Tunnel tour offers special view of Alden B. Dow Home and Studio

During March and April, Saturday tours at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio will include a feature that is available only certain times of the year. The tours will include a trip through an underground tunnel that connects the home and the studio.

On a recent Saturday, several people took the tour, including a group of Rotary Youth Exchange students.

Jan Lampman, inbound coordinator for Midland Rotary, accompanied students from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Denmark, Italy, Japan and Lithuania.

Jose Paz, from Bolivia, who attends Midland High School, was part of the group.

“I like how every single detail is unique and beautiful; gorgeous,” he said. “My favorite part was the living room and the wall map. The colors combine with everything.”

Docent Louise Bergdahl of Midland led the tour. She asked everyone to show where they are from on the map.

“The map on the wall shows the world as it was in 1959,” she said.

This is exactly how Alden B. Dow and his wife, Vada, would have wanted the map to be used.

They hoped that the home and the studio would be a place of discovery, Bergdahl said.

Dan and Jeanette Kirkey of Flushing, one couple on the tour, celebrated their anniversary a week early. Their son, Sam, who is studying facilities management and architecture at Ferris State University, paid for their admission. He had seen the home earlier.

“He’s a wonderful, sweet boy,” Dan said.

The Kirkeys were pleased with their anniversary gift.

“I love the grounds and how everything is visual from inside to outside,” Dan said.

The many windows and the lines of the home, in relation to the pond and the grounds, help with that.

“I really enjoyed it,” Jeanette said. “It’s much bigger than it looks.”

Cimilla Green Hesel, from Denmark, attends high school in Owosso.

“It was fascinating; all the small details that went into everything,” she said.

There are reasons behind each of Alden B. Dow’s design choices — right down to the connecting bedrooms. These rooms lock from the outside when the doors are closed, and they were designed that way to protect the Dow children from any possibility of harm.

Bergdahl explained that when the Lindbergh family’s baby, Charles Lindbergh Jr., was kidnapped from his crib in 1932, it caused Dow and other well-known families to consider additional ways to protect their children.

Along the tour, participants learned that Dow finished his studio in the mid to late 1930s, and his home in 1941. He studied architecture at Columbia University and participated in a fellowship to learn from Frank Lloyd Wright, who taught about organic architecture.

Leading up to the tunnel in the home, several interesting and colorful artifacts from all over the world are on display on shelves and counter tops. Ceramic figures of varying heights can also be seen, some peeking out from behind something else.

In one room, there are many light brown storage boxes that contain copies of correspondence written by Alden B. Dow; the boxes are still labeled with his handwriting. In another room there are shelves in a cupboard that house cameras and photography equipment. Taking photographs was one of a few hobbies he enjoyed.

Bergdahl shared some interesting stories on the way to the tunnel, and one had to do with a particularly menacing storm.

While his family retreated to the tunnel to wait out the storm, they enjoyed some ice cream. After a little while they began to wonder where their father went. Soon they realized that he had taken a detour outside to photograph the storm.

Dow took many things into consideration while designing his home and studio, including views of nature, the use of bold colors and many windows inviting an abundance of natural light.

He also wanted the outside of the home, in some areas, to be an extension of the inside.

The Rotary Youth Exchange students, who are also staying in Bay City, Caro and Cass City, were able to learn, along with several others, much about Alden B. Dow and his family through visiting his home.

Austeja Dabrisyta, from Lithuania, a senior at Chesaning High School, appreciated the opportunity.

“It was really ... unique, I have never seen something like this before,” she said. “Like the floating conference room ... and lots of different things.”

Of the tunnel, Bergdahl said it is something not everyone has seen.

As a docent, she shares tours of the home quite regularly, but maintains that there is something fresh to see each time.

“The home is just amazing. Every time I come I see something different,” she said. “I love to see the excitement in people, but I really enjoy seeing the excitement in young people.”

Tunnel tours will be available at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio on Saturdays throughout March and April. For information, or to make a reservation, call (989) 839-2744.

For more on the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio, visit www.abdow.org