Page 18 | Saturday, November 3, 2018
Midland Country Club 90 years Anniversary
www.midlandcc.net
Alden B. Dow Designs ‘The Place to be’ By Jon Becker for The Daily News
O
ne of Midland’s favorite sons, famed architect Alden B. Dow, created the buzz that led the Midland Country Club to become a community landmark with his breathtaking design of its original building. A mix of art deco and international style, the Dow-designed clubhouse was hailed as artistically original and unique to Midland, down to every intricate detail, when the Midland Country Club officially opened with a dedication ball on May 1, 1931. Asked by his father, Herbert H. Dow, for design ideas, young Alden B.
course was there and they wanted a clubhouse around it. Everyone in town had some sort of input.” The town was so captivated by the new clubhouse that the newspaper of the day, the Midland Republic, devoted an entire special edition to the splendid new structure. The rest of the nation may have been reeling
Dow drew his first sketches for the country club in 1930 while studying architecture at Columbia University. “He sent the gorgeous pencil and watercolor drawings to Herbert H. Dow, who sadly passed away before the clubhouse was built,” said Craig McDonald, director of the Alden B. Dow Home & Studio. “The golf
from the Great Depression, but The Dow Chemical Co. was flourishing and its founding family already was heavily invested in the community. “Building the country club speaks to the Dows and what they did for Midland,” McDonald said. “It became a symbol of progress and growth in Midland. You knew you were somewhere special when you walked into the country club.” The crisp setbacks and vertical lines of the clubhouse façade gave it an Art Deco look. Its horizontality and angularity reflected the thennew international style. The buff-colored stucco covered a cinderblock