Unity Village

by Tom Taylor

Overview

In 1919, Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, founders of the spiritual organization Unity, bought 58 acres of land about 20 miles from downtown Kansas City. With the ideas, faith, and passion of dozens of coworkers, the area grew from a weekend retreat of tents and ponds into Unity Farm, with a national reputation for its orchards and apple products. In 1953, the farm was incorporated as a Missouri municipality--Unity Village. Those original few acres have now grown to more than 1,400 acres. Today Unity Village is the location of a worldwide ministry of publishing, prayer, and education. It is best known as the home of Daily Word magazine, with millions of readers in more than 180 countries, and Silent Unity, which receives more than two million requests for prayer support annually. Unity Village is on the National Register of Historic Places, and its English Cotswold and Italian architecture draw visitors from around the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439636770
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	01/12/2009
Series:	Images of America Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Tom Taylor is manager of community relations and the welcome center at Unity. He has selected historic images from an extensive collection of photographs and rare real-photo postcards from the Unity Archives to depict the growth and development of this unique Mediterranean-styled village set in the midst of Missouri cornfields.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 6

Introduction 7

1 The Early Years 9

2 An Apple a Day 31

3 The Landmark Tower 41

4 The Architecture of Rickert Fillmore 51

5 One Hundred Years of Healthy Food 67

6 The Word from Unity 79

7 The Light That Shines for You 89

8 A School of Christianity 97

9 Fun at Work 105

10 A Community of Unity 115

Editorial Reviews

Title: Pay what you want for your dinner

Author: Charles Ferruzza

Publisher: The Kansas City Pitch

Date: 4/9/09



Restaurateurs are trying all kinds of gimmicks to get penny-pinching patrons back into the restaurants.



Last month, several news sources reported on restaurants that gave customers the right to "pay whatever they wanted for their dinner." It's an interesting concept (especially since most customers have always paid whatever they wanted when it comes to tipping servers) and a restaurant in Arlington, Texas is trying it out. So is this bistro in Sydney, Australia.



But the idea was done before in Kansas City, over a century ago. In his new book about the history of Lee Summit's Unity Village, Unity Village (Arcadia Publishing, $21.99), Tom Taylor tells the tale of the first vegetarian restaurant in Kansas City, Unity Inn, first opened, in 1906, in a frame house at 913 Tracy Avenue.



"Patrons paid according to what they felt the meal was worth," wrote Taylor. "Workers handed out cards that read, 'All the expenses of this house are met by the freewill offering of its guests. Freely you have received, freely give.' "



Taylor told me that this "freewill" concept didn't last too long. Too many customers weren't "freely giving" for those meals of nut-loaf, home-baked breads and fresh vegetables. The staff at the Unity Inn started charging set prices for meals. Customers didn't seem to mind. The Unity Inn was successful enough to move into a beautiful brand-new building at the corner of Ninth and Tracy (it's still there, now used as an antique shop) in 1924 and stayed there until 1951.

From the Publisher