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ALDEN BALL DOW, FAIA (1904-1983) The son of Herbert and Grace Dow, he graduated from Midland High School. After visiting Japan, where he stayed in Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, in 1923 he attended the University of Michigan to study engineering in preparation to enter his father's company, Dow Chemical. But after three years, Dow left to study architecture at Columbia University and graduated in 1931. Dow married Vada Bennett in 1931. Bennett, a daughter of Earl Bennett (an employee at Dow), and Dow had three children: Michael Lloyd Dow, Mary Lloyd Dow, and Barbara Alden Dow. After a year and a half of working with the architectural firm of Frantz and Spence in nearby Saginaw MI, Alden and Vada studied with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin in Spring Green WI in the summer in 1933. After that, he opened his own design firm in 1934. He received the Diplome de Grand Prix at the 1937 Paris International Exposition for his own home as well as the John Whitman house. Dow was named the architect laureate of Michigan in 1983, shortly before his death. His home and studio are available for public tours. Alden Dow's company survived over six decades and is now known as Dow, Howell & Gilmore Associates Inc. |
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1933 - The Lynn Heatley House, Midland MI. Unbuilt.
1934 - The Earl and Mae Stein House, 209 Revere Street, Midland MI. Commissioned 1933. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2011 owned by Richard and Nancy Barker.
1934 - The F. W. Lewis House, 2913 Manor Drive, Midland MI. Commissioned 1933. Has been altered. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Sold to Jeff and Holly Karbowski. As of 2011 owned by Rodd and Jennifer Lanou who bought it in 2006.
1934 - The "Shanty" House, his own. 315 West Post
Street, Midland MI. Located on the Dow family
property.
1934 - The Sheldon B. and Mary Heath House, 1505 West St. Andrews Road, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2011 owned by Michael and Christine Owen.
1934 - The Alden W. And Helen Hanson House, 1605 West St. Andrews Road, Midland MI. Helen was Alden Dow's sister. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2011 owned by Mary Beth Scheid.
1934 - The John A. and Minnie Whitman House, 2407 Manor Drive, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. 3532 sf. As of 2011 owned by Ray and Sharon Leenhouts.
1934 - The Joseph and Aimee Cavanagh House, 415 West Main Street, Midland MI. Built by Spence Brothers. Carport added in the 1960's. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 1989, it was owned by Raymond Boyer. As of 2011 owned by Linda Farynk who bought it in 2009.
1934 - Ethyl-Dow House Prototypes, Dow Road and Fourth Avenue, Kure Beach NC. The massive factory for which these houses were designed operated from 1934 to 1946 under a partnership of the Dow Chemical Company and the Ethyl Corporation to extract bromine from ocean water. At its height, the plant employed 250 workers with a $500,000 annual payroll. Plans were announced on Aug. 9, 1933, hailed as the area’s largest commercial development since the shipyard constructions of World War I. Ethyl and Dow Corporations invested some $3.5 million to build the facility, employing some 1,500 construction workers, a boon to the local economy in the depths of the Depression. Although bromine had a number of industrial uses at the time, including photography, its primary use was in the synthesizing of “Ethyl” a “no-knock” compound used in gasoline and aviation fuel. The property occupied some 90 acres and by local standards, the plant was enormous; some of its buildings stood four stories tall. The plant began operation in January 1934. It took roughly 7.5 tons of ocean water to produce 1 pound of bromine. At peak production, during wartime, the plant could process 30 million gallons of seawater a day, yielding 16,000 pounds of ethylene dibromide, the key ingredient in Ethyl. Demand for Ethyl plummeted in peacetime, and the companies decided to consolidate operations at a facility on the Texas Gulf coast. The Kure Beach plant was shut down in 1946 and parts were scavenged by local businesses. The last traces of the oceanside intake channels were obliterated by Hurricanes Fran and Floyd in the 1990s. -- Adapted from Ben Freeman, Wilmington Star-News
1935 - The Howard and Katherine Ball House, 1411 West St. Andrews Road, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. Owners as of 2011 are David Emmel and Georgia Abbott.
1935 - The Oscar Diehl House, 919 East Park Drive, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Renovated (color photos) by Dow Howell Gilmore Associates Inc. Owners as of 2011 are Michael and Debra Hayes.
