From page 400 of the WPA Guide to Florida:
Estero (sp., estuary) is the capital of KORESHAN
UNITY, a reglious co-operative community established here in 1894 by Cyrus R.
Teed. At the general store (L) members of the cult obtain food by
presenting requisitions from the colony's secretary. In the large yellow
frame building (R) is the printing plant; a weekly paper, a monthly magazine,
and a score of tracts and books on Koreshanity are published. That the
universe is within the earth, the flesh is immortal through reincarnation, and
perfection will be reached when the sexes blend into one everlasting human
entity are tenets of this faith.
When the community was founded, Teed fold his followers
that within a few years ten million true believers would come here; accordingly,
streets were cut through the pine woods, and business and residential sections
were plotted. Evidence of this early planning can still be seen in the
surrounding woods.
Because Teed had convinced his followers that he was
immortal, on his death his body was placed on a cypress plank and laid on the
banks of the Estero River. For several weeks his disciples awaited a
triumphal reincarnation. It finally became necessary to place the remains
in a bathtub. Soon a hurricane swept the bathtub away, and no trace of it
or the body was ever found. The plank, however, was found unmoved on the
sport where it had served as a bier, and this was enough to restore the faith of
the sect. Koreshans practice celibacy; men and women occupy separate
living quarters. Growth of the sect depends on obtaining new recruits, who
are required to turn over to the community all their worldly possessions, which
are not returned if they withdraw.
The Unity produces some of the finest citrus fruit and
truck vegetables in the State, and has an excellent nursery; bamboo 80 feet tall
is grown here. In the Koreshan Unity Art Hall are paintings by various
artits, including some by Douglass Teed, son of the founder of the colony.
Disillusionment after Teed's death immediately took a toll on the Unity.
Younger members began to leave and, dividing into factions, “a power struggle
ensued as to who would succeed Koresh as head of the Unity.” The supposed
persistent faith of about three-dozen members sustained the community, to an
extent, for the next 30 years. In 1940, 35 elderly members
remained. It was at this time that a Jewish woman named Hedwig Michel, having
just fled
Nazi Germany, arrived at the Unity and it experienced a momentary renewal, but,
with only four members left in
1960, Michel offered the 300-acre “utopia” to the State of Florida.
What remains of their plans is the Koreshan State Historic Site in Estero
Florida. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
There are many buildings that have been preserved. Among others, they are the
bakery, the Founders' House, large and small machine shops, planetary court
(where the seven women who governed the settlement lived), and the "new" general
store. Many of the buildings have artifacts from the original settlement.
When you enter the Site, you will stop to pay an entrance fee of $3.00 for a
single person or $4.00 per carload. They will give you a pamphlet and direct you
to the buildings where you can take a self-guided tour through the property. In
some of the buildings, such as the planetary court, there is a person to help
answer questions. In the Founders' House there is a 20 minute DVD about the
history of the settlement.
Hours of operation are 8am to sundown 365 days a year.