In late 1957, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society announced their international assembly in New York City the following year. Jehovah’s Witnesses had held conventions at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx in 1950 and 1953, each time packing the stadium. In 1953, overflow crowds had to occupy tents in surrounding parking lots. So, with evident excitement, the organizers revealed that the 1958 event would take place simultaneously at the “excellent facilities of both Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds, situated just four city blocks apart. … From any part of the world, all are welcome to attend; and we already know that thousands are coming from the ends of the earth.” Duplicate programs were arranged so that speakers in the morning session in one arena would appear in the afternoon session of the other and vice versa. When repetition was not possible, a direct wire carried audio from Yankee Stadium to the Polo Grounds.”1 The Watchtower, December 17, 1957. Over 250,000 people attended the twin locations.
Today, 1001 Jerome Avenue, an art deco building designed by Sugarman & Berger in 1937, faces gate 2 of the new Yankee Stadium (opened in 2009). When Ismar David and Hortense Mendel lived there, the House that Ruth Built was a short walk down the street. The monumental influx of people for the Divine Will International Assembly from July 27–August 3, 1958 would have been impossible to overlook, even for a neighborhood used to hoards of baseball fans. The festivities proved irresistible for (probably) Hortense and her camera.