1935 - The Charles and Helen MacCallum House, 1227 West Sugnet, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2011 owned by Lois Ann Reed.
1935 - The Margaret Mitts House, Saginaw MI. Two schemes, both unbuilt.
1935 - The Robert Goodall Residence, 405 East Pine Street, Midland MI. Goodall was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s former draftsman who Dow met at Taliesin. In the early 1930's, he and Dow created a rhomboid block with a square face in 16 different sizes. One horizontal course has blocks angled to the right and the following course of blocks to the left producing structural integrity by its overlapping seams. This became known as Dow's Unit Block building system. As of 2011 owned by the Shaw Weber Trust. 1935 - The John Panter House, 1002 West Park Drive, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by Edward and Nancy Carney.
1935 - The Earl W. Bennett House, 714 West Main, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by Edward and Cheryle Saunders.
1936 - The James T. and Elsa Pardee House, 812 West Main Street, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. As of 2011 owned by the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation.
1936 - The Earl W. Bennett Cottage, Benmark Club, Roscommon MI.
1936 - The Mary E. Dow House, 403 South Jefferson, Saginaw MI. She was Dow's aunt. Eventually sold to the First Congregational Church, which constructed a connecting wing in 1957 designed by Frantz and Spence.
1936 - George and Ann Greene House,
115 West Sugnet, Midland MI.
1936 - The Charles Bachman House, 929 Roxburgh Avenue, East Lansing MI. Charles Bachman was Michigan State’s football coach from 1933 to 1946. As of 2011 owned by Norman Pollack. Color photo by Kevin Forsyth.
1936 - The William E. and Helen Koerting House, 2625 Greenleaf Boulevard, Elkhart IN. As of 2011 owned by the Charles and Cheryl Owens Family Trust.
1936 - The Donald L. Connor House, 2705 Manor Drive, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Owners as of 2011 are Marc and Tamara McCann.
1936 - The Gordon Saunders House, Bloomfield Hills MI.
1936 -The Millard Pryor House, 888 Pemberton, Grosse Pointe Park MI. As of 201 owned by John Korachis.
1937 - The Paul Rood House, 1615 Dover Road, Kalamazoo MI. As of 2011 owned by Jose and Margarita Campos.
1937 - The A. C.
Barclay Residence,
522 North Saginaw, Midland MI.
1937 - The W. F. Brown Residence, 1325 East Broadway, Mt. Pleasant MI. As of 2011 owned by the Margaret and Terry Erb Trust.
1938 - The Kenneth Wildes Residence, 1513 Crane Court, Midland MI. Sold to Robert and Susan Sutton. Sold in 2006 to Jack and Susan Lewis who still owned it as of 2011. Bottom photo by Tyler Merkel.
1938 - The Charles Bachman
Residence,
1125 East Haley, Midland MI.
1939 - The Anderson and Dorothy Arbury
House,
745 South Meridian, Midland MI.
1939 - The Clark Wells House, 96 Handy, Grosse Pointe Farms MI. 4 bedrooms. As of 2011 owned by James Moody.
1939 - The Calvin and Alta K. Campbell House, 1210 West Park Drive, Midland MI. Built by Fred C. Trier. On March 31, 1949, the Campbells accompanied Willard Dow, president of Dow Chemical and brother of Alden, and his wife, Martha, to M.I.T. to hear Winston Churchill speak. The company plane went down in icy conditions over Ontario and Calvin Campbell was the sole survivor. In the resulting reorganization of Dow, he was named Secretary of the Board. Campbell remarried. In 1997, the second Mrs. Campbell sold to the house to Steve Rossborough. As of 2011 owned by Kevin and Julie Stenger who bought it in 2010. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
1939 - The Leland Ira Doan and Ruth Alden Dow
Doan Beach House, Crystal Lake, Frankfort MI.
1939 - The Charles Morrison Residence,
806 West St. Andrews Road, Midland
MI.
1939 - The Millard Fleming Residence, 2220 E. Jackson Boulevard, Elkhart IN. As of 2011 owned by Mei Tak and Kin Fai Yip.
