An Unusual Building Program—with Volunteer Workers
“I NEVER saw people work so hard. No matter what you tell them to do, they do twice as much without cutting corners.” What prompted this exclamation by a Health Department engineer from Orange County, New York? He was viewing the construction of a building about the size of a football field almost entirely by volunteer help.
This project at Monroe, New York, was part of an unusual building program that has been under way for about ten years in the United States, Canada and some other countries. Groups of hundreds of persons of different races and nationalities have volunteered their time, energy and other resources to build spacious assembly halls.
Often large enough to seat over 2,000 people, these building projects have aroused much curiosity. Who are the builders? What purpose do these structures serve? How is it possible to get sufficient funds and volunteer help for such an undertaking?
Why Assembly Halls?
The builders are Jehovah’s Christian witnesses, and there is a special need for these assembly halls. In the United States there are now over 500,000 of Jehovah’s witnesses. Their 6,393 congregations are grouped into 271 “circuits.” In addition to all congregations holding five weekly meetings at their Kingdom Halls, twice a year each “circuit” (about 20 congregations) enjoys a two-day assembly that features a special program of Bible education geared to their local needs.
In the past most of these gatherings would be held in rented facilities such as schools, armories and fairgrounds. But since 1965, when their first assembly hall opened in New York, Jehovah’s witnesses in many areas have sought to obtain their own places for these conventions. There are now fifteen of them in the United States, three in Canada and some in other countries. What prompted Jehovah’s witnesses to want their own assembly halls?
One important reason is the high cost of renting public places. Besides paying for the use of the building, it has often been necessary to hire custodians and union help to operate stage apparatus and public-address equipment. A weekend assembly might cost from $1,000 to $3,000.
A Witness from Winnipeg, Canada, explains another problem that can come up when renting an assembly site:
“It was sometimes impossible to get a rental permit for school auditoriums until about a month before the assembly. And every permit contained a clause to the effect that if the auditorium were needed for a school activity it would take priority over the convention. Sometimes a rental for a certain night would be cancelled at the last moment and we would have to rush to get another place for that night and then move back the following morning.”
And school auditoriums would often lack sufficient seating capacity. Many persons would have to go to other parts of the building and be satisfied with just hearing the program over a loudspeaker or watching it on closed-circuit TV. These and other difficulties made it seem better for Jehovah’s witnesses in many areas to direct their money toward getting their own facilities.
Getting Off to a Good Start
No “elite” group decides to build an assembly hall with others being forced to support it against their will. Jehovah’s witnesses consider in advance whether there are enough congregations in the area to keep such a place busy. If so, they write to all congregations concerned to ascertain if they really want an assembly hall and are willing to support efforts to get one. Then they must decide whether to erect a new building or to renovate an already-existing one. Local circumstances will bear upon this decision.
In Cleveland, for example, a committee appointed to find a site to put up a new building relates: “Suitable locations that had the necessary utilities were difficult to find. When we finally found one we ran into a zoning problem. Then a theater turned up. Besides being well within the approved budget, it was centrally located.” After the purchase, local Witnesses renovated this theater, and it is now a fine facility for Christian assemblies.
Witnesses from Detroit, who also remodeled a theater for their assembly hall, refer to another advantage: “There seemed to be no difficulty in arriving at a reasonable price for these locations. Being highly taxed and often unused, they are just ‘weights around the necks’ of their owners.”
Congregations from the San Fernando Valley area of California acquired an unusual building for their assembly hall, formerly known as the Valley Music Theater. The original builders employed earth-moving equipment to shape a hill into a huge dome. Over this they laid steel and poured reinforced concrete. When it had set, they scooped out the inside of the hill, leaving a modern-looking domed structure sixty-five feet high at the center, with a diameter of 200 feet. A revolving stage in the center is surrounded by 2,654 vinyl-covered theater-type seats. The property also has a “satellite” building with offices and a cafeteria that will accommodate 500 persons. Transforming this modern facility into the California Valley Circuits Assembly Hall cost only a small fraction of the estimated price of erecting a comparable building in that area.
And renovating is usually quicker than building. This California assembly hall was ready two months after its purchase. Witnesses in Chicago write concerning their remodeled theater: “From the time of possession until we were ready for an assembly was only two and a half months.”
In other places, however, existing buildings were too cramped, without cafeteria or parking facilities, or they presented other problems. Thus in the Baltimore-Washington area a theater was sought, but none were centrally located and most of those available were in dangerous neighborhoods. Consequently Witnesses there built a new building of preconstructed steel at Crownsville, Maryland, with an auditorium seating 1,406. The lobby and cafeteria areas are designed so that curtains may be opened to enable an overflow crowd to see and hear what takes place from the platform.
Money, Material Freely Given
But how is it possible to finance such large undertakings? This is an amazing feature of the building of assembly halls of Jehovah’s witnesses. Consider a report concerning the 46,000-square-foot assembly hall in southern Ontario:
“Our building will be financed by contributions and interest-free loans from Jehovah’s witnesses themselves. Eighty percent of the funds are contributions, mostly of modest amounts from those of modest income. There were no fund drives, no games of chance, no powerful appeals. The need was merely explained. We thank God for this generous spirit.”
The Crownsville project provides another example of such generosity. The chairman of the building committee there relates:
“We wrote to the 110 congregations that would be involved in the matter and asked how much they would be willing to contribute. You can imagine how surprised we were when we received over three times the amount that we felt would indicate Jehovah’s approval of the undertaking. We were thus able to complete our building with no financing from any commercial institution.”
