Tuesday 3 December 2019

Bible House family - 1906



The date 1906 is written on the back of one collector’s copy of this photograph. However, another copy came to me with the date August 1907 attached to it, but with no documentary evidence. Yet another copy surfaced which just said pre-1909, which obviously has to be true because that is when they moved to Brooklyn. Also Estella Whitehouse married Isaac Hoskins (both in the picture) in January 1908. If any readers have positive documentary proof for the date it would nice to know.

Most will recognise a few of the people. Bohnet, Van Amburgh and Hirsh leap off the page for me. CTR is not there (a fanciful thought, maybe he was behind the camera) and neither is his sister Margaret, although Margaret’s daughter, Alice Land, is there.

I had a little difficulty working out rows one and two until I carefully checked the feet in the photograph. The rows are counted from the front to the back.

Addenda: I have it on very good authority from someone who has checked all the directories year by year for Allegheny that this group of people were there in 1907. A future article will cover the personnel in Bible House year by year. When that article is eventually published it will replace this one, which will be taken down at that point.

1 comment:

  1. These are a little earlier years, but showing where this " Bible House family " lived:

    *** w55 2/1 p. 77 ***
    They decided to build, and in 1889 they moved into their own large, handsome four-story brick structure costing $34,000, located at 58 and 60 (later renumbered as 610-614) Arch Street, Allegheny (North Side, Pittsburgh), containing quarters for a small “Bible House family,” printing works, shipping rooms, an assembly place for about 200, an office, an editorial department and a store front. They named it “Bible House.”* Years later, the Society’s board of directors accepted the donation of title to this plant, the board valuing the building’s net equity and all of its equipment at $164,033.65.*
    * W [The Watchtower] Jan. 1890, p. 1; Sept. 1, 1900, pp. 260, 272 (picture).
    * Originally this property was legally held by the Tower Publishing Company, a private concern personally managed by C. T. Russell. In April, 1898, the ownership of this plant and real estate was transferred to the legal corporation, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. W Apr. 15, 1898, p. 114; W Dec. 15, 1898, p. 369.

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