Chapter 53—At the Nation’s Capital

The destruction in one year, by fire, of the main buildings of two of the leading Seventh-day Adventist institutions at Battle Creek, Mich., led to a study of the advantages that might accrue to the cause of God through a removal of the denominational headquarters and of the Review and Herald printing office to some other place.

This problem was spread before the delegates assembled at the 1903 General Conference. The brethren were urged to express freely their convictions as to the proper course to pursue. While they had the matter under advisement, Mrs. White, who was in attendance as one of the delegates, bore a decided testimony in favor of adopting a policy that would result in a widespread dissemination of the truths of the third angel’s message. She called attention to oft repeated counsels to establish centers of influence at strategic points, and to arrange for a wise distribution of the working forces, rather than to follow plans tending toward centralization. The stakes were to be strengthened, but only that the cords might be lengthened. From established centers the influence of present truth was to be extended into all the world. Mrs. White said, in part:

“Will those who have collected in Battle Creek hear the Voice speaking to them, and understand that they are to scatter out into different places, where they can spread abroad a knowledge of the truth, and where they can gain an experience different from the experience that they have been gaining?”

“In reply to the question that has been asked in regard to settling somewhere else, I answer, Yes. Let the General Conference offices and the publishing work be moved from Battle Creek. I know not where the place will be, whether on the Atlantic coast or elsewhere; but this I will say: ‘Never lay a stone or a brick in Battle Creek to rebuild the Review Office there. God has a better place for it.’” —The General Conference Bulletin, April 6, 1903.

From Battle Creek to the East

Before the close of the 1903 General Conference, the delegates voted:

“That the General Conference offices be removed from Battle Creek, Mich., to some place favorable for its work in the Atlantic States.” —The General Conference Bulletin, 1903.

Soon after the close of the Conference session, the General Conference Committee took the following action:

“Voted, That we favor locating the headquarters of the General Conference in the vicinity of New York City.” —The Review and Herald, May 12, 1903, p. 16.

And in the forty-third annual meeting of the Review and Herald Publishing Association, held April 21, 1903, recommendations were adopted looking toward the transfer of the work of the Association to some point in the Eastern States.

In the discussion of these recommendations, the object set forth during the General Conference session—placing the institution where it could best share the burden of giving the third angel’s message world-wide publicity—was reiterated. As one of the members of the Committee on Resolutions declared, in support of the recommendations offered:

“Why do we talk about moving this institution? Is it not to place ourselves where we can do the work entrusted to us to better advantage? Is it not to place ourselves where ... we can hasten on to the whole wide world with our message, and bring the glorious consummation of our work?” —Supplement to The Review and Herald, April 28, 1903, p. 7.

In Search of a Site

As a preliminary step toward the carrying out of the recommendations of the General Conference and of the stockholders of the Review and Herald, representative men were chosen to serve as a locating committee. Before proceeding with their work, they wrote to Mrs. White, requesting her to communicate to them any definite light she might have regarding the exact place where they should transfer the publishing interests. In her first response to their request, Mrs. White wrote:

“I have no special light, except what you have already received, in reference to New York and the other large cities that have not been worked. Decided efforts should be made in Washington, D. C. It is a sad thing that the record stands as it does, showing so little accomplished there. It will be best to consider what can be done for this city, and see what ways of working will be the best.”

“In the past, decided testimony has been borne in regard to the need of making decided efforts to bring the truth before the people of Washington....”

“May the Lord help us to move understandingly and prayerfully. I am sure that He is willing that we should know, and that right early, where we should locate our publishing house. I am satisfied that our only safe course is to be ready to move just when the cloud moves. Let us pray that He will direct us. He has signified, by His providence, that He would have us leave Battle Creek....”

“New York needs to be worked, but whether our publishing house should be established there, I cannot say. I should not regard the light I have received as definite enough to favor the movement.”

“Let us all lift our hearts to God in prayer, having faith that He will guide us. What more can we do? Let Him indicate the place where the publishing house should be established. We are to have no will of our own, but are to seek the Lord, and follow where He leads the way.” —The Review and Herald, August 11, 1903, p. 6.

The locating committee met in New York City, May 18, 1903, formed their plans, and began at once an investigation of properties in suburban places, and along the Sound and up the Hudson. Day after day they continued their search, until finally they began to despair of finding anything suitable for their needs. Two or three of their number had already returned to Battle Creek, when a second letter was received from Mrs. White, in which she gave further counsel, as follows:

“During the past night many things have been presented to me regarding our present dangers, and some things about our publishing work have been brought most distinctly to my mind.”

