In 1963 the president of Duke University, Douglas M. Knight, approached Alden B. Dow with a request for a home. Completed in 1966, the low-slung home is nestled into the edge of a beautiful forest in Durham, North Carolina. It is made of natural materials with glass walls opening to porches that cantilever out over the woods. Among Mr. Dow’s personal papers in the Archives is a letter he wrote in 1975 in response to a request for information about the house from two Duke University students. In it he mentions some of the things that give the building its character: “First of all, there is an entrance door that is complex enough to attract your attention and it opens into a fair-size hall. Both the host and visitors enjoy this first contact as well as the last, so this hall way is large enough to accommodate graceful meetings for a few people.” “This house developed largely from the building site – the top of a hill on the living room side looking down into a heavily wooded valley. Family quarters are on one end; a study and guest rooms on the other. Spaces are not simple and understood at the first glance.” “The dining room is lighted by several small lightbulbs held in a frame that is hung from the ceiling over the table. The many sources of light make all the tableware glisten.” Mr. Dow summed up both the house and his philosophy at the end of his letter when he wrote, “Facts and feelings designed and built this house and I am sure if you visited the house itself, you might better understand why it is the way it is.” Photo 1 of 121 in Alden B. Dow Archive by Alden B. Dow Home and Studio - Mid-Century Modern www.abdow.org

Alden B. Dow Archive

1 of 121

In 1963 the president of Duke University, Douglas M. Knight, approached Alden B. Dow with a request for a home. Completed in 1966, the low-slung home is nestled into the edge of a beautiful forest in Durham, North Carolina. It is made of natural materials with glass walls opening to porches that cantilever out over the woods.

Among Mr. Dow’s personal papers in the Archives is a letter he wrote in 1975 in response to a request for information about the house from two Duke University students. In it he mentions some of the things that give the building its character:

“First of all, there is an entrance door that is complex enough to attract your attention and it opens into a fair-size hall. Both the host and visitors enjoy this first contact as well as the last, so this hall way is large enough to accommodate graceful meetings for a few people.”

“This house developed largely from the building site – the top of a hill on the living room side looking down into a heavily wooded valley. Family quarters are on one end; a study and guest rooms on the other. Spaces are not simple and understood at the first glance.”

“The dining room is lighted by several small lightbulbs held in a frame that is hung from the ceiling over the table. The many sources of light make all the tableware glisten.”

Mr. Dow summed up both the house and his philosophy at the end of his letter when he wrote, “Facts and feelings designed and built this house and I am sure if you visited the house itself, you might better understand why it is the way it is.”