MIDLAND, Mich. (WNEM) — Dow Gardens in Midland officially opened its new welcome center Friday.
The 22,000 square-foot structure is a gateway to the 110-acre botanical garden.
“This project has been years in the making. Our previous visitor center wasn’t serving our guests in the way that we wanted it to. For a while we moved into a trailer to help make this possible. And so the fact that we are here today with our doors open is incredible,” said Carolynn Paten, director of programming and guest services at Dow Gardens.
Paten said the seed for a new welcome center was planted eight years ago.
“We can greet our guests how they want to be greeted. In our previous facility, our restrooms were after ticketing, and over half of our guests come from over two hours away, so now we have a restroom first, which is huge. We have a beautiful history gallery to share with people the amazing space that they’re stepping into. A beautiful gift shop, beautifully curated, I got to go shop in Atlanta for it, so super excited. And in about a month, we’ll have the cafe opening as well. So all the amenities in one place for our guests,” Paten said.
The welcome center is designed to greet up to a quarter of a million guests each year.
“It’s kind of a one stop shop for a wonderful adventure right here locally. You can come and spend a whole day at Dow Gardens if you want to. You can eat, you can shop, you can explore. Right now we have our dinosaurs around the world exhibit here. And so you can come and just plan to have a really great adventure right in your backyard,” Paten said.
The cafe at the welcome center is scheduled to open in July, and work on the terrace is expected to wrap up in August.
Subscribe to the WNEM TV5 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every day.
Copyright 2026 WNEM. All rights reserved.
Comments are closed.