Location: Freeland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Tri-City Airport Commission, with representatives from Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw, was formed in the early 1960’s to plan and oversee the construction of a new airport to replace the existing 1955...
Location: Sanford, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Meridian School District was established in 1958 with the consolidation of six smaller school districts in the region. Since adequate classroom space was not yet available, Meridian students in grades 11 and...
Location: Harrison, MichiganArchitect: Alden B. DowAlden B. Dow began the preliminary drawings for Mid-Michigan Community College in October of 1966. Initial specifications were dated September 1967 and then revised in February 1968 when the addition of a...
Location: Ann Arbor, MichiganArchitect: Alden B. DowPreliminary drawings for a building to house the offices of the Michigan District Headquarters of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod were begun in May of 1964. Specifications and invitations to bid were issued...
Location: Marquette, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Throughout his long career, Alden B. Dow designed close to 80 educational structures, from pre- and elementary schools to entire college campuses. In Michigan and elsewhere, the 1960’s brought enrollment...
Location: Saginaw, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In July 1963, Alden B. Dow began the first drawings for a new building for the Young Women’s Christian Association in Saginaw on South Jefferson Avenue. The Association had been housed in various temporary...
Location: St. Louis, Missouri Architect: Alden B. Dow When the St. Louis branch office of the Dow Chemical Company needed to move to larger quarters, it leased the entire 18th floor of the Continental Building, the newest high-rise in the city’s central business...
Location: Spring Valley, New York Architect: Alden B. Dow Temple Beth El in Spring Valley, New York, is one of two Jewish temples designed by Alden B. Dow and his only built structure in that state. He designed the Bay City Jewish Center in 1955, and a brief letter...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow During the 1950’s and 1960’s Alden B. Dow designed four major structures for the Dow Chemical Company that were collectively known as the Abbott Road Center. The 160-acre site was bounded by Abbott Road, Patrick...
From the beginning of his career in the 1930’s and into the 1960’s, Alden B. Dow designed over 30 projects for the Dow Chemical Company. One of his earliest was to connect and remodel what were the two main buildings that housed the growing firm – the office...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow By the time Alden B. Dow began the drawings for the Hillsdale College Nursery, he had already outlined the campus master plan in 1959 and had designed several other buildings for the school, including the...
Location: Roscommon, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Earl W. Bennett, the father of Vada Bennett Dow, was known as the “financial wizard” of the Dow Chemical Company. He joined the then three-year old company in 1900 as one of 33 employees and a short time later...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Dunbar Community Center was founded in 1923 in Ann Arbor by the Rev. R.M. Gilbert of the Second Baptist Church. Named for the noted Black poet Paul Laurence Dunbar, it was a vibrant gathering place for the...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Conductron Corporation was founded in 1960 by University of Michigan professor of electrical engineering, Dr. Keeve “Kip” Siegel. It was a research and development firm that developed radar for aerial...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow University Microfilms was founded in 1938 in Ann Arbor by Eugene Power. During World War II, Power microfilmed thousands of rare books and periodicals in British libraries to preserve their contents from...
Location: Detroit, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Wayne State University’s University Center Building, later known as the Student Center, was designed to bring together three separate non-academic activities into one building: food services, student life, and...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Many undated design development sketches exist for the New First National Bank and Trust, located at the intersection of Eastman and Saginaw Roads in Midland, Michigan. There are no specifications, contracts,...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow An enterprising group of businessmen first began discussing plans to establish the Midland National Bank, a locally owned banking institution, in 1945. Following federal approval of their application the following...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow Associates converted an existing building in downtown Midland into offices for Church and Guisewite Advertising in 1966. Working drawings and specifications were completed in January, and Branson...