“As our brethren search for a location for the Review and Herald publishing house, they are earnestly to seek the Lord. They are to move with great caution, watchfulness, and prayer, and with a constant sense of their own weakness. We must not depend upon human judgment. We must seek for the wisdom that God gives....”

“In regard to establishing the institution in New York, I must say, ‘Be guarded.’ I am not in favor of its being near New York. I cannot give all my reasons, but I am sure that any place within thirty miles of that city would be too near. Study the surroundings of other places. I am sure that the advantages of Washington, D. C., should be closely investigated.”

“The workers connected with the publishing house must be closely guarded. Our young men and young women must not be placed where they will be in danger of being ensnared by Satan.”

“We should not establish this institution in a city, nor in the suburbs of a city. It should be established in a rural district, where it can be surrounded by land. In the arrangements made for its establishment, the climate must be considered. The institution should be placed where the atmosphere is most conducive to health. This point should be given an important place in our considerations, for wherever the office of publication is established, preparation must also be made to fit up a small sanitarium and to establish a small agricultural school. We must, therefore, find a place that has sufficient land for these purposes. We must not settle in a congested center.”

“My brethren, open up the work intelligently. Let every point be carefully and prayerfully considered. After much prayer and frequent consultation together, act in accordance with the best judgment of all. Let each worker sustain the other. Do not fail or become discouraged. Keep your perceptive faculties keen and clear by learning constantly of Christ, the Teacher who cannot err.” —The Review and Herald, August 11, 1903.

As the locating committee had found nothing in the vicinity of New York City that seemed to meet their requirements, and as they had been counseled in both letters to study the advantages of Washington, some members of the committee decided to go to that city, although with but little hope of finding the advantages desired. But they were happily surprised.

“We had not looked about the place long,” wrote one of the committeemen, “before there began to steal over us a conviction that, after all, Washington might be the place for our headquarters. The longer we continued to search, the deeper this conviction grew. We found conditions here far more in harmony with the counsel ... received, than we had found anywhere else.” —The Review and Herald, August 20, 1903.

It was not long after the brethren had come to this conviction, when they received a third letter from Mrs. White, in which she stated:

“We have been praying for light regarding the location of our work in the East, and light has come to us in a very decided way. Positive light has been given me that there will be offered to us for sale places upon which much money has been expended by men who had money to use freely. The owners of these places die, or their attention is called to some other object, and their property is offered for sale at a very low price.”

“In regard to Washington, I will say that twenty years ago memorials for God should have been established in that city, or rather, in its suburbs....”

“We are many years behind in giving the message of warning in the city that is the capital of our nation. Time and time again the Lord has presented Washington to me as a place that has been strangely neglected.... If there is one place above another where a sanitarium should be established, and where gospel work should be done, it is Washington....”

“I present this to you as a matter that is stirring me mightily. One thing is certain: we shall not be clear unless we at once do something in Washington to represent our work. I shall not be able to rest until I see the truth going forth as a lamp that burneth....”

“From the light given me, I know that, for the present, the headquarters of the Review and Herald should be near Washington. If there is on our books and papers the imprint of Washington, D. C., it will be seen that we are not afraid to let our light shine. Let the publishing house be established near Washington. Thus we shall show that we are trying to do what God has bidden us do to proclaim the last message of mercy to a perishing world.” —The Review and Herald, August 20, 1903.

Favorable Conditions at Takoma Park, D. C.

During the latter part of July, 1903, representative brethren from many parts of the field met in Washington, D. C., and proceeded at once to inspect the outlying portions of the District of Columbia for suitable properties. Morning by morning, before going out, they met to pray earnestly for divine guidance. And their prayers were signally answered. In Takoma Park, one of the most attractive and healthful of the towns near Washington, was found a tract of fifty acres, which seemed to meet all requirements. With an altitude of about three hundred feet, the tract was only seven miles from the capitol building, and within the limits of Takoma Park, thus having the advantages of postal services, gas, water, sewerage, and streets; and at the same time it was sufficiently isolated by dense forests to have the added advantages of a retired country estate. The property was covered with hundreds of native trees; and across one side of it, yet inside the boundary line, ran a picturesque stream fed by living springs.

In former years this property had been selected by a Boston physician for a sanitarium site, and upon it he had expended, including purchase price, about sixty thousand dollars. At heavy cost he had had cleared away the underbrush, logs, and rubbish; but he had been unable to finance his proposed enterprise, and after his death the property had fallen into the hands of a gentleman who held a $15,000 mortgage against it, and who was now offering it for $6,000.

