For what it's worth, if I ever get the money, I'm buying Beth Sarim
1942 Consolation on Beth Sarim PDF
by cabasilas 40 Replies latest watchtower bible
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cabasilas
Does the Society still own the land that held the cemetery on Staten Island? Or, did the church buy the land?
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Mickey mouse
Thanks. Very interesting!
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cabasilas
You're welcome. BTW, for those that want some pics of Beth Sarim, there's a few in this Messenger from 1931:
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drew sagan
Using the power of the internet I have dug up some info about the Staten Island property.
Fist of all, when you are checking out the property at the google link I posted above, make sure to use Satellite view. You can see all kinds of scattered graves surronding the site, as well as a very odd rectangular layout in the back (probably graves?)
In order to find out if the Watchtower actually still has ownership to the property I used some tools provided by the City of New York. Each property in NYC is coded through a serious of numbers that represent borough-block-lot.
Staten Island is borough 5 and the block number for this area is 6110. The lot for the Methodist Church is 1. (giving us a property number for the church of 5-6110-1)
You can do a search for a 'digital tax map' at this website. Here you can see a visual represetnation of the churces property, as well as other properties surronding it.
THE CONCLUSION? It appears that the Watchtower no longer holds the rights to the property in Staten Island! I could have missed something, but as it stands we are at a dead end.
BUT!
Barbera Anderson described the property as being a 100x100 lot (or something like that). For those of you that look at the tax map, make sure to take a look at lot #14. It is a 100x50 lot that looks as though it has been carved out of the churches property. Could it be that this is the Watchtowers lot? Did they sell the property to people who eventually built a home on it? Or was the original wathctower property simply sold to the chruch (and is essentially mixed in with everything that is there).
Without finding the historical records we do not know.
Anybody know where to look? I've never done this before, but it's a lot of fun
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cabasilas
So, you mean the Judge might be a Methodist now? :) Sorry, had to say that.
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drew sagan
So, you mean the Judge might be a Methodist now? :) Sorry, had to say that.
Lol
The audio by Barbera mentions that it was a Methodist Church, so I think it's pretty safe to say we have the correct place. The lots are numbered rather sparadically with many numbers in between missing (1,14,100, ect). Safe to say there may have been many more lots at one time. Only historical property maps can reveal what was going on with the space. I found a few places that have maps on file but you have to go there and dig through them . This seems like it will be a long term project.
I know that people say the grave is unmarked, but I've never heard that from somebody that actually went to the Church grounds and did some searching.
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cabasilas
Seriously, though, if there was a cemetery there originally, wouldn't it still have to be there? Wouldn't that be regulated by some sort of law?
Or, did they move the bodies somewhere else?
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drew sagan
Seriously, though, if there was a cemetery there originally, wouldn't it still have to be there? Wouldn't that be regulated by some sort of law?
I'm going to guess that the bodies are still there, although my theory about property #14 adds a bit of drama
My guess is that they simply turned the property over to the church. But anything is possible. We will only find out when the records are found.
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cabasilas
I know that people say the grave is unmarked, but I've never heard that from somebody that actually went to the Church grounds and did some searching.
Anyone near Staten Island want to do some investigative work? Take some pictures for us? I'll bet the Methodists have had some people ask them before.
I'd think that some records must be on file somewhere as to who is buried where.