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    Unity Village
    Unity Village
    Unity Village
    Ebook185 pages54 minutes

    Unity Village

    By Tom Taylor

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    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJan 12, 2009
    ISBN9781439636770
    Unity Village
    Author

    Tom Taylor

    Tom has been shooting professionally since 1990. He has photographed everything from national musical acts to middle school proms. Now, he rarely accepts paying gigs, instead concentrating on his work in the field of nudes and erotica.

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      Book preview

      Unity Village - Tom Taylor

      Archives.

      INTRODUCTION

      My name is Rosemary Fillmore Rhea. Unity cofounders Charles and Myrtle Fillmore were my grandparents. My father, Rickert Fillmore, designed most of Unity Village. I really have been associated with Unity all of my life. I was the only child ever born on Unity Farm, as it was called then. My grandfather wanted to name me Unity Farm Fillmore in honor of the occasion, but fortunately, from my point of view, my father and brother dissuaded him.

      I have shared what it was like for me to grow up in such unique surroundings in my memoir, That’s Just How My Spirit Travels (published by Unity House):

      I had a childhood as nearly perfect as anyone could possibly have. Unity Farm was an idyllic place for a child. It provided all those things that children enjoy. In my growing-up years, it was not only a spiritual community, it was also a working farm—there were orchards, vineyards, and crops in cultivation. There were chickens, cows, horses, ponies, and dogs. Since it allowed no hunting, Unity Farm also teemed with wildlife: deer, foxes, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and many kinds of birds.

      Recreational facilities for the people who worked for Unity included a swimming pool, golf course, tennis courts, clubhouse for parties, playground, picnic grounds, vacation cottages, and a beautiful amphitheater for summer theater and concerts. There were lakes and ponds for boating and fishing, and there were woods to roam. Each season brought with it special activities and celebrations.

      In the spring, the fragrance of thousands of apple blossoms heralded the coming of May. The advent of spring was celebrated with the crowning of a May queen, maypole dances, and the mysterious arrival of May baskets filled with spring flowers, found outside your doors in the early morn.

      Summer was perhaps the best time of all. Lazy days in the swimming pool, tennis and golf for those who wanted to exercise that much. Saturday night dances under the stars. Sunday night band concerts. Even a soda fountain for any kind of ice cream concoction you might desire.

      In the fall there were long walks through the woods, marshmallow and wiener roasts at the picnic grounds, drives through the orchards to see trees laden with ripe red and golden apples ready to be picked and sold at the fruit stand that was on the highway running by the farm. People came by the carloads from all the surrounding communities to take home baskets of apples, fresh pure cider, and plump sweet grapes.

      Winter was a time for ice-skating, sledding, warm crackling fires, and of course Christmas— the grandest celebration of all. There were Christmas programs, candle-lighting services, and the magic of Christmas morning when my brother and I awakened at the crack of dawn to discover what Santa had left us. My childhood was filled with so much love and joy that it is difficult for me to describe for you the beauty and wonder of that place called Unity Farm.

      In the movie A Field of Dreams there is a line that says, If you build it they will come. When the Fillmores envisioned a city of God they came to build it—farmers, carpenters, stonemasons, wood-carvers gathered together to build a spiritual city, a New Jerusalem. If you walk around Unity Village today, you feel the spirit of these people as you view lovely rock walls bordering green slopes of grass, gardens surrounded by lilac bushes, flowing fountains encircled by gardens of roses, beautiful hand-carved doors opening into tranquil reception halls, graceful archways filled with decorative wrought iron flower receptacles. Everywhere you see beauty. The artistry expressed in the intricate details of the work of these craftsmen is most unusual and must have been inspired by the same spiritual energy that drew these amazing people to Unity.

      I am very happy to introduce this Arcadia book. Tom Taylor has spent countless hours researching facts and stories about Unity’s history and searching through hundreds of files and boxes of postcards and photographs in the Unity Archives to uncover the treasures contained in this book. These images capture so much of the beauty and wonder of Unity Village that I remember. I am pleased that they are now available for everyone to share in the history of this special place that I call home.

      —Rosemary Fillmore Rhea, summer 2008

      One

      THE EARLY YEARS

      This portrait shows Unity Village’s founding Fillmore family from about 1917, two years before the purchase of the first farm property that became Unity Village. From left to right are (first row) Myrtle and Charles Fillmore, cofounders, and Charles’s mother, Mary Georgiana Fillmore; (second row) the Fillmores’ sons, Lowell, Rickert, and Royal.

      The Fillmores bought the first 58 acres of rolling timber, meadows, and two creeks from Warren W. Thurston of Lee’s Summit on June 27, 1919. According to the Unity News from July 4, 1919, The idea of the farm is to furnish a clean, quiet place for Unity workers to spend vacations and weekends. The first installations at the farm were four army tents, a walled dining tent, a wood cook stove, and three grills.

      Charles Fillmore’s mother, Georgiana, spent her summer vacation in a new tent cottage. The Unity News from July 25, 1919, says

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