Willingness to build necessary equipment instead of buying it sometimes resulted in further substantial savings. A report of efforts to convert a dance hall at St. Luc, south of Montreal, into a place for Christian assemblies affords an example:
“To solve refrigeration problems a Witness who is an expert in this field, along with a group of unskilled helpers, constructed four large walk-in refrigeration and freezer units. The total cost was under $1,000. It is estimated that these units would have cost from fifteen to twenty times as much if built by an outside contractor.”
Materials, too, were often freely given. This is reported concerning putting up the new hall at London, Ohio:
“It happened that a large theater in downtown Columbus was then being dismantled. From this a brother made a donation of 1,000 comfortable seats. Then from a hospital that was being wrecked, we obtained two large boilers in fine condition free. On top of that someone gave us an entire stainless steel kitchen with much usable equipment.”
While the assembly hall at Monroe, New York, was going up, one man was so moved by what he saw that he returned the following week with $5,000 worth of materials as a donation. A large company then contributed over $12,000 in materials and later sent representatives to marvel at the volunteer construction. Paying bills on time resulted in additional savings of $50,000.
Now Monroe has a beautiful assembly hall as large as a football field, nestled in a woodland setting. Three stone bridges connect seven parking areas with the entrance of this building. Beyond the walnut-paneled area, which contains a fountain that doubles as a baptismal pool, there is an auditorium with 2,248 theater seats in alternating bays of blue and green. A dining area with 720 seats is partitioned off from the auditorium by a wall made of glass and enhanced by blue drapes.
Strong Backs, Willing Hearts—All Volunteers
What most amazes observers are the crowds of volunteers that show up to work on these building operations. While the Monroe hall was under construction 192 congregations furnished volunteer help. Whites, Negroes and Puerto Ricans, of all ages and walks of life, worked together harmoniously, referring to each other as “brother” and “sister.” Some weekends as many as 800 volunteers worked together. A non-Witness onlooker observed: “This has to be Jehovah’s organization. Otherwise it would be complete confusion.”
A report of the renovation taking place at St. Luc states:
“No outside help was required for the extensive renovations. Many working at secular jobs in the city would leave for the assembly hall immediately after work and often would remain until early morning. Thus we were able to have our first assembly less than seven weeks after gaining possession of the building.”
Witnesses in Winnipeg, who looked forward to having the first assembly in their renovated theater by January 1972, write:
“As December 1971 came along, the brothers could see that there was a lot of work yet to be done before dedication day. Therefore, many worked full time at the hall, some driving 50 to 130 miles to help. The work became fast and furious. And it was completed on time.”
A similar spirit was manifest while they were building the hall at Yuba City, California. It is estimated that this building would have cost about one million dollars if put up wholly by commercial contractors. But Jehovah’s witnesses were able to complete it for less than a third of that. How was this possible? A member of the building committee explains:
“We had an average of 250 volunteers show up for work each day. On weekends this labor force would swell to 500. Some of them worked around the clock on occasion to meet certain deadlines. And our sisters, besides preparing fine meals for the workers every day, pitched right in with the manual labor, wielding shovels, rakes, hammers and brooms.”
The spirit of freely giving of one’s time and energy can be contagious. When a brother asked a fellow worker one day what congregation he came from, the worker replied: “Oh, I’m not one of Jehovah’s witnesses; I’m a neighbor who lives right over there. I just came to work and enjoy it. You people seem to have such fun. I wanted in on it!”
When a reporter of the Independent Herald of Yuba City showed up for an interview, she exclaimed: “I am simply flabbergasted that you can put up this huge structure with volunteer help. At our church, we can’t even get enough help to finish the painting that we started over a year ago.”
The diligent efforts at Yuba City resulted in a fine assembly hall finished in a Spanish motif with capacity to seat 2,400 people. It includes a Kingdom Hall, conference room and a roomy cafeteria. The front of the building, which faces a tiered fountain, features three large arches accentuated with Spanish lanterns.
Coping with Difficulties
Building assembly halls is no simple matter. Sometimes difficulties arise that seem insurmountable. But determination, patience and hard work help clear them out of the way.
The building committee for the Yuba City hall tell of how they solved an unexpected problem: “On a Saturday the stucco machine broke down. So the brothers gathered some help and the next day stuccoed the whole thing by hand.”
One brother tells of a bit of ingenuity employed while building the hall at Monroe, New York: “When a gasket blew on some important machinery and no replacement was available, a mechanic removed his shoe, cut a gasket out of it and kept the machine running all day.”
When legal problems came up, Jehovah’s witnesses displayed determination to obey the law, paying “Caesar’s things to Caesar,” even if this meant extra work. (Mark 12:17) The one who supervised construction at Natick, Massachusetts, comments: “Problems came up in trying to meet the requirements of a very strict fire code. But instead of whining about high costs when additional fire protection was needed, we kept making design changes until we came up with something acceptable. Officials commended us for this and, as a result, became more liberal and cooperative.”
Assembly Halls Benefit Everyone
The assembly halls that Jehovah’s witnesses build are a great benefit to the communities in which they are located. Not so much for their pleasing décor. Nor because of the excitement and fervor with which the volunteers worked on them. The most important benefits come from what goes on in them when completed.
Would you like to know what God will do about present world conditions? what God’s “new order” is and how you can prepare yourself for life in it? how it is possible for Christians to dwell in unity amidst the pressures of today’s world? The current program at circuit assemblies of Jehovah’s witnesses answers these questions from the Word of God. These programs of Bible education are designed to help old and young alike.
Is there an assembly hall of Jehovah’s witnesses in your area? Why not visit it and benefit from the Bible-based material presented there? You will meet people who truly love Jehovah God and who try to honor him by living according to the principles of his inspired Word, the Holy Bible. They will be glad to help you to do the same, free of charge.
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Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall in southern Ontario, Canada
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Jehovah’s Witnesses Assembly Hall at Monroe, New York
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Construction of Yuba City, California, assembly hall by volunteer workers