1939 - The Dow Chemical House 101,
402 Lingle Lane, Midland MI.
1940 - LeRoy Smith House,
9503 Frank Street, Algonac MI.
Sold in 2010 to the Thomas Eckert Trust.
1940 - The Robert Dreisbach Residence, 301 Helen Street, Midland MI. Sold to Gregory Poulos. As of 2011 owned by Gregory and Cathering Poulos.
1940 - The Robbie Robinson House, 741 Middlesex, Grosse Pointe Park MI.
1940 - The Ethocel House. Commissioned 1937. Unbuilt.
1940 - The Leo Grant Residence, 1001 West St. Andrews, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by Julie Arbury.
1940 - The Phillip T.
Rich Residence,
1400 West Sugnet, Midland MI.
1941 - The Alden Dow House II, his own house and studio (commissioned 1939), 315 Post Street, Midland MI. Declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989. Open to the public for tours. Top photo by Dow, Howell, and Gilmore.
1941 - The Louis P. Butenschoen
House,
1212 Helen Street, Midland MI.
1941 - The Charles and Mary K. Penhaligen House, 1203 West Sugnet Road, Midland MI. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Sold in 2002 to Charles E. and Sharon A. Skinner who still owned it as of 2011.
1941 - The Robert C. Reinke House,
33 Lexington Court, Midland MI.
1941 - The Donald and Louise C. Irish House, 1801 West Sugnet Road, Midland MI. Built by Alden Dow. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. Sold to Randy and Lorraine Seiss. Sold in 2008 to Brian and Michell. As of 2011 owned by Brian and Michelle Deeth.
1941 - The Frank Boonstra House,
1401 Helen Street, Midland MI.
Built by Alden Dow.
1941 - The Dow Chemical Lab, converted to the C. B. Branch Residence in 1960. 4607 Eastman, Midland MI. Branch became President of Dow Chemical in 1971. As of 2011 the house is still owned by the Branch family.
1941 - The E. G. MacMartin Residence,
3109 West Nelson, Midland MI.
1941 - The John Josef Grebe Residence, 90 West Wiley Lane, Midland MI. Grebe was Director of the Dow Chemical Company Physical Chemistry Research Laboratories. Has been sold several times. 3635 sf with 265' frontage on the Chippewa River. Was on the market for over a year. Sold in 2011 to Guy McLaughlin.
1941 - The Shailer Bass Residence, 1805 West Sugnet, Midland MI. Bass developed Dow Corning's first product, a simple silicone grease. 3128 sf. Has been significantly altered. As of 2011 owned by James and Linda Mathieu.
1941 - The Thomas Defoe Residence, 2324 Nurmi Drive, Bay City MI. As of 2011 owned by George F. Ascherl Jr.
1941 - Dow designed a 5000-person town, Lake Jackson TX, for employees of his father's Dow Chemical Company site near Freeport TX. The first residents arrived at the end of 1943. Photo above is an example of a single-family house.
1943 - The Circle House, aka the House of Circles. Unbuilt.
1943 - House Type 201. Unbuilt.
1944 - The William Hale Charch Residence, 2109 Brintons Bridge Road, West Chester PA. Sold around 1987 to Jeffrey Azpell. Sold in 1992. Sold in 2004 to Kris Bartosiak.
1944 - The Donnell House, Findlay OH. Based on the 1943 House of Circles design. Unbuilt.
1944 - The Krieger House, Grosse Isle MI. Unbuilt.
1944 - The US Plywood House. Unbuilt.
1945 - A House for the Southwest. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Burclick House, Midland MI. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Draper House, Houston TX. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Maher House, Midland TX. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Alpha Omicron Pi Sorority House, East Lansing MI. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Okoonian House. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Hanchell House, Big Rapids MI. Unbuilt.
1945 - The Michigan Solar House. Dow was one of 48 architects, one for each state at the time, to propose a solar house. Not sure if this was part of an competition or a magazine article or an exhibit. Unbuilt.
Before 1946 - Low Cost Houses for Michigan and Texas. There was one two-bedroom in Texas and three in Michigan (two three-bedoom and one two-bedroom). The house above appeared in Architectural Forum, July 1946.
