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A. W. Hodgkiss and H. W. Douma were business partners in an engineering and construction firm in Petoskey, Michigan.  They lived close to one another in homes designed by Alden B. Dow that overlook Little Traverse Bay. The Hodgkiss Residence was built in 1939 and sits on the crest of

Mrs. Clark T. Wells expressed her wishes for a home for her husband and family in a letter to Alden B. Dow on December 3, 1939. “We have decided to abandon the idea of a one-story house.  We feel that perhaps we can get more for our money and an extra

In 1941 Millard Saxton founded the Engineered Products Company working from his garage in Flint, Michigan, making storm door locking mechanisms.  Still in business today, EPCO is a brand name for architectural hardware products.  Well-acquainted with Alden B. Dow’s work, Mr. Saxton asked the architect to design a home for

In the seven years after Alden B. Dow opened his practice in Midland, he built 13 houses using unit blocks, which became a kind of trademark.  In the interest of flexibility and economy, he began exploring the use of frame and panel materials for textural contrast.  This new expression of

In 1936 Miss Mary Dow asked her nephew, Alden B. Dow, to design a retirement home for her in Saginaw, Michigan.  She had purchased a narrow, sloping lot next to the First Congregational Church and just down the street from Hoyt Library on S. Jefferson Avenue, where she had worked

The Miner S. Keeler house in East Grand Rapids was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1958.  Situated on a wooded, wedge-shaped lot on the shore of a lake, the house is oriented toward the water and the recreation it offers.  On the lakeshore a low, semi-circular wall provides seating

During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Alden B. Dow built six university and three civic buildings in Ann Arbor.  Perhaps his most unusual campus building was the University of Michigan Administration Building, which he designed in 1964.  The exterior is like a geometric Mondrian painting rendered in three dimensions.  The brick

Joseph Cavanagh worked in the agricultural chemicals sales department of the Dow Chemical Company for his entire career, at a time when the company would become one of the nation’s foremost producers of chemicals.  Alden B. Dow began the drawings for a house for Mr. Cavanagh and his family in

Thomas Defoe was the president of Defoe Shipbuilding, a major manufacturer of sea-going vessels of every description, from fishing skiffs and pleasure crafts to Navy torpedo chasers and palatial yachts. He commissioned Alden B. Dow to design a residence for his family in 1948. The low-lying one story home has