Granted, the following info is from 1990, but the point is to show that even then, there seems to be a lot of resentment in the political and residential community toward the WBTS. I also found it interesting that this article gives statistics of 3.8 million witnesses at that time. How could they have possibly doubled membership since then with more and more factual truth coming to public knowledge? Also, does anyone have info on this Florida citrus grove owned by "a witness"? I think there is more here than meets the eye. I know there is another big farm in South Florida. Is this common knowledge?
excerpt from: http://www.maykuth.com/Archives/jehov90.htm
The world's 3.8 million Jehovah's Witnesses are perhaps best known for their aggressive proselytizing, their half-dozen predictions about the end of the world, their ban on blood transfusions and their refusal to declare allegiance to flags or governments.
But in Brooklyn Heights, where the Watchtower Society has maintained its headquarters since 1909, they're known for something else: real estate.
"They've become almost a juggernaut of acquisition in the last 10 years because of their tremendous wealth," said Bob Tramonte, the owner of Cousin Arthur's Book Shop in the historic neighborhood overlooking Lower Manhattan.
The Jehovah's Witnesses' land purchases are a continuing source of resentment in the pricey Brooklyn Heights area, where younger upscale and older middle-class residents live side by side. The sect owns about 35 properties, including four of the area's five hotels, and a growing number of brownstones in the quarter-mile by half-mile neighborhood. Sect officials say they need the properties to house the volunteers who work at the headquarters, which they call Brooklyn Bethel.
The uneasy yet genteel co-existence between the Witnesses and the neighborhood came to the fore two years ago when the Watchtower Society sought zoning changes to build a 35-story residence just outside the Brooklyn Heights Historic District. Preservationists and other residents objected that the building was inappropriate and would block the view of the Brooklyn Bridge.
The zoning proposal was defeated, but the fight left a bad aftertaste that continues to sour the relationship on a number of neighborhood issues. Taxes - the Witnesses don't pay any - is one; their minimal participation in the community, or its economy, is another.
"The issues have little to do with them as individuals," said Deirdre A. Carson, an officer in the Brooklyn Heights Association. "It has to do with what happens to any small community when it is overwhelmed by an institution."
The Watchtower Society pays its Brooklyn workers $80 a month to buy personal items, and provides for most of their needs. Their meals are served in the residence halls. Most of the food is grown on Watchtower Farms in Wallkill, N.Y., where 1,000 more Witnesses work, or at a Florida citrus grove owned by a Jehovah's Witness. The food is transported in the Watchtower truck fleet.
Watchtower Grove - (UNCONFIRMED)1001 Lehigh East Road, Lehigh Acres, FL 33972
(941) 369-3245
from WTS corp. list http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/8374/1.ashx
<edited to add>
this comes up under google maps:
We were not able to locate the address:
1001 Lehigh East Road, Lehigh Acres, FL 33972
Would you like to:
