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Unity Village Tower Restoration Project
September 8, 2012
Photo Courtesy of A L Huber
A L Huber construction workers removing the loudspeakers from the top of the Unity Village Tower.
By Jessica Root
Intern Reporter for the Tribune
Intern@lstribune.net
The 165-foot Unity Village Tower, designed in 1927 and completed in 1929, has become a landmark in Lee’s Summit, and it has earned a place on the National Register of Historic Places.
The late Charles R. Fillmore originally conceived the idea of the tower as a structure that would provided a much-needed water reservoir while also reflecting the beauty of Italian Renaissance architecture.
“It is a symbol and a delight to the eye, of course, but it also makes available a continuous supply of 100,000 gallons of water without which the Farm could not be run and provides seven stories of rooms for office use,” Fillmore said.
Since the tower was completed in 1929, it has housed a welcome center, a post office, a credit union, the Unity Radio and Television Department and displays of Unity Farm products.
Last year, Unity Village pledged to restore the tower. A $3 million gift was donated to fund the first phase of exterior and structural repairs. The repairs are well underway, and a video series of the milestones is available via www.unityvillage.org.
The seven stories of office space in the tower are being restored to house a new Unity Holistic Healing Center. It will be a full-service facility to promote transformation through weight loss, grief counseling, spiritual direction, nutrition, prayer, meditation, creative self-expression and more. Each of the seven floors will be dedicated to a level of the chakra energy model to support the body, mind and spirit.
The seventh floor of the Holistic Healing Center was the former art studio of Fillmore. In this sacred space, guests will integrate body, mind and spirit to experience transcendence through creative self-expression.
On Friday, August 31, A.L. Huber construction workers removed 80-year-old loudspeaker horns from the top of the tower. Each of the tower’s four gigantic speaker horns was custom made out of wood and Masonite. They each had two loudspeaker motors mounted on a hand carved wooden “manifold.” Back in their day, the loudspeakers could be heard from miles away.
Unity Village has set a goal to raise $1.5 million to fund the Tower Restoration Project. Right now, the project has raised just over $1 million.
Donations to the Unity Village Tower Restoration Project are welcome and appreciated. Visit www.unityvillage.org to donate, or call 816-251-3505 to speak with Development Department at Unity Village about other ways to help with the project.
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