Location: San Francisco, California Alden B. Dow enjoyed exploring the design possibilities of plastics and other new products the Dow Chemical Company was on the forefront of developing in the 1930s. His 1937 drawing entitled “1940 House” illustrated the potential...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow On January 29, 1961, the Nease Memorial Church of the Nazarene was organized with 40 charter members. The congregation chose a flat, barren 4.5 acre site on the western edge of Midland, Michigan for its first...
Location: Grosse Ile, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Most of the usual documentation that tells the story of the design of an Alden B. Dow home does not exist for the Jesse Kreger residence on Grosse Ile, a picturesque island south of Detroit. There are...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The first discussion about the design of a structure to cover farmers selling their produce in the open parking lot at the foot of Ashman Street took place in March 1973. Those meeting notes describe a simple...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow As early as 1965, the long-range plan for the Center called for a building with a museum, library, auditorium, classroom, workshop and related facilities. In 1970, three years after the completion of the Nature...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Nature Observatory (Nature Study Building) The inspiration to establish a place for the study of the natural environment in the Midland area first came to the members of the Midland Nature Club in 1963. Their...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow began the design of a large standalone building for Smith’s Flowers in September 1954. The shop had been in its original location in the nearby Ashman Circle business district in Midland, Michigan for...
Location: Bay City, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Just a year after completing the design of Messiah Lutheran Church in Bay City, Alden B. Dow began developing the first of a number of schemes for the Bay City Jewish Center in 1955. The first drawings showed a...
Location: Saginaw, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow began the drawings for a house for his lifelong friend, Peters “Pat” Oppermann, in 1957. Mr. Oppermann was a business leader in Saginaw and owner of Radio Center, an early radio shop that grew with...
Alden B. Dow loved to make movies. Whether it was showing the construction of the Midland Center for the Arts, capturing the changing seasons around his Home and Studio, documenting his time as a Taliesin Fellow, or recording his children growing up and having...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In the later years of his career, Alden B. Dow turned his attention to designing a number of structures to enhance the enjoyment of and upgrade the facilities of Dow Gardens. Throughout the 1970s he developed a...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Midland Fire Station No. 1 is one of the 39 civic structures designed by Alden B. Dow during his career. He completed the working drawings on April 23, 1955, and in June the construction contract was awarded to...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow’s initial presentation drawing for a proposed Midland Hospital was dated August 1938, a full two years before the Midland Hospital Association was established. The Association organized the fund...
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow As World War II drew to a close, Alden B. Dow actively participated in the design of badly-needed, low-cost housing. Seeking an efficient and economical way to build homes, the Ingersoll Steel and Disc Division...
Location: Cape Fear, North Carolina Architect: Alden B. Dow In the early 1930s, the Dow Chemical Company partnered with the Ethyl Gasoline Company to build a plant to extract bromine from seawater off the coast of North Carolina. Although bromine had a number of...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow A recent Facebook post about the University of Michigan Administration Building and its demolition prompted an interesting observation about how “un-Dow-like” the design of the building appeared. While the...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow During the 1950s and 1960s, 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...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow While the initial site plan for Midland High School was being sketched by Alden B. Dow in December of 1953, one corner of the same 60-acre plot of land was soon to become the location of Nelson Street Elementary...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow began the drawings for Northeast Elementary School in December of 1951. It had a simple floorplan of five classrooms, an office, and a work room lined up on either side of a single corridor. It...
Location: Kalamazoo, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow After protecting the Sun/Rain Room for nearly six decades, the Kalamazoo Nature Center’s iconic dome and roof are being replaced. Designed by Alden B. Dow in 1961 and opened to the public in September 1964, the...
Location: Canton, Ohio Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow’s only residential structure to be built in Ohio is the Ralph E. Oberlin, Jr. residence in Canton. Mr. Oberlin was president of Igelstroem-Oberlin, Inc., an outdoor signage, banner, and poster printing...
Location: Grand Rapids, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Dr. Mark Dick and his wife, Dr. Louise Schnute, were pediatricians practicing in Grand Rapids when they wrote to Alden B. Dow in March 1955 to ask if he would design a home for them. Dr. Schnute had first...
