The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization[4] headquartered in Warwick, New York.

It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer, and disseminate doctrines for the group and is often referred to by members of the denomination simply as "the Society".

It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and the International Bible Students Association.

[7] About 5,800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labor, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York.

[14] The society's primary journal was Zion's Watch Tower and Herald of Christ's Presence, first published in 1879 by Russell,[15] founder of the Bible Student movement.

[23] In 1909, Russell instructed legal counsel Joseph Franklin Rutherford to determine whether the Watch Tower Society's headquarters could be moved to Brooklyn, New York.

Rutherford subsequently organized the formation of the People's Pulpit Association, which was incorporated on February 23, 1909, and wrote the charter which gave the president—to be elected for life at the first meeting—"absolute power and control" of its activities in New York.

His wife Maria had been granted a "limited divorce" on March 4, 1908, but in 1909 returned to court in Pittsburgh to request an increase in alimony,[31] which her former husband refused.

[32] Authors Barbara Grizzuti Harrison and Edmond C. Gruss have claimed Russell's move to Brooklyn was motivated by his desire to transfer from the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania courts.

They claim he transferred all his assets to the Watch Tower Society so he could declare himself bankrupt and avoid being jailed for failure to pay alimony.

[35] By-laws passed by both the Pittsburgh convention and the board of directors stated that the president would be the executive officer and general manager of the society, giving him full charge of its affairs worldwide.

[37] Hirsh attempted to rescind the new by-laws and reclaim the powers of management from the president,[38] but Rutherford later claimed he had by then detected a conspiracy among the directors to seize control of the society.

[40] Between August and November, the Watch Tower Society and the four ousted directors published a series of pamphlets, with each side accusing the other of ambitious and reckless behavior.

Rutherford feared his opponents would gain control of the society in his absence, but on January 2, 1919, he learned he had been re-elected president at the Pittsburgh convention the day before.

[45] Although formed as a "business convenience" with the purpose of publishing and distributing Bible-based literature and managing the funds necessary for that task, the corporation from the 1920s began its transformation into the "religious society" Russell had insisted it was not, introducing centralized control and regulation of Bible Student congregations worldwide.

At a series of talks given in Pittsburgh on September 30, 1944, coinciding with the society's annual meeting, it was announced that changes would be made to the 1884 charter to bring it into "closer harmony with theocratic principles".

The Watch Tower Society describes its headquarters and branch office staff as volunteers rather than employees,[8] and identifies them as members of the Worldwide Order of Special Full-Time Servants of Jehovah's Witnesses.

The "Bethel family" in the Brooklyn headquarters includes hairdressers, dentists, doctors, housekeepers, and carpenters, as well as shops for repairing personal appliances, watches, shoes, and clothing without charge for labor.

[57] The Watch Tower Society does not file any publicly accessible financial figures, but reported in 2011 that it had spent more than $173 million that year "in caring for special pioneers, missionaries and traveling overseers in their field service assignments".

A four-story brownstone parsonage formerly owned by Congregationalist clergyman and social reformer Henry Ward Beecher at 124 Columbia Heights was converted to a residence for a headquarters staff of 30, as well as an office for Russell.

[62] The Watch Tower announced: "The new home we shall call 'Bethel,' and the new office and auditorium, 'The Brooklyn Tabernacle'; these names will supplant the term 'Bible House.

In 1926 it moved to larger premises, a new eight-story building at 117 Adams Street, Brooklyn, at which time the society's headquarters was rebuilt and enlarged.

[73] A building at 360 Furman Street was bought in March 1983 and renovated, providing almost 9 hectares of floor space[71] for shipping, carpentry, and construction.

[71] It was ideally located next to the WTBTS residences at 107 and 124 Columbia Heights and it could easily tie in with the main complex on the other side of the street by means of an under-street tunnel.

[79] In February 2009, the Watch Tower Society paid $11.5 million for 100 hectares of land in Ramapo, New York, for an administration and residential complex.

[81] The site was reported to be planned as a base for about 850 Watch Tower workers, creating a compound combining residential and publishing facilities currently located in Brooklyn.

A Witness spokesman said the land was currently zoned for residential uses, but an application would be made to rezone it, adding that "Construction is several years in the future.

[122] By 1979 the society had 39 printing branches throughout the world, with facilities transferred to farming properties in many countries, including Brazil, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, and Australia.

[124] Critics, including Raymond Franz, Edmond C. Gruss, and James Penton, have accused the Watch Tower Society of being authoritarian, controlling, and coercive in its dealings with Witnesses.

Franz, a former Governing Body member, has claimed the society's emphasis on the term "theocratic organization" to describe the authority structure of Jehovah's Witnesses, which places God at the apex of its organization, is designed to exercise control over every aspect of the lives of Jehovah's Witnesses[184] and condition them to think it is wrong for them to question anything the society publishes as truth.