![]() ![]() Just what Witnesses and city officials needed to get CVB projects completed. And he had been a cost engineer, meaning he knew how to estimate the price tag for major projects. Lloyd Harding, a Witnesses contract representative, said Long Beach had “a better learning environment.”Īt one point, Witnesses looked at the now-gone Spruce Goose dome, but it was scheduled for a movie production that summer so they chose the arena - and had 11 weekends there in the summer of 1995.īy this time, Tryon had grown up and was a general contractor with great knowledge of how to build things and get projects done. “Long Beach was inside, air-conditioned and beautiful,” he said. That’s when Witnesses started looking for another place to meet. He explained how the Witnesses’ last convention outside of Long Beach was at Dodger Stadium in 1994.ĭodger Stadium worked all right, to a point, he said, but it also was outside, hot and big. Jim Zimmerman, a Jehovah’s Witnesses representative, said that meeting in Long Beach was the “highlight of the year” for Witnesses because of the city’s people and their friendliness and the CVB staff. “We love to come here to stay in the hotels, to eat at restaurants and to just walk around.” “Long Beach is a beautiful city,” said Keith Brown, a representative of the U.S. Richardson said approximately 120,000 Witnesses now come to Long Beach each summer for multiple weekend gatherings. Charleville, who said to Witnesses in 1940 when he heard that they wanted to rent the Municipal Auditorium: “Who? Jehovah’s Witnesses want to come here for a convention? You can’t rent this auditorium we will give it to you for free because you are the kind of people we want in this town.” On a huge timeline the size of a wall, which ardorned the Convention Center Thursday and listed major periods in the Witnesses’ Long Beach gatherings, there was a quote from former City Manager J. The good relationship between Long Beach and Jehovah’s Witnesses goes back to 1940. Some of those projects included remodeling the meeting rooms, recarpeting the entire facility, repaving the Arena and Convention Center parking areas, adding a new ventilation system, and other improvements in the Arena when the Long Beach hockey team, the Ice Dogs, played there from 1996 to 2000. He explained how the city waived rental fees for the Jehovah Witnesses, who, in return, did major projects to improve the Convention & Entertainment Center. Steve Goodling, president and CEO of the visitors bureau, said the relationship between the city and Jehovah’s Witnesses had worked so well was because of the common respect and appreciation they have for each other. This is our house of worship every weekend we are here. Robert Hendriks, a national spokesperson for Jehovah Witnesses, said there was “a love of Witnesses for the Long Beach Convention Center. “Put your hands together for that,” Allen said. The 25 years is one of the Long Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau’s longest contract periods with any client. Witnesses have met in Long Beach every year since, except for three years when they didn’t meet because of the coronavirus pandemic. There were 8.6 million members worldwide in 2022, according to the Witnesses website.Īlthough Jehovah’s Witnesses had gatherings in Long Beach dating back to the 1940s, it wasn’t until 1995 when a special partnership between the city and Witnesses started. Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Christian denomination with its origin in Pittsburgh in the 1870s. “I recognized the seriousness of baptism and I felt special after I was baptized,” Tryon said in an interview last week after attending the 25th anniversary of the relationship between the city of Long Beach and Jehovah’s Witnesses at a reception at the Terrace Theater. It was also close to the city’s Municipal Auditorium, which has since been torn down. The persistent Tryon got his wish and was baptized at The Plunge, then a popular swimming pool that was part of The Pike amusement park in downtown Long Beach. “They didn’t think I was old enough,” Tryon said, “but I drove them crazy because I wanted to be baptized so bad.” Mike Tryon was only 5 years old in 1951 when he finally got his parents to approve his baptism with Jehovah’s Witnesses in Long Beach. ![]()
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