Location: Indian River, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Nestled among tall pines and set into a sloping lot overlooking Burt Lake in northern Michigan, Indian River Catholic Church was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1948. Very little documentation exists aside from...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The drawings for Woodcrest Elementary School, one of Alden B. Dow’s last educational projects, were completed in January of 1969. Construction bids were due in early May of that year, and the Board of Education...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Just eight years after the opening of Midland High School, Alden B. Dow began the design of his second high school for his growing hometown. Named in honor of his father, the site planning and design development...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Pastor D.E. Howe first contacted Alden B. Dow about the possibility of designing a new building for the growing congregation of the Midland Seventh-Day Adventist Church in early 1961. Following a period of fund...
Location: Elkhart, Indiana Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow designed two homes in Elkhart, Indiana, nearly opposite each other on the St. Joseph River. The first was for the William Koerting family in 1937. Two years later he developed preliminary floorplans...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden and Vada Dow were long-time supporters of the work of the Salvation Army in Midland. Mrs. Dow served on its advisory board during the 1950’s and 60’s, and Mr. Dow donated bushels of apples from the Dow...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The initial site plan for Midland High School was sketched by Alden B. Dow in December of 1953. Preliminary floorplans were developed in April 1954, with working drawings finalized in November of that year. ...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow began the initial drawings for the East Ashman Church of God in April of 1953. A reduced version of the presentation drawing was published a month later in the Midland Daily News with the caption...
Location: Muskegon, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow George W. Cannon was the founder of the Cannon-Muskegon Corporation, a company that developed and produced alloy metals for the global jet engine industry and is still in business today. He was an enthusiastic...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Dr. John Grebe was a pioneer scientist and “idea man” who worked for the Dow Chemical Company for 41 years. Upon graduating from Case School of Applied Science in Cleveland with a degree in Physics in 1924, he...
While traveling in Japan in April of 1960, Alden and Vada Dow purchased a pair of folding screens from Yamoto Brothers and Company in Kyoto, along with a set of old brass carpenter’s tools. The folding screens were described on the original invoice as Old Gold...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Work on the plans for the Robert Reinke residence began in early 1941. By April, Alden B. Dow was able to present the client with a rendering of the elevation and the floor plan. Construction began that fall. ...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Also known as the House for $3,000, the John Best residence was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1938 to remedy the need for housing to accommodate the expanding workforce of the Dow Chemical Company. It was one of...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Mid-Century Modern Midland is proud to partner with Christ Covenant Church to launch a public fund-raising campaign to restore Midland’s first Mid-Century Modern Church. By 1940, Alden B. Dow had already...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The C. B. Branch residence began life as the Dow Biological Laboratory and Greenhouse. In early 1961, Alden B. Dow began drawing up plans to transform the buildings into a home for Charles B. Branch. Mr. Branch...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow During the 1950s and 1960s, 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...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In 1957 Leland Doan, chairman of the Dow Chemical Company, asked Alden B. Dow to design a house for his family, one that would be eminently suited as well for the entertaining expected of one in his position. The...
The Tour Day partnership between The Alden B. Dow Home and Studio and Docomomo US is an easy one to understand. But first, Docomomo — what an odd word, right? It stands for the DOcumentation and COnservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of...
Location: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow designed more than 30 religious structures during his career as an architect. After houses, he most enjoyed the challenge of elevating the way people thought about and experienced their...
Location: East Lansing, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In search of an architect, the building committee of the newly-formed congregation of Eastminster Presbyterian Church in East Lansing, Michigan, sent out a request for proposals in April of 1958. Alden B....
Location: Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Millard and Mary Pryor Residence was designed by Alden B. Dow in early 1937 for a new subdivision in Grosse Pointe Park, east of Detroit. The Pryor’s requirements for a family that included twin...
