Chapter 9
A Way of Being in the World
In 1887 Lever Brothers bought land in Cheshire, England, to build an expansion to its soap works. But CEO William Lever was interested in something more than a factory; he wanted to build a community. Over the next twenty years, he oversaw the construction of a custom-designed village featuring more than seven hundred homes spread across 120 acres, along with an art gallery, a hospital, schools, a concert hall, a swimming pool, and a church. Lever’s vision—dubbed Port Sunlight, after his top brand—was to create a model town for his workers, one where they could expand their minds through education, religion, and the arts.
The idea, he wrote, was to “to socialise and Christianise business relations and get ...
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