This house appeared in Architetural Forum, December 1947. Built by Lester V. Kent. Location unknown.
1945 - The Addington House. Unbuilt.
1946 - Michigan Governor's Mansion. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Peloubet House, Midland MI. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Hayworth House, East Lansing MI. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Gardner House. Unbuilt.
1946 - House 1946. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Fred Olsen House, Guilford CT. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Zass House, Long Island NY. Unbuilt.
1946 - The Millard F. Saxton Residence, 2470 Nolen, Flint MI. As of 2011 owned by James and Lynne Smith.
1946 - The Ted Gwizdala
Residence,
2360 West Midland Road, Midland MI.
1947 - The H. W. Douma Residence, 125 Bay View Avenue, Petoskey MI. As of 2011 owned by the Selden Family Trust.
Around 1947 - The Ingersoll Steel / Borg Warner Demonstration House, 1103 Crown Street, Kalamazoo MI. Seeking an efficient and economical way to build homes, architect J. Fletcher Lankton, of Peoria IL designed a utility core that brought together all the plumbing pipes, wiring conduits and other necessary mechanical items in one unit that could be manufactured off site and inserted into a house under construction. The unit included a furnace, water softener and heater, plumbing for bathroom, laundry and kitchen, and electric, gas and ventilation connections. It was a mere 2.5 feet wide, 7.5 feet long and 6.5 feet high and would fit through any standard door. The design saved scarce metal, allowed the elimination of a basement, and was fast since it could be installed in less than one day. Lankton persuaded Kalamazoo’s Ingersoll Steel and Disc Division of the Borg-Warner Corporation to build the prototype. Other architects beside Dow who did houses were Harwell Hamilton Harris, Edward Durell Stone, Royal Barry Wills, L. Morgan Yost, George Fred Keck, and Hugh Stubbins, Jr. Landscape architect Michael Rapuano developed the site plan.
1947 - The Macauley and Helen Whiting Residence, 2203 Eastman Road, Midland MI. Helen was the niece of Alden Dow. In the early 1970s, the Whitings moved from Midland to Idaho and donated the house and property to the City of Midland. The Herbert and Grace Dow Foundation acquired the property and leased the space. Now home of the Northwood University Alden B. Dow Creativity Center. Has been altered.
1947 - The Love House. Unbuilt.
1948 - The Harold Anderson Residence, 340 Wildwood Drive, East Lansing MI.
1948 - The Willard Bennett House, Ludington MI. Unbuilt.
1949 - The Parker Frisselle Residence, 10 Snowfield Court, Midland MI. Sold to Ned and Dorothy Arbury. As of 2011 owned by the Dorothy Arbury Trust.
1949 - The Sibley W. Hoobler House,
2228
Belmont Road, Ann Arbor MI.
1949 - The First Baptist
Church Parsonage,
314 West Nelson, Midland MI.
Sometime in the 1940's - The Howe House, Midland MI. Unbuilt.
1950 - The Robert Ballmer House, 1111 West Sugnet, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by James E. Johnson.
1950 - The A.C. Colpaert Residence, Kenilworth Road, South Bend IN.
1950 - The Ward House, Big Rapids MI. Unbuilt.
1950 - The Charles S. Comey Residence, 22581 Statler, St. Clair Shores MI. As of 2011 owned by Delores and Lynn Drayton.
1950 - The Robert B.
Bennett Residence,
1015 West Sugnet, Midland MI.
5000 sf.
1950 - The Robert Myers Residence, 1062 ?? Road, Lapeer MI.
1950 - The Sandwich Panel House #1, aka the Paul N. Sutton Residence, 4619 Concord Court, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by Shannon K. Roller. Sandwich panels were low density foam polyester cores used in panels for exterior walls, interior partitions, and roofs. The wall panels were three feet six inches by eight feet with 1/4 inch plywood faces and a one and five-eighths inch thick core.
1951 - The Leonard Bergstein Residence, 7 Snowfield Court, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by Shelly Walczak and Mark Shellhorn. Bottom photo by Tyler Merkel.