Location: Flint, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow 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...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Parker Frisselle joined the Dow Chemical Company as a salesman in 1943 and advanced to become manager of consumer product development. His wife Dorothy was the daughter of Ruth Dow Doan and Leland I. Doan,...
Location: Adrian, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In February of 1958 a devastating fire destroyed the stone Gothic building that served as Christ Episcopal Church in Adrian, Michigan. Seven months later, Alden B. Dow was selected as architect and began the...
Location: Adrian, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow began developing plans for a home for the Robert W. Freligh family in Adrian, Michigan, in early 1959. By June, the architect had prepared a preliminary sketch and enclosed it with a letter in which he...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In the spring of 1936, Alden B. Dow prepared drawings of a residence for George Greene, a plant engineer with the Dow Chemical Company. Construction of the 1600 square foot house began in June 1936 and was...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Oscar Diehl was a salesman for the Dow Chemical Company. He and his wife purchased a small corner lot on East Park Drive in Midland and commissioned Alden B. Dow to design a house for them. Renderings and...
Location: Dearborn, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The selection of an architect for a new building for the First Presbyterian Church of Dearborn took more than a year of research by its Building Committee. Thirty-five architectural firms submitted answers to...
Formes et couleurs: vingt planches en couleurs contenant soixante-sept motifs decoratifs is an album designed by Auguste H. Thomas and published in Paris by Librairie Centrale des Beaux Arts in 1921. It is composed of 67 decorative motifs on 20 plates measuring...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Leonard Bergstein was a Midland pharmacist who founded Community Drug Store on East Main Street in 1930. Alden B. Dow began the drawings for a home for the Bergsteins in 1951. The contract was dated September 21,...
Along with the Georgia O’Keeffe and Vanity Fair portfolios previously highlighted, Alden and Vada Dow enjoyed the vibrant original prints created by the French artist and designer E. A. Seguy. He lived in Paris during the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements of the...
In the 1930s, before expensive coffee table art books were as widely available as they are today, those who wanted to enjoy the beauty of art in their homes collected art prints. Alden and Vada Dow owned several beautiful portfolios of art prints from the 1920s and...
The value of face-to-face instruction and the importance of re-opening schools is very much in the news and on everyone’s minds these days. Just what is the ideal environment for learning? Alden B. Dow, the architect of many school and college buildings, explored...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Bennett House living room that features the surrounding “gallery” space looking onto hole number three of the golf course. Midland features over 430 mid-twentieth century modern buildings that make the city an...
A previous post highlighting one of the rare finds of the Archives featured the work, The Decoration of Palace Buildings of Peking, a portfolio of 80 illustrated plates printed in 1906 in Japan. Its companion publication is the equally rare two-volume...
One of the most prolific sculptors of the 20th century, Marshall M. Fredericks is known in America and abroad for his monumental figurative sculpture, public memorials and fountains, portraits, and animal figures. He was born of Scandinavian descent in Illinois and...
Yvonne Bannelier Lagier met Alden and Vada Dow when they were among the charter members of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship in the spring of 1933. Ms. Lagier was an academically-trained artist in her native France and a multi-faceted painter, sculptor,...
Alden B. Dow made his debut as a young architect on the international stage when he was awarded the Grand Prize in residential architecture at the 1937 Paris Exposition for his designs of the John Whitman residence and his own studio. Architecture was just one of...
It’s difficult to know for certain when Alden B. Dow and Buckminster Fuller first connected, but it must have been well before the letter Fuller sent to Mr. Dow in December 1951. In it he thanked Mr. Dow for his generous pledge of $1000 toward the production of his...
Mr. Dow created and nurtured a fun and playful work environment in his architectural studio throughout its history. We have a couple of slides of the staff awarding a diploma to Harry L Cummings in 1954, that bestows upon him the title of F.A.B.D. (ARCHITECTUS...
