Stanley Theater Jersey City

[fibrecat]

Hi,

we are going to visit New York. Question:

Is the Stanley Theater still owned by Jehovah's Witnesses? If so, can it still be visited?

Thx, Ruben

[mramirez720]

On 4/13/2025 at 9:27 AM, fibrecat said:

Hi,

we are going to visit New York. Question:

Is the Stanley Theater still owned by Jehovah's Witnesses? If so, can it still be visited?

Thx, Ruben

Yes, it is still owned by Jehovah's Witnesses and used for assemblies. It was restored in 1983 and  remodeled in 2013. I used to attend Jersey City State College and my bus would drive right past it on the way to the bus depot.  I remember sitting in the bus and looking out my window and seeing Witnesses on scaffolds restoring the front "Stanley" sign. I was not a Witness then.  It's beautiful and worth the trip. As far as visiting arrangements,  you would have to contact local Kingdom Halls to inquire about that.

[Michał]

As far as I know (from other posts on this forum) you can’t go sightseeing it but you can attend a convention and then see it inside. We did that on a Sunday in 2023 - it was worth every second. 

[bvr]

I was there during 2023 convention and oh man, the Starbucks. It's almost like a must have object in your hand when entering, everyone has Starbucks. 😭🤣🤣🤣

[cme]

Stanley Theater is beautiful.  I used to go there for my conventions but, I hated the parking facilities.  They used to have a White Castle about a block or two right of the Stanley Theater.  Me and another brother would escape there for burgers.  Lol.  His wife did not want him eating those burgers and him and I would sneak out to lunch and get them.  I was not married then and he and his wife were very close friends of mine.  (miss them).

 

Again, not to get off topic Stanley Theater was my convention venue until I moved further north and now I'm in Warwick and, Newburg now is where I attend.  Built for Jehovah's Witnesses in mind.  Leg room, dinning area, room for everything. 

[fibrecat]

Thank you very much for your feedback.
Since I don't know if there is a convention during our stay in NJ, I guess we will have to skip it.

[Parale]

50 minutes ago, fibrecat said:

Since I don't know if there is a convention during our stay in NJ, I guess we will have to skip it.

 

🤷‍♂️

 

I believe the Stanley Theatre is at 2932 John F Kennedy Blvd Jersey City NJ 07306-3805

 

You can check the official JW.org website for events - assemblies or conventions - taking place at the Stanley Theatre:

 

https://apps.jw.org/ui/E/meeting-search.html#/assemblies/search/any/2932 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Jersey City, NJ, USA/40.73317,-74.062088/@40.035055,-74.725198,10z

 

https://apps.jw.org/ui/E/meeting-search.html#/conventions/search/any/2932 John F. Kennedy Blvd, Jersey City, NJ, USA/40.73317,-74.062088/@40.725357,-74.035548,13z

Edited May 1 by Parale

[jdcarlson]

As many Circuits there are in the New York area, there is a good possibility that there may be a circuit assembly that weekend. Check with the assembly schedule information on JW.org.

 

Stanley Theatre is certainly a pleasure to see. When I was at Brooklyn Bethel for temporary work in 1989, I was assigned an office next to the attorney who was "at the tip of the spear" in getting approval for the Society to acquire the property and remodel it. It was an education listening to this Brother talk about the opposition the Society received from a politician, and how they overcame it.

 

This Brother gave me a memorable comment. I asked him if he learned the truth before or after he became an attorney. He said "after." I then asked him what made him want to come to Bethel. He said "I imagined myself during the thousand year visiting the middle east. We were sitting around the campfire talking. Abraham was sitting next to me. He said 'Brother Bell, I understand you were alive during the last days, tell me, what was it like.' I could have said 'I was the first Black Attorney to be a partner in this "white shoe" law firm in Philadelphie.' Abraham said, 'Oh, that's nice' as he turned to talk to the person on his other side. Or, I could have said 'I worked at Bethel, Jehovah's headquarters on earth.' Abram said 'Really! Tell me what was it like? What kind of things did you do?'"

 

That answer impressed me so much, I have told the story many times in the past 35+ years!

 

Another time, my wife and I received a special tour of the Stanley Theatre from Brother & Sister Swingle (my wife and her mother were very close friends with Sister Swingle before she married Brother Swingle). He showed us all manner of different parts of the theatre. Once an attendant approached me about using my camera to take pictures, but when he realized it was a GB member showing me what pictures to take, he left me alone with my camera, tripod, and flash gun.

 

There are pictures in an earlier post in this thread. They are indeed what it looks like. If you have a chance, do not miss seeing it. Having talked with Brother Bell (the attorney who told me the srory) and looked at pictures he had of what it was like before the Brothers and Sisters fixed it up, I can say that they did a LOT of work to make it look good. The prior owners had NOT taken very good care of it. There were many layers of dirt, old paint, and just plain crud, that had to be removed to get down to the original finish.

 

The attorney had worked so hard on the legal matters to get the Stanley Theatre and the approval for renovation, that he wanted to do part of the physical work of renovation. He said the only thing they would let him do was replace upholstry on one of the chairs that was in the balcony. He did not remember which chair, so every time he attended a function there he would sit in a different seat in the balcony hoping that one of those times he would be sitting in the seat he re-upholstered.

 

Thanks,

 

Jim

Edited May 1 by jdcarlson

[fibrecat]

Thank you for sharing your experiences 😊