by POs Son 18 Replies latest jw friends
I was looking at reviews on www.TripAdvisor.com and saw that the Harvest Inn near Patterson is highly rated (Though clearly a lower end mo-tel). One writer even commented at how nice it is to wake up to Kingdom Melodies in the morning there.
Comments lead me to believe that the place is JW owned and primarily caters to visitors of the Farms and bus tours of same.
That's what I was told when I lived out there and later when we stayed there during a WTS bus trip. But I thought it was in Pinebush.
OMG, they sell bookbags at their gift shop!
I say it probably is due to the fact that they sell "book and magazine" covers.
Stay overnight at the "Harvest Inn", a Motel owned and operated by Brothers.
POs Son,
I don't know if Harvest Inn is JW owned, except for the suggestive book bags and Bible covers sold in their gift shop, that was noted above by Jamie, and advertized on their web site.
There is a Hotel at the Watchtower Patterson site that the Society owns, and pays property taxes. It was part of the compromise to get a construction permit for the JW university ... that is, to have some portion of the property be liable for property tax. I forget the name of that hotel at the moment ... but then I really no longer care. But the point is, the Society will do what it takes to do their thing, and principles of making a profit matter not if it means building what they like.
I forget the name of that hotel at the moment
"The Patterson Inn"
Open only to "guests" invited by Bethelites, i.e., only JWs in good standing. As I recall, each Bethelite gets "X" number of invites per year that they can dole out to friends & family. I think the "X" may increase with seniority, but I'm not sure.
No rates are charged, however a "suggested donation" is strongly encouraged and envelopes are provided for such.
I stayed there once or twice - it's about the same level of comfort as a Hampton Inn or Courtyard by Marriott. Middle of the road, not bad.
I'll bet nothing is as exciting a visiting NYC... the center of the universe... under the constant scrutiny of some elder, all while dressing in Sunday clothes and living 24/7 with Kingom Melodies. Oh my.
PATTERSON, N.Y. - A huge religious complex is being built on a former dairy farm here as part of the world headquarters of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, better known as the Jehovah's Witnesses.
When completed, the 27-building campus, called the Patterson Farm, will be the major educational institution for the church's missionaries and staff, equipped to teach, house and feed 1,600 people at a time.
Sitting like a city on a hill overlooking Route 22, here in northeastern Putnam County, the complex is a beehive of construction activity, with all the work being done by volunteers who are members of the church.
"We feel it is part of our service to God," and John Roth, Jr., a contractor from Albany, Ga., interrupting his carpentry work on frames for one building.
'Working to Serve God'
Another volunteer, Matt Higgs, a former golf course landscaper, came from Kansas City, Mo., to lay carpets. "I am working to serve God," he said.
They were among 400 men and women working on the project recently. All - engineers, architects, draftsmen, carpenters, concrete workers, electricians, plumbers and laborers - are church members who volunteer to work from weeks to years. They receive no pay, but get a monthly stipend for incidental expenses.
When they are finished, sometime in 1996, they will have built 6 apartment houses 2 to 5 stories high with 624 apartments, a 450-car garage, a 144-room hotel, a huge kitchen and dining room to serve 1,600 people at one sitting, an office building, a classroom building and several service buildings.
Church officials said the cost of construction would be about $50 million, including the cost of supporting the workers but not the value of their free labor. One church officials' estimate, based on the square footage of the buildings, valued the new complex when completed at about $130 million.
Local residents say they are pleased with the improvements of the Patterson property, but some expressed concern about the loss of tax revenue from the religious organization, which is exempt from property taxes.
Seen as Beautiful Hardship
"No one who goes by doesn't comment on what a beautiful facility it is," said Lawrence Lawlor, supervisor of the Town of Patterson. "They have greatly improved the property but a sizable amount of land has been taken off the tax rolls and the average taxpayer will have to make it up. It creates a hardship for others."
Lon Schilling, general manager of farm operations for the church, said, "The growth of our educational activities in Brooklyn has required this expansion." With the doubling of church members around the world to four million in the last 25 years and a gain of 295,000 members to a total of 900,000 in the United States in the last 10 years, he said the church had outgrown its current headquarters, a complex of buildings in Brooklyn Heights.
The church also has a subsidiary farm in Wallkill,, N.Y., across the Hudson River, for its computers and printing plants for its two magazines, "The Watchtower" and "Awake!"
"We are a Bible-oriented oriented organization," Mr. Schilling said, noting that it trains missionaries to bring word of the Bible and of God's Kingdom all over the world. "We train all our members to be teachers of the Bible."
Both the Wallkill and the Patterson properties are active farms, growing crops to feed the workers there and in Brooklyn. Despite the surge in building in Patterson, almost half of the new property is used to provide beef for the church's workers.
Robert Bondi, the Putnam County Executive, said he was pleased that some of the land was being preserved for agriculture. "We like to see Patterson retain its rural character," he said.
But Patterson is changing, especially along Route 22, which is called "the golden mile" by some local residents because of commercial development. From Patterson south to Brewster, most of Route 22 is a major shopping strip, with numerous malls, gasoline stations, restaurants and stores.
The Jehovah's Witnesses bought one of the last remaining farms on Route 22, a tract of about 684 acres in 1984 for $2.1 million. The present value of the land, listed on the tax rolls in the town hall, is about $4.9 million.
William Carlin, the county Finance Commissioner, said the town, county and school districts are losing about $80,000 a year because the property, except for the hotel, has been declared tax-exempt.
By agreement with local officials, the church will pay taxes on the hotel, called the Patterson Inn, which will be open only to visiting church members.
We had stayed at the Patterson Inn while visiting the Society's facilities in New York. We filled out an accommodation request form that our congregation secretary had, the service committee signed it, and then we faxed it to Patterson. A few days later we had our confirmation emailed to us. This is a shot of the room we stayed in. Very nice.
