 | The text below this notice was generated by a computer, it still needs to be checked for errors and corrected. If you would like to help, view the original document by clicking the PDF scans along the right side of the page. Click the edit button at the top of this page (notepad and pencil icon) or press Alt+Shift+E to begin making changes. When you are done press "Save changes" at the bottom of the page. |
BAHA'l PROPERTIES
AFTER the adoption of the Declaration of Trust in 1927, the National Spiritual Assembly formed separate bodies of Trustees to meet the necessary legal requirements for ownership of real estate that might be acquired through purchase or by gift in different parts of the United States. With the completion of the Bahá’í House of Worship, and its accessory buildings and the generous gifts of valuable properties at Green Acre, Malden, West Englewood, Colorado Springs and Geyserville, the National Spiritual Assembly through its Trustees has become the administrative body of a group of estates that extend from Maine to California with 1 present valuation approaching two million dollars. Besides the Temple Trusteeship, five more trustee properties are now maintained and administered by the trustees for the benefit and use of the American Bahá’í com ' munity.
GREEN Aciua
After attending the Congress of Religions at the Colombian Exposition at Chicago in 1893, Miss Sarah J. Farmer was inspired to found a center for the investigation of the reality of religions. The following year she selected a beautiful site on the banks of the Piscataqua River near her home in the village of Eliot, Maine, for this purpose of "bringing together all who were looking earnestly toward the New Day which seemed to be breaking over the entire world. The motive was to find the Truth, the Reality underlying all religious forms, and to make points of contact in order to promote the unity necessary for the ushering in of the coming Day of God."
ln 1900 Miss Farmer made a pilgrimage to ‘Aklui. and from that time on the Fellowship, which was established to run this property which she named Green Acre. gradually became imbued with the Bahá’í ideals and the desire to have Green Acre eventually become the reflection of the plain of ‘Akká and the center of Bahá’í activity.
ll]
Among the many messages Miss Farmer received from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the following became her guiding inspiration: “You must lay such a foundation _so that the influence of the confederation of religions and sects may permeate to all parts of the world from Green Acre, and Green Acre for all future ages and cycles may become the standardbearer of the oneness of the world of humanity.”
At the annual meeting of the Fellowship on August 10, 1925, it was voted to place Green Acre under the control of the National Spiritual Assembly and in 1929 an Indenture of Trust was set up and title to the properties transferred to the Trustees.
Green Acre consists of 131.3 acres of land in five different parcels including the Inn, Fellowship house, the Pines, Sunset Hill, and the River tract. There are also a number of cottages. an Arts and Crafts Studio and a camp site. The gift of Mrs. Helen Ellis Cole of the lovely fellowship house with its furnishings in the early days was a forerunner of many gifts of money and buildings later on which have increased the facilities of this property dedicated to the Investigation of Reality. Among those to whom the trustees are greatly indebted are the Randall family, Fred and Lorol Schopflochcr for their gifts of the Ball Cottage, Nine Gables and the Ole Bull cottage. Mrs. Florence Morton for her gift of the needed Bahá’í Hall and the many loyal friends who have contributed through the years of the struggle and growth of this lovely center blessed by the Master’s presence.
WILHELM Tausr
On June 29, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá invited a number of friends to the home of the Wilhelm family at West Englewood, New Jersey, to partake with Him in a feast of fellowship. After serving the guests with His own hands, the Master said in part: "Such gatherings as this have no likeness or equal in the world of mankind Where people are
112 T H 1-: B A H A ' i drawn together by physical motives or in furtherance of material interests, for this meeting is a prototype of that inner and complete spiritual association in the eternal world of being . . . Hundreds of thousands of meetings shall be held to commemorate such an assembly as this, and the very words I utter to you on this occasion shall be reiterated by them in the ages to come."
Since that day, an annual souvenir has been held on this blessed spot in remembrance of this meeting. Some years after that memorable event, Mr. Roy C. Wilhelm erected a large log cabin and named it Evergreen Cabin. It became a center of Bahá’í activities and for a number of years was the headquarters of the National Spiritual Assembly. Directly below the cabin lies the pine grove where the Master gave his never~to-be-forgotten Feast. This site according to the Guardian's instructions will have the only Memorial commemorating ‘Abdu’l-Bahfs visit to North America.
On March 9, 1935, Mr. Wilhelm executed an Indenture of Trust, transferring Evergreen Cabin, its furnishings and the two lots comprising the pine grove to the Trustees for the benefit of the National Spiritual Assembly. Later he deeded over a two story house adjoining the Cabin and in 1942 he transferred title to the Wilhelm home together with five additional lots located at Alicia Avenue and Evergreen Place in memory of his parents J. Otis and Lourie A. Wilhehn. In addition, Mr. Wilhelm has carried the maintenance costs of taxes. insurance, etc. as an additional gift to the Trustees.
