• The Bahamas
    1985 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses

    • FIRST KINGDOM HALL IN THE BAHAMAS

      But let us go back to the year 1954 and to the capital, Nassau, on the island where two thirds of the population reside. Here the brothers were working hard on the first Kingdom Hall in the Bahamas. A unique arrangement provided the funds to build this hall. Brother Gus Gravas, a Greek brother from Florida, visited the Bahamas to witness to Greek-speaking people in Nassau. While in Nassau he was moved by the brothers’ need for a permanent meeting place. So he arranged to send them regular shipments of used clothing. The brothers sold the clothing and the funds were applied to the building program.

      How delighted the brothers were that, within a year, they were able to purchase two lots at 500 pounds (about $1,400 U.S.) each, in Centreville, a prime location for a new hall! Although this financial arrangement came to an end when the government banned the importation of used clothing, the Society made a loan so that the brothers were able to complete their Kingdom Hall. It was on this site in 1958 that the brothers constructed the branch office of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, as well as a missionary home. Two Canadian brothers, Hall Olson and Albert McBrine, who had come to serve where the need was greater, became the backbone of the construction project. At the same time that the Centreville Kingdom Hall was taking shape, another Kingdom Hall was being constructed on Quakoo Street, on a piece of land donated by Brother and Sister Blackman.