by ShirleyW 17 Replies latest jw friends
Just got a Google Alert regarding the Bossert that was printed in the New York Times, hope somebody hear knows how to do the cut and paste for that.
Was it a well known fact that the Bossert is free for all JDubs visiting the NYC area or does the article have it wrong, I've always been aware of the Bossert but thought it was part of the residential buildings for the Bethelites.
I seem to remember that hotel type housing was available for visiting witnesses for a <wink,wink> donation... free but not free
I am floored at the fact that the WTBTS even own something like this - known as the "Waldorf Astoria" of Brooklyn. They've been amassing their worldly treasures just like the Catholic religion.
This Hotel was worth $100,000.000 in 2008. When they bought it, it needed restoration and they replaced the marble from the original quarry.
I think this is the article you mean.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/05/nyregion/free-lodging-in-elegance-but-just-for-a-select-group.html
The hotel lobby buzzes like any other in New York on a weekday morning, as families from around the world excitedly examine maps, while bellhops in khaki pants and polo shirts give directions and load luggage carts.
But this hotel lobby is different. And not just because of its five glittering chandeliers or the pair of three-story marblelike columns that trumpet an earlier age.
Nobody pays a bill at the front desk.
In a city of $400-a-night hotel rooms, the Bossert Hotel, on Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights, may be the best deal. Provided the guest is a Jehovah’s Witness.
Members in good standing of this religious group — those who have gone door to door proselytizing or have completed international missionary work — are eligible for up to three nights of accommodations free of charge, three meals included, at a former high-society hot spot.
“I can’t even believe it,” said Lori Jacobson, 47, from Simi Valley, Calif., looking up at the chandeliers on her first trip to New York with her sons, 12 and 14. Her husband, Marc, was getting information for a Big Apple Bus tour.
The Jacobsons submitted an application a month ago to their local congregation, which everyone who wants to be a guest must do. Without the Bossert, Ms. Jacobson said, “we would have never been able to do this with a family.”
Once considered the “Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn,” the 12-story classical-style hotel built in 1909 by Louis Bossert, a lumber magnate, has a history that dovetails with the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ own history in the area since that same year.
Today, many members come to tour the group’s world headquarters, near the Brooklyn Bridge. The hotel is one of the 34 properties that the group’s business division — the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York — owns and meticulously maintains in Dumbo and in Brooklyn Heights. The network of offices, parking lots and residences is worth an estimated $1 billion, according to local real estate brokers.
The Watchtower clock and sign adjacent to the Brooklyn Bridge may be more recognizable than the Bossert, but the hotel — easy to walk past on a busy shopping street — is a more subtle symbol of the modest, close-knit religious group and its future in a brownstone bastion.
After more than a century, the Jehovah’s Witnesses are likely to be headed out of Brooklyn, having bought a 253-acre plot for a new headquarters in Warwick, N.Y., in Orange County, about 50 miles north of New York City. They have already moved their printing operations to Wallkill, N.Y., farther north than Warwick, (where 10,000 Bibles are produced a day) and their educational center to Patterson, N.Y., about 65 miles north and west of the city. The Witnesses are proceeding through Warwick’s land-use process to build a seven-building complex, and approval could come as early as next spring.
In preparation, the Witnesses are selling eight properties in Brooklyn Heights, including carriage houses and small apartment buildings. A deal to turn the Bossert into dormitory housing and then condominiums — with R.A.L. Companies, which had bought another large Witness property and turned it into condominiums, One Brooklyn Bridge Park — fell through in 2008.
“We are not actively marketing the property right now,” said Richard Devine, the chief spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The group took over the building in a state of disrepair in 1983, renovated it in 1988, and in summer 2010, turned it into a 224-room hotel. Five residents who lived there before 1983 remain in their apartments, Mr. Devine said.
“We’re just extras,” said one of them, Monica Grier, 83, laughing.
Ms. Grier, originally from England, moved into the two-bedroom apartment on the 11th floor with her husband, George, in 1956. She is grateful for the infusion of polite activity, recalling the female screams she heard when part of the building was a seedy single-room occupancy hotel. Until last summer, the hallways were mostly silent except during the Witnesses’ special events.
“You came up at night and it was spooky,” Ms. Grier said.
When her husband died in 1988, she decided to stay. She first paid $300 in rent; now she pays $800. She said staff members treated her well and had not tried to proselytize to her.
Thank you for posting the article!
I lived in the Bossert in 1985/86. It was still under renovation and has people living there who where not JW's. As a result it was not full of rules and I loved it! My friends and I played frisbee in the hallways, something you could never do in the other residences. the rules at bethel are so extensive, That is why I loved the Bossert so much!
A Bethelite friend got us rooms at the Bossert on our last visit a few years ago. If there was a fee, it was very minimal (compared to NYC rates). It is an absolutely stunning place. I thought they had already sold the property.
DOC
The WTS obviously 'over-built' themselves in Brooklyn with all the money they once had. Now at least 8 buildings are empty waiting to sell. Certainly, the Bossert has expenses just to maintain. Getting extra donations to operate it some may be necessary until they can sell it. From the article that some donate some, doesn't sound like enough to keep up the real expense. Volunteers who clean and maintain such a place, doesn't seem that it would be very fulfilling to clean after the vistors (who at least have plenty enough money to travel) for very long.
Another thing, psychologically, when people visually see all the 'over building' there, some will see the WTS has plenty of money and may not donate as much.
Gayle- it seems to us now that they did a lot of "overbuilding" yes,
But please keep in mind the situation when the extra buildings were being purchased. Back then there were 3600 Bethelites living in Brooklyn and there were plans to build a very large new printing plant on the 85 Jay street property. Back then, in the 80's there was much growth taking place among the witnesses. The US branch was producing half of the worldwide book production and they were upgrading and trying to expand the US printing operation.
Also, if I remember correctly, most of those "outer buildings" were selling at low prices.
So at the time the society was buying all of that property it certainly looked like they would need it.
Too, the WEC was not built yet and 1000 Bethelites that would one day move there were still living and working at Brooklyn Bethel.
The situation and circumstances at Brooklyn Bethel was much different in the 80's than it is now.
I agree that since there is no price for staying at the Bossert most guests will donate less. But I think the society can cover the maintanance costs without a problem.
Its always interesting to me, to read articles about Bethel, and what is taking place there.
Was it a well known fact that the Bossert is free for all JDubs visiting the NYC area
No. There was no arrangement for visiting JWs to stay in the Bossert Hotel.
Each Bethelite would get guest room privileges each year. It was just two nights, per year, as I recall. They could give these away, at their discretion. There were not enough invites/rooms to accommodate even a fraction of the visitors.
To add insult to injury, those who used the guest rooms would have to submit their personal information and the Bethelite would have to vouch for them being in good standing. Then, there was a letter in the room, suggesting that a donation be left for staying in the room.
Thank you Shirley W and Listener!