Mr. and Mrs. Dow began renting different cottages in Northern Michigan very early in their marriage. Eventually they would buy and renovate a cottage in Cottage Grove Association on the north side of Higgins Lake. It is here that they made many life-long...
Alden B. Dow and his friend Peters “Pat” Oppermann possessed many of the same personal qualities: an inquisitive mind, a love of travel, an appreciation of music, an innate creativity, and a joyful, playful sense of humor. Oppermann was born and raised in Saginaw,...
Born to a baker and orphaned at age 12, Florence Schust grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. She demonstrated an early interest in architecture and was enrolled at the Kingswood School for Girls, adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan....
It has always been inspiring to learn about the passions and interests Alden B. Dow and Vada B. Dow explored throughout their lives. As inquisitive humans, their passion to learn, grow and understand the world around them only increased with time. This need to...
Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow In 1960, the citizens of Ann Arbor approved a $2.3 million bond for the construction of a new city hall. Alden B. Dow was selected as the architect and began the design of this important civic project that...
Proposed Location: Mt. Pleasant, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Between 1936 and 1960, Alden B. Dow designed a number of projects located in the city of Mt. Pleasant, some 30 miles from his Home and Studio in Midland. Three residential projects were built. Six...
Location: Mt. Pleasant, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Between 1936 and 1960, Alden B. Dow designed eight projects located in the city of Mt. Pleasant, some 30 miles from his Home and Studio in Midland. Three of the projects were built and five were never...
Location: Mt. Pleasant, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Between 1936 and 1960, Alden B. Dow designed several projects located in the city of Mt. Pleasant, some 30 miles from his Home and Studio in Midland. Just three of the projects were built and all were...
Location: Mt. Pleasant, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Between 1936 and 1960, Alden B. Dow designed eight projects located in the city of Mt. Pleasant, some 30 miles from his Home and Studio in Midland. Three of the projects were built and five were never...
Originally scheduled to run during the month of March, the opportunity to view Alden B. Dow’s Lanterns, Towers & Spires has been extended through August in the Second Drafting Room of the Home and Studio. Visitors are welcome to view the display before or after...
On the night of July 24, 1942, a fire broke out inside the entrance to the Alden B. Dow Studio. The book Alden B. Dow: Midwestern Modern by Diane Maddex includes a description of the fire, but pictures of the aftermath are rarely seen. In photographs found in the...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow The Robert Bennett residence, a mid-century modern classic designed by Alden B. Dow, is currently on the market. Please contact Badger Beall, the listing agent with Ayre-Rhinehart Realtors, at (989) 698-1243 or...
Location: Midland, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Alden B. Dow finished the plans for this modest and compact three-bedroom residence in late summer 1934, with construction completed in July of 1935. It was designed for his brother-in-law, Alden Hanson, a...
The health and safety of our Alden B. Dow Home and Studio patrons, volunteers and staff is our priority. With the increasing risk posed by COVID-19, we are cancelling all tours and events at the Home and Studio beginning tomorrow, Wednesday, March 18th thru April...
When developing the site plan for Muskegon Community College in 1963, Alden B. Dow marked off a 122-acre section of wooded and hilly creek land and designed the campus around and on top of a stream that meanders through its entire length.
Kalamazoo Valley was just one of a large number of educational projects planned and designed by Mr. Dow during the 1960’s.
On display are drawings and photographs of the unusual beehive light and sound tower of the Roscommon Congregational Church, the Art Deco lamp posts of the original Midland Country Club, the Jenga-like tower of Kalamazoo Valley Community College, and more.
Location: Port Huron, Michigan Architect: Alden B. Dow Located in the hub of Port Huron’s downtown, the Henry McMorran Memorial Auditorium was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1956, followed by the Sports Arena in 1957. The Theatre has 1157 seats and features a stage...
In addition to housing the drawings, project files, photographs and other materials that document the architecture of Alden B. Dow, the Archives also contain a number of rare art and architecture books and print collections that were acquired by Mr. Dow over the...
