In 1945, I was invited to serve at the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Athens. Bethel, meaning “House of God,” was then located in a rented house on Lombardou Street. Offices were on the first floor, and the printery was in the basement. It consisted of a small press and a trimming machine. The printery staff at first was made up of only two persons, but soon other volunteers began commuting from their homes to assist with the work.

Contact with the Watch Tower Society’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York, was reestablished in 1945, and that year we again started printing The Watchtower on a regular basis in Greece. Then, in 1947, we moved our branch to 16 Tenedou Street, but the printery remained on Lombardou Street. Later the printery was moved from Lombardou Street to a factory belonging to a Witness some three miles [5 km] away. So for a time we were running back and forth between three locations.

I can remember leaving our living quarters on Tenedou Street before dawn and traveling to the printery. After working there until 1:00 p.m., I went to Lombardou Street where the sheets of paper we had printed were taken. There these were folded into magazines, stitched, and trimmed by hand. Afterward we took the completed magazines to the post office, carried them to the third floor, helped the staff sort them, and put the stamps on the envelopes for mailing.

By 1954 the number of Witnesses in Greece had grown to more than 4,000, and enlarged facilities were needed. Hence, we moved to a new three-story Bethel in downtown Athens on Kartali Street.

We also resumed our regular printing activity on the branch premises. As a result, the Bethel facilities on Kartali Street soon became too small. So a 2.5-acre [1 ha] piece of land was purchased in the Athens suburb of Marousi. New Bethel premises were built that included 27 bedrooms, a factory, offices, and other facilities. These were dedicated in October 1979.

In time we needed even more space. So 54 acres [22 ha] of land were purchased about 40 miles [60 km] north of Athens. The site is in Eleona, on a hillside with a view of mountains and well-watered valleys. There, in April 1991, we dedicated a much larger facility that includes 22 houses, each of which can accommodate eight people.