Kohler, Wisconsin, is known for its luxury hotels, upscale restaurants, gardens, art museums, and a stunning lakeside golf course. How interesting, then, that this village was built for immigrant workers at the Kohler Company, known for its innovative bath fixtures.
Walter J. Kohler believed his workers deserved “not only wages but roses as well.” He built them homes, a school, and a meeting hall. And with the designers of New York’s Central Park, he added beautiful gardens. One of the nation’s first planned communities remains one of its finest.
This is Howard Butt Jr. of Laity Lodge. Walter Kohler didn’t stop at safe working conditions and adequate wages. He knew that souls also need beauty. All three contribute to the high calling of our daily work.
“Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers,
even though they are strangers to you.”— 3 John 1:5
