Let me offer my perspective, my original post is here
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5285876965834752/retrospect-rbcs-vs-ldcs-hype-about-lot-new-construction-subsequent-abrupt-halt-construction?page=2
This issue really burns me, it touches my heart in ways i wish it didnt but i have to admit it does. I have a lot of emotional distance from the org, i havent been to a meeting for almost two years now and dont miss it at all. I still talk to a few people here and there but overall im gone and happy.
The building though.... damn im attached still. Not the church part of it... not the worship or cult but the actual physical structure. I built it. Not the branch. Not the goddamn ldc. Me. Morpheus.
In the mid 1960’s the land was donate by a local brother. He owned a farm and he realized it was time to sell. It was expansive property and he sold to a developer who had to work with the city into which the new community would be incorporated to plan responsibly.
Brother Smith (not his real name) had a park area set up where people could fish during the summer and sold access for a few bucks to locals. When he sold the land for development he required that the lake be maintained as public property... and Not just a few swing sets or a small field. Its 85 acres with a huge lake still available for fishing and picnic areas. The park bears the name of brother smith to this day and is a huge community focal point throughout the summer with its amphitheater, ice rink, boat rentals and of course fishing.
Along with setting aside Smith pond park, brother smith wanted his local congregation (a very small group at that time) to have a place to meet in perpetuity. Although only 15 min outside of washington dc, it was a sleepy area, a lot of farms obviously, and few witnesses but brother Smith felt more and more people would move into the area as land was developed and of course A KH would be needed. In the late 1970’s brother smith (who had held onto the land that held his house) decided the time had come for he and his wife to move permanently. He donated the land his own family home stood on to the local congregation for a kingdom hall.
Plans were made and in the early 80’s the hall was built. It was a model at the time and the single congregation that used it was of course always appreciate to brother smith. The land was never mortgaged and the hall was 100% paid for the day it was built, entirely by local jw’s.
Fast forward to the late 1990’s. The area had grown by leaps and bounds and now 3 congregations are meeting in the hall that sits on old brother smiths land. A CO comes through, a random company man who never knew brother smith and who had sense of the area or history. He says the hall is about 20 years old and “outdated”. Truth be told it hadnt aged well and had some issues. The local friends simply wanted to remodel but the CO pushed for a teardown. In point of fact (and i speak with authority on this) he bullied the local weak willed spineless men into a teardown, lead by the RBC. The rbc, self important asshats that they were, were all to happy to tear down the hall built so long ago by local jw’s, and replace it with something THEY built.
Plans took forever as the local municipality required a very high grade of environmental controls (the hall is adjacent to smith pond and park) and good for them! Eventually though all concerns were addressed and the new hall was approved by all parties involved and in late 2010 (ish) the hall was torn down and a new one built...
The new hall was in some ways nicer but in others not so much. The old hall had a beautiful theater style auditorium, with fixed folding seats, hard wired mikes on the back of the seats and a sloping floor that allowed an unobstructed view by. The seats were arranged in a half circle and was classy and beautiful.
The new hall was typical cookie cutter box. The seats were on a level floor and the rbc intended to use the god awful movable chairs. That was a mile to far and the local brothers, lead by an apostate that you may know, refused and bought the old style fixed chairs (a small victory but a victory non the less).
What galls the hell out of me, no matter how hard i try to forget it, is what happened at the end of the build. The rbc’s work complete the hall was dedicated yadd yadda.... and then the shoe dropped. In order to get the branch to approve the money for the hall the “local building committee” (a group of local elders representing the 3 local congregations) had made a “loan application” to the branch. That local committee had signed over the land that brother smith donated to the US branch.
In one fell swoop the kh went from being a building totally debt free on land owned by the local congregation to million dollar building owned wholly and totally by the US branch of JW’s, to do with as they pleased. As a final kick in the ass, the branch “forgave” the debit that the congregations incurred to build this new piece of crap hall... of course in “forgiving” the debit they simply asked that congregation continue to make payments on the new piece of crap hall, in the same amount, forever.
A hall the branch owns.
Its infuriating to me, even now today as i type this after all the time thats passed, to think that the land that brother smith donated and the hall that once stood there is gone, owned lock stock and barrel by a goddam cult, while the park and pond next door still bears his name is owned, just as he intended, by the community and is enjoyed by all.
