Entrance to Mount Carmel Center, 1997

Mount Carmel Center was the name of the Branch Davidian home outside of Waco, Texas led by Benjamin Roden and later David Koresh. Named after the Biblical Mountain in northern Israel, it was here that the infamous 1993 Waco Siege occurred in which four ATF agents and 80 Branch Davidians died.^[1] News reports about the siege called it the Branch Davidian compound.

[edit] Name

The name derives from a particular verse from the Bible, on which the Davidians base their beliefs:

Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings. Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

– Micah 7:14

[edit] History

In 1935, Davidian founder Victor Houteff established his headquarters near Lake Waco, west of the town. After Houteff's death, his widow Florence began selling off parcels of the land, as the neighboring city of Waco began to expand around the edges of the Mount Carmel Community. In 1957, she sold off the last of the property, and bought a 941-acre (3.81 km²) property in the countryside northeast of Waco, christened New Mt. Carmel. Today, Waco's Mt. Carmel Drive runs through the Old Mt. Carmel area, and nearby Charboneau and Hermanson Drives are named after key Davidian families.

In 1962, Florence Houteff announced her intention to disband the Davidian organization, with the assets to be sold off and the proceeds disbursed among her Executive Council. This arrangement was opposed by many members, some of whom enlisted the aid of the Branch Davidians. Most of the New Mt. Carmel property ended up in the hands of the EE Ranch, but the Branch Davidians retained a core 77 acres (310,000 m²) around the administrative building.

Buildings at Mount Carmel Center, 1995, since burned down

The fragmentation of Mount Carmel caused a schism in the already permanently splintered Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Movement. Some post-Carmel Davidian Groups have also named their headquarters Mount Carmel Center and seek to carry on its past traditions. Davidians based in Salem, South Carolina use the name, as well as a group that broke away from them, in Mountaindale, New York. Some of the Mountaindale Davidians came to believe that Victor Houteff never wanted to abandon Old Mt. Carmel, and in the early 1990s moved back to Waco. They established themselves in a building on Mt. Carmel Drive, constructed by Houteff's Davidians. They are across the street from the Vanguard School, a prep school whose buildings were also originally built by the Davidians. Other Davidian Groups believe that Mount Carmel represented a doctrinal era in the Davidian Seventh Day Adventist Movement, an era which is now past.

In 1998, three buildings at the former Branch Davidian compound were destroyed in a suspicious fire. They were the home of Amo Bishop Roden, wife of former Davidian leader George Roden, and two museums she used to record the groups history.^[2] It is important to note that there have been various sects and generations of communities that have resided on and/or used the property east of Waco on Double EE Ranch Road. Not all groups or individuals within these groups share the same religious theology or approach to spirituality. ^[3] Of particular interest is how efforts to memorialize the events of 1993 on the property have been altered over the years since 1993. ^[4]

Remnants of bus and bathtub in ruins at center in 1997

Trailer serves as "office" for center in 1997

Entrance in 1995

[edit] References

Coordinates: 31°35′45″N 96°59′17″W / 31.59583°N 96.98806°W / 31.59583; -96.98806