth” International Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses! Why? Because its program, from beginning to end, will be the finest yet. It is filled with vital information that everyone needs to prepare for what lies ahead in the final years of this old system.

All who are keenly interested in what God is doing now and will do in the future will want to be present right from the first day of the program. Doing so will bring rich rewards. To appreciate why, let us consider the early part of the program.

The keynote address on the opening day is “Acquaint Yourself with God and Keep Peace.” How well do you really know God? You may well find that new avenues of thought are opened up to you if you are present to hear this keynote speech.

Also, a full afternoon early in the assembly will be devoted to a discussion of the evidence that the Bible really is the Word of God. In these “last days” the Bible is being subjected to increasing attack. But when you hear people say that parts of the Bible are “myth,” or that it is unscientific and unhistoric, can you produce facts to prove that they are wrong? How many solid arguments do you know that prove the Bible is not merely the writings of men, but that it really is the Word of God? An entire session will be devoted to this vital subject! It will surely fortify your faith.

Among the many other fine features of the assembly are the much-appreciated Bible dramas.