Massive company, small town: Kohler Co., Kohler, Wisconsin

Filed under: Industry, Competitive strategy, Employees, Housing

This post is part of our Large Company, Small Town series, featuring large companies and the small towns in which they are headquartered.

“It is a place where easy things, done well, will never be out of style.” Those are the words of Walter Kohler, Sr., as he envisioned the creation of one of the first planned communities to be built in this country. In 1913, Kohler Company initiated its plan to move its manufacturing operations from Sheboygan, Wisconsin, onto a tract of countryside farmland it bought for its new industrial complex.

The village of Kohler slowly took shape around the company’s industrial complex. It featured all the necessities for fulfilling community life. Single and two family homes were constructed, utilizing lumber from the Paine Lumber Company in Oshkosh. The village included a proper school, a village hall and dormitory housing for unmarried workers. During this time, Kohler Company established itself as a world leading supplier of plumbing products.

When Walter Kohler, Sr., was shaping the vision for his company town, he visited garden cities across the globe and incorporated the desire for natural beauty into his plans. Working with the Olmsted Brothers, designers of New York’s Central Park, Kohler made a 50-year plan to provide gardens and green spaces within the new company village. Kohler’s second 50-year plan for green space was then established under the guidance of The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The result of this careful oversight has been the creation of a village with deep respect for its natural surroundings and which is laced with gardens of beauty.

With median household income almost double the national average, Kohler, Wisconsin, stands as testament to the great importance of paying close attention to quality of life and the necessity of successful manufacturing. Kohler should serve as model for those small communities that wish to better the lives of their inhabitants, and the first rule to learn is this: If you don’t have manufacturing, then you have nothing at all.

Be sure to check out more Big Company, Small Town posts.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 9:15 am and is filed under Real Estate and Housing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.