Bachman Residence by Alden B. Dow

The Charles W. Bachman Residence in East Lansing was designed by Alden B. Dow in 1936. Charles Bachman was the football coach for Michigan State College from 1933 until 1946. The two-story L-shaped structure is situated at the top of a rise in the property. The asymmetric design contrasts large solid-white walls with windows at the corners and patterned cement blocks. It has a flat roof, one of the few flat-roofed homes in East Lansing at the time, and utilizes the unit block system that Mr. Dow had developed just one year before, in 1935.

The living room, dining room, kitchen, and three bedrooms are on the second floor; the maid’s room, game room, and garage are on the first. The two-story fireplace is the organizing feature at the center of the house. Stairs encircle the fireplace on three sides and provide interesting views of the interior as one ascends or descends. When completed, the house cost $13,094, a large sum at the time.

Also on display in the Archives are drawings and photographs of Small House #100, which was designed by Mr. Dow in 1946. It is an example of one of Mr. Dow’s low-cost houses designed for veterans returning from World War II. Charles Bachman’s son and his family lived in the house from 1951 to 1960.

It is a three-bedroom house with no basement. Instead, there is a crawl space under the house, where the furnace is suspended. The front windows of the house are sloped outward, ingeniously increasing the real and perceived feeling of spaciousness without having to enlarge the footprint. Planned to cost $5,000, the house unfortunately ended up at twice that amount.