Low Road, 1414: Robinson House

Modern Design Comes to Kalamazoo

The home at 1414 Low Road bridges the working class Vine Neighborhood with the upscale Orchard Hills plat. The striking Marshall sandstone home currently hides behind enough foliage to obscure its unique flair, but when first unveiled in 1939, it must have struck neighbors as futuristic compared with the surrounding 19th century architectural styles. After more than a decade of planning and preparation, Dr. William McKinley Robinson and his wife Cornelia employed local architect William Stone of Stone and Wagner, Inc. to bring their vision for a ‘functional home’ to life.

“We’ve been thinking about the home we wanted to build for 10 years or more,” explained Dr. Robinson. “We’ve traveled quite a bit, and wherever we went we gathered ideas and bought equipment and fittings.”

–Kalamazoo Gazette, 17 February 1940

The Robinsons were avid travelers who admitted to soaking up the influences from other cultural traditions. Their use of sliding doors, and the interior woodwork that emphasized the “beauty of grain” reflected the influence of Japanese design. Living room rugs were purchased while the couple was traveling through China, while window drapes were obtained in Budapest.

The exterior of the home, built of horizontally-oriented sandstone is suggestive of ancient cliff dwellings. The flat roof, a common characteristic in modernist design, was fashioned in order to moderate home temperature during different seasons. Other interesting features include glass brick, corner windows and a rounded roof above the entranceway. The slanting lot curves around Low Road into Long Road, providing plenty of privacy for backyard activities. Coming off of the garage is a wall with a circular entranceway.

Robinson was a professor at WMU in the Rural Life and Education Program, while his wife Cornelia was a three-term city commissioner, a county board of supervisor and state board of education official. In 1976, the Robinsons deeded their home to WMU upon the time of their deaths, which happened a year later for both.

Written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, August 2024