The brethren felt clear in securing, without delay, this beautiful property, thereby making practicable the establishment of a sanitarium and a school near the proposed denominational headquarters. Though the fifty-acre tract in Takoma Park was situated a mile or so beyond the District line, yet the locating committee were able to purchase in the same village sufficient land lying within the District line to serve as a site for the factory building of the Review and Herald Publishing Association. Adjacent lots were secured for the General Conference administration building and for the local church edifice and church school.

Thus the way was opening, step by step, for the early removal of the Review and Herald printing plant and the General Conference offices from Battle Creek, Mich., to the nation’s capital. Only a few weeks elapsed before actual transfers were made, and the brethren established themselves in temporary rented quarters in the heart of the city, pending the erection of buildings at Takoma Park.

An Advance Step

“The removal to Washington of work hitherto carried on in Battle Creek,” wrote Mrs. White to those who had ventured to make the transfer, “is a step in the right direction. We are to continue to press into the regions beyond, where the people are in spiritual darkness.” —The Review and Herald, October 1, 1903.

Those who had advanced by faith were richly rewarded; and as they labored on, they could see more and still more clearly the wisdom of the step they had taken. “As the months go by,” wrote the editor of the Review, in a last-page note, bearing date of February 25, 1904, “we are able to see more clearly the meaning of the removal of the headquarters of our work to Washington, and to appreciate the opportunity offered here to establish such memorials for the truth as will exert a wide influence in behalf of this message. From the instruction given through the Spirit of prophecy, it is plain that each line of institutional work—publishing, educational, and medical—is to be established here in a representative way, and that a continuous evangelical effort is to be carried forward, so that at the capital of the nation and at the headquarters of our denominational work there may be a proper representation of this message as a missionary movement.”

Words of Encouragement

Early in 1904 Mrs. White decided to go to Washington herself, to spend some months there while foundations were being laid. In the course of her first sermon, on Sabbath day, April 30, 1904, she said:

“In the city of Washington there is much to be done. I am thankful to God for the privilege of seeing the land that has been purchased for our institutional work in this place. The securing of this land was in the Lord’s providence, and I praise God that our brethren had the faith to take this forward step. As I look over this city, I realize the magnitude of the work to be accomplished....”

“God now calls upon every believer in this center to act his individual part in helping to build up the work that must be done.” —The Review and Herald, May 26, 1904.

A few days later, Mrs. White wrote:

“The location that has been secured for our school and sanitarium is all that could be desired. The land resembles representations that have been shown me by the Lord. It is well adapted for the purpose for which it is to be used. There is on it ample room for a school and a sanitarium, without crowding either institution....”

“A good location for the printing office has been chosen within easy distance of the post office; and a site for a meetinghouse, also, has been found. It seems as if Takoma Park has been specially prepared for us, and that it has been waiting to be occupied by our institutions and their workers.”

“My hopes for this place are high. The country for miles and miles around Washington is to be worked from here. I am so thankful that our work is to be established in this place. Were Christ here upon the ground, He would say, ‘Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.’ John 4:35^L.” —Unpublished Manuscript, May 10, 1904.

“Arise, And Build”

In order to bring into existence a strong training center at the denominational headquarters, the brethren found it necessary to plan for the raising of a fund of $100,000. “God’s word to His workers in Washington is, ‘Arise, and build,’” wrote Mrs. White in one of her published appeals in behalf of this fund; “and His word to His people in all the conferences is, ‘Strengthen the hands of the builders.’ The work in Washington is to advance in straight lines, without delay or hindrance. Let it not be kept back for lack of means.” —The Review and Herald, July 14, 1904.

Nobly did the brethren and sisters throughout the world respond to the appeals sent forth for funds to establish a strong training center for workers at the nation’s capital,—so nobly, in fact, that when the delegates to the 1905 General Conference met in the beautiful grove that had been purchased at Takoma Park, and presented the gifts of the conferences for the closing up of the fund, they found that the amount called for had been exceeded, and that a large overflow was available for appropriation to missions.

“We feel very grateful to our heavenly Father,” declared Mrs. White during the 1905 Conference session where the fund was made up, “because He has moved by His Holy Spirit upon the minds of His people to give so liberally for the establishment of His work here in Washington.... He will place His approval on the efforts made to carry forward His work on the lines that He has marked out.” —The Review and Herald, June 1, 1905, p. 13.