The Trustees are also indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Walter Goodfellow for the gift of two adjoining lots in 1937 and the trustees have recently received word from the heirs of the James estate that two lots held by them will be turned over to the Trustees, thus completing the ownership of this valuable property dedicated to the memory of the Master.
Boscn Tausr
In the year 1927_ Mr. and Mrs. John D. Bosch made their ranch home and facilities at Geyserville, California, available for the first Bahá’í summer school on the West
CENTENARY
Coast. As long ago as 1910, Mr. Bosch wrote to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá of his desire to dedicate this property,—just 75 miles north of San Francisco on the famous Redwood Highway, comprising 37 acres, with fruit orchards, a redwood grove, a lovely home with many accessory buildings and a water system,—to the universal service of the Bahá’í Faith, that it might become a center of spiritual enlightenment to seekers after Truth.
In the ninth year after the establishment of the school, Mr. and Mrs. Bosch conveyed title to this property to the Trustees, reserving a life occupancy and use and this Indenture was recorded on November'2S, 1935 in the Book of Records of Sonoma County. California. Mr. Bosch surveyed part of this land on the hill-side for building sites for summer cottages and two have already been erected by Bahá’í families.
In 1936 an attractive Hall made of rustic redwood and completely equipped with chairs and kitchen was erected and presented to the Trustees by Mr. and Mrs. Thomas H. Collins and the following year these two devoted fricnds of the Faith gave a two-story dormitory built of corresponding rustic material and completely equipped with beds. furniture, curtains, and bedding to take care of the ever-increasing number of students and guests.
The generosity of these four friends has been greatly appreciated by the Trustees, who have made constant contributions toward the maintenance and insurance costs of this valuable property.
WILSON Tausr
In 1900 Miss Maria P. Wilson visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at ‘Akká in company with Miss Sarah Farmer, and then returned again a few years later. On the occasion of her second pilgrimage, the Master said to her: "When I come to America I will visit you." In August, 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá chose the home of Miss Wilson in Malden, Massachusetts, to spend a week or two after his visit to Green Acre. Upon his return to Haifa, he wrote to Miss Wilson saying "Thy house became my abode and my home. Many days were spent in that home with the utmost joy and fragrance. The mention of ‘Ya Baha’ul Abhá' was raised from it and we
spread the religion of God. In reality that home is my home, therefore the mention of God must always be raised from it."
When Miss Wilson passed to the heavenly world in 1930 she left a will bequeathing this home to Shoghi Effendi, who took title to the property and asked the National Assembly to look after it for him. In the Fall of 1935, the Guardian executed a deed of trust conveying this house to the Trustees and the indenture was recorded on September 27, 1935 in the Middlesex Registry of Deeds. Since that time this house has been improved and held in trust in compliance with the Master's statement "to take care of that house because the light of the love of God was ignited in it."
MAT:-n=.vs TRUST
The American Bahá’í community became the recipient of another munificent gift of property, when Mrs. Loulie Albee Mathews executed an lndenture of Trust on September 4, 1939, conveying title to Temerity Ranch in Pine Valley, a few miles from Colorado Springs to the Trustees reserving right of use and occupancy during her life. This property consists of 19.2 acres. a beautiful house, Library, and accessory buildings, 1 water plant, fine roads and fences and attractive grounds.
BA}-IA’! PROPERTIES
113
The plan for the dedication and use of this property was approved by the Guardian in a letter on December 14, 1938 to Mrs. Mathews in which he stated: "The Guardian feels also deeply appreciative of your generous offering to the N.S.A. of your ranch in Colorado Springs. Your idea to turn this property into a training school for InterAmerica teaching work, he feels, is splendid."
On October 30, 1939, the Indenture to this property was recorded in the Registry of Deeds, County of El Paso, Colorado and since that time all maintenance costs have been borne by Mr. and Mrs. Mathews, who have conducted a summer session each year to promote the teaching work in Central and South America.
As the Centenary of the Bahá’í Faith draws near, the friends may justly rejoice at the manifest evidences of the growth and consolidation of its many activities in the western world which are facilitated by these properties, when they contrast this present condition with the eventful first Bahá’í Convention in 1909 when two lots in the Village of Wilmette, costing $2000.00 and a cash fund of $3,655.44 were turned over to the first corporate body, the Bahá’í Temple Unity, for the purchase of more land for the Temple site,—for these properties now serve the entire American Bahá’í community.
