Dow's town

Midland is a company town in the truest sense. A young chemist named Herbert Dow had figured out how to pull useful chemicals out of the salty brine deep underground here, and in 1897 he founded the Dow Chemical Company. The company grew into a giant, and the town grew with it. Even during the Great Depression, when much of the country was hurting, Midland kept working — Dow was hiring.

The Dow family didn’t just build a business; they shaped the whole city. Herbert’s son Alden B. Dow studied under the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright, then came home and spent his career designing buildings all over Midland — homes, churches, schools, libraries, and his own striking Home and Studio, which is now a National Historic Landmark you can tour. Dow family money also paid for much of what makes Midland nice: gardens, a library, a center for the arts. It’s part of why Midland feels more polished, and historically has had lower taxes, than you might expect for a small Michigan city.