Further Expansion at Watchtower Headquarters
ON November 25, 1969, the huge, ten-building complex of the Squibb pharmaceutical plant in Brooklyn, New York, was purchased by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, a legal agency for Jehovah’s witnesses. These interconnected buildings are located at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge, just across the East River from the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan. At one time Squibb company had some 800 workers employed at this plant.
Some of the smaller buildings in the present complex date back to about 1858. However, the three thirteen-floor reinforced concrete buildings, which include nearly two-thirds of the floor space of the complex, were constructed much later.
The first of these was erected in 1925 on the east side of Columbia Heights. Four years later an even larger building was added on the west side of Columbia Heights. This structure is connected to the 1925 building by an over-the-street bridge. Then, in 1940, the large thirteen-floor extension was added to the west building. The following year the newest addition was made, it being a seven-story building.
In all, the acquisition adds 632,792 square feet of floor space to the headquarters facilities of Jehovah’s witnesses.
About a half mile away is the four-city-block complex of Witness printing factories. These buildings, which are connected by over-the-street bridges, include 662,600 square feet of floor space, some 15.2 acres of floor area!
On Columbia Heights, up the hill from the newly acquired properties, are the administrative offices and missionary school operated by Jehovah’s witnesses, as well as the residence for the more than 1,300 headquarters’ personnel. These buildings fill a major part of three city blocks, and are all interconnected by underground tunnels.
The whole purpose of these facilities is to assist Christians earth wide in the preaching of God’s kingdom, particularly by providing for them Bibles and Bible literature at very low cost to use in their ministry.—Matt. 24:14.
INCREASE IN PRODUCTION
Last year the Brooklyn plant printed and bound more than 24 million Bibles and books, a 100-percent increase over the production of the year before. But right now there are orders on hand for over 14 million Bibles and books. And yet, already during the first four months of this production year, from September to December 1969, over 10,750,000 bound books and Bibles were made here! On one peak production day 156,850 were produced.
In addition, more than 67 million magazines to help people understand the Bible were printed at the Brooklyn plant from just September to December 1969.
The worsening world conditions have changed the thinking of people, and, earth wide, many persons are looking to the Bible for an answer. The demand for Bible literature reflects this. Also, the number of Jehovah’s witnesses preaching the Kingdom message is growing. Over 1,300,000 of them are now active in more than 200 lands.
The increased demand for Bible literature has necessitated the adding of much printing equipment. In November 1967 there were eighteen large rotary printing presses in operation here. Now there are twenty-seven, with two more due to be set up this month. Then, starting toward the end of this year, ten more of these huge forty-ton presses will be put into operation, one each successive month, so that by the end of next year thirty-nine rotary presses are scheduled to be in operation. During about the past two years the number of linotype machines in the plant was increased from twenty-three to thirty-three.
In November 1967 the bookbindery equipment included three complete lines for binding a book to its cover, three casemakers for making book covers, and twenty-one machines for sewing book parts together. Now there are eight complete bindery lines, eight casemakers and forty-five sewing machines. The completed books are immediately shipped out. Over 750 tons of Bible literature, representing more than three million Bibles and books, was sent out in November alone!
However, the Brooklyn headquarters printing plant is not the only one operated by Jehovah’s witnesses. They have large printing plants in Canada, England, Germany, South Africa and Scandinavian countries, and a new one under construction in Switzerland. Last year the plants other than those in Brooklyn printed over 129 million magazines, and in Germany more than three million books were made.
In all, over 325 million Watchtower and Awake! magazines were printed last year, together exceeding the total year’s production of nearly any other magazine published. Also, the hardbound book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life has had a printing of over 23 million copies since its release late in June of 1968. This is a greater number than that for any other book published in the western world outside of the Bible, including even paperback editions.
Truly, with such a demand for Bible literature, it is most appropriate that Jehovah’s witnesses should now come into possession of an additional conveniently located ten-building complex of factories!
[Picture on page 63]
Newly acquired properties of the Watchtower Society, in Brooklyn, New York