Herbert Henry Dow’s Courthouse: The Case for Synthetic Mortar Pigments
In my 40 years as a stone mason, I have enjoyed the privilege of restoring the White House, the Washington Monument, the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol Building, and many other notable projects. There’s one building that Cathedral Stone Products helped to restore that you’ve probably never heard of, but it sticks with me decades later: the Midland County Courthouse in Midland, Michigan.
Upon its completion in 1926, the courthouse was described in the press as “The World’s Most Unique Building” and was even featured in Popular Mechanics.
The visionary — and a major funder of the courthouse’s construction — was none other than Herbert Henry Dow, the founder of Dow Chemical and a Midland resident at one point in time. One of his initial decisions was for the building to be constructed in the Tudor Revival style. This was quite unusual when you visualize the typical, stately courthouse constructed of stone, with its imposing wide steps and large columns.
Another stand-out feature was the building’s exterior murals. It was already unusual to feature murals on the exterior of a building, but the crafting of the murals was unique as well. Rather than painting the images on top of the stucco façade, the stucco itself became the medium. A new Dow product called magnesite stucco included colored pigment and ground glass, and it was applied directly on the building with a palette knife. I can only imagine how the light reflected off the glass particles and gave the colors intensity and brilliance.
It’s been written that more than 19,000 people from states throughout the U.S. visited the building in its first three months.
Cathedral Stone comes into the story almost 70 years later. The colors had faded dramatically, and the stucco was severely damaged—large sections were missing altogether. The exterior needed a full restoration.
Although county residents founded the Citizens Committee for the Restoration of the Exterior of the Midland County Courthouse in 1985, the project wasn't underway until 1994. As I remember it, the project got legs when the committee went to Mr. Dow's grandson and told him what they wanted to do. When they told him their plan and how much it would cost, he simply wrote them a check! You could say that the fundraiser was over in half an hour.
I suspect that the costs increased over the years because I recently read that other contributors included The Herbert H. & Grace A. Dow Foundation, The Gerstacker Foundation, and The Strosacker Foundation.
The project developer called me for a consultation and ultimately selected Cathedral Stone Products as the stucco supplier.
More than 150 local volunteers joined the professionals in restoring the mural. But they couldn’t all be artists, right? Volunteers were able to replicate the appearance by using forms.
The process was similar to a jigsaw puzzle joined to a paint-by-numbers sketch. Imagine the forms as pieces of the puzzle, each with a different shape and assigned a color. Visualize one form being removed at a time (like a puzzle piece), and the volunteer would apply the pigmented mortar in the designated color in just that section (like a paint-by-number sketch). The colors were just incredibly bright. You could almost feel what it was like to view those murals back in Mr. Dow’s day.
It was exciting to be a part of a project that the community was so committed to. I do have one regret, though. The project developer chose to use natural pigments to color the stucco. The pigments were in a powdered form and mixed with the stucco. At the time, I encouraged the use of synthetic pigments because I knew they would last longer.
Unfortunately, as I expected, the colors did fade prematurely. Looking back, I wonder what would have happened if I had pushed a little harder to use Cathedral Stone’s synthetic pigments.
I know a lot more today, and I would undoubtedly recommend synthetic pigments. I’d probably even demand it. Their bond to the mortar and subsequent color stability is proven, and the technology has grown by leaps and bounds since my days at the Midland County Courthouse. If Mr. Dow were here today, I think he’d appreciate my love for the science of masonry restoration products and the beauty that restoration can bring to a building.