1951 - The Heber and Josephine Ashmun House, aka The Timber Teepee, 11 Snowfield Court, Midland MI. An A-frame which got Dow huge publicity. Dow did alterations in 1956. Sold in 2009. Sold in 2010 to Arthur and Arlene Perry. As of 2011 owned by the Arthur Ross Thompson Trust. Top photo by Tyler Merkel.
1952 - The M. B. Goldberger Residence, 65 Davis Drive, Saginaw MI. For sale in 2010.
1952 - The Herbert H. Dow II Residence, 2301 West Sugnet, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by Peter J. and Barbara Carras.
1952 - The Lyle Colburn Residence, 512 West Meadowbrook, Midland MI. Sold to Mark and Carol McPherson. Sold in 2005 to Stelian and Mariana Grigoras who still owned it as of 2011.
1952 - The Sandwich Panel House #2, aka Joseph James House, aka the Richard O. and Mary Whipple Residence, 4621 Concord Court, Midland MI. Sold in 2003 to Robert Grzegorcyzk who still owned it as of 2011.
1952 - The Sandwich Panel House #3, aka the R. M. Athay Residence, 4622 Concord Court, Midland MI. Sold in 2006 to Julianne Cook who still owned it as of 2011.
1952 - The William M. Yates Residence, 27 Lexington Court, Midland MI. 2483 sf. Commissioned 1950. Sold in 2010 to Steven Odom and Neydi Quinteros. As of 2011 owned by the Dorothy Yates Trust.
1952 - The Thomas Dafoe Lakeside House. Unbuilt.
1952 - The LeFevre House, Midland MI. Unbuilt.
1953 - The McDonald House, Ann Arbor MI. Unbuilt.
1953 - The Experimental House with Folded Plate Roof. Unbuilt.
1954 - The Dau House, Harbor Springs MI. Unbuilt.
1954 - The Evans House. Unbuilt.
1954 - The Herbert Doan Cottage, Higgins Lake MI.
1954 - The George E. Olsen Residence, 4306 Sherwood Court, Midland MI. As of 2011 owned by the Gloria Olsen Trust.
1954 - The I. Frank
Harlow Residence,
1208 Crescent Drive, Midland MI.
3276 sf.
1954 - The Joseph L. Sherk Residence, 605 Hillcrest, Midland MI. Commissioned 1953. Sold to Scott and Patrice Kareus. Sold to Brian and Mary Aurand. 1954 - The Robert
Birmingham Residence,
5 Lakeridge Drive, Adrian MI.
1955 - The Dr. Mark W. Dick Residence, 240 Greenwich NE, Grand Rapids MI. As of 2011 owned by Mike and Jennifer Seymore. 1955 - The Herbert D.
Doan Residence,
3801 Valley Drive, Midland MI.
9300 sf.
1955 - The Herbert H. Dow II Cottage, Crystal Lake, Frankfort MI.
1955 - The Munson House #1, aka the W-Frame House. Unbuilt.
1955 - The Braden House, Grosse Isle MI. Unbuilt.
1956 - The Munson House #2, Midland MI. Unbuilt.
1956 - The Webster House, Midland MI. Unbuilt.1956 - Model House Representing the Southeast Housing Homestyle Center, aka Grand Rapids Homestyle Center Residence, Grand Rapids MI. Unbuilt. Other participants in the center included Ralph Rapson, Harwell Hamilton Harris, George Nelson, and Paul Rudolph. In 1956 Detroit realtor Jason Honigman conceived a project called The Home Research Foundation to showcase new modernist houses on 80 acres outside Grand Rapids, MI. The press referred to it as "an outdoor museum for houses," "the world's most wondrous village," and, eventually, "the lost theme park." The project was extensively promoted in major design magazines such as Architectural Record, Arts and Architecture, and Interiors. The first set of 12 homes was to be designed and started in 1956, followed by 13 in 1957, and 25 more over a span of 3 years, ending in 1960. The Home Research Foundation closed its offices in May 1957 due to funding issues. The Homestyle Center was never built but the original lake around which the houses were to be built is now part of the 132 acre Fredrick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, which was planned in 1982 and opened in 1995.
1958 - The Robert Blackhurst
Residence,
3124 Valley Drive, Midland MI.
Commissioned 1956.
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