Kohler Co. now is a diversified multinational business. Yet many still associate the firm with its white porcelain sinks and toilets once emblazoned with branding that read, simply, Kohler of Kohler.
Indeed, Kohler, just west of Sheboygan, is home not only to the company's sprawling factories but also to streets lined with homes built for workers and, most notably, a former dormitory. Constructed in 1918 to house newly arrived immigrants, The American Club is now the crown jewel of a five-diamond resort. Since 1981, the resort has been a place where guests are surrounded not only by the family history but also by some of their most amazing wares — from showers for which the temperature and sprays are programmable to a toilet that keeps guys from committing the cardinal sin of forgetting to put down the seat.
Such modern marvels of plumbing come from a company that began making farm implements in the 1870s. The transition to bathroom necessities began in 1883, when founder John Michael Kohler sprinkled some enamel onto a cast-iron hog trough and added legs, thereby creating his first bathtub. It was an instant success.
"It was a three-shift operation. They made about 17 bathtubs a day," Shirley Seefeldt said of the first foundry. "We still produce them (cast-iron tubs) to this day."
Seefeldt comes from a family of Kohler employees. Her late husband spent 35 years with the company, and both her sons work in plants just across Highland Drive from the Kohler Design Center, the museum/showroom where she is a tour guide.
Much of her time is spent on the Design Center's lower level, where exhibits share the intertwined stories of the Kohler family and company. Prominent among the displays is one of those early bathtubs. The story of the early days of The American Club also is told through displays replicating the dorm's barbershop and four-lane bowling alley.
Upstairs, modern Kohler products stretch across the entire first floor. One wall is adorned with dozens of toilets from various periods of the company's existence. The colorful display is dubbed Kohler's great wall of china.
On the mezzanine, famous designers such as Clodagh and Amy Lau show off their talents, integrating their styles with the latest plumbing fixtures.
Famed potter Jonathan Adler also is represented.
"We just take his personality and pair him with a collection of Kohler products," explained Kohler's senior interior designer, Diana Schrage. "Much of Jonathan's pottery is a matte-white finish, so he just played off some of his pieces and has the entire room dramatically (lit) with an LED floor."
In the same building, some of Kohler's most soothing products are put to good use at the Kohler Waters Spa.
"Kohler Co. has been in the water business for over 135 years, so it's very natural … for the focus to be about water and hydrotherapy and the therapeutic benefits of water," noted Linda Machtig, a spa spokeswoman.
The spa's centerpiece is a large soaking pool with a soothing waterfall. The surrounding treatment rooms feature custom Vichy showers that allow therapists to preprogram temperature and water flow so their hands never leave a client's body. There also are oversized tubs featuring built-in soothing lights and stress-relieving sound systems.
For guests in one very special room at the adjacent American Club, many of Kohler's finest hydrotherapy products can be experienced without ever leaving the inner sanctum.
With rates starting at $1,000 a night, the Eau de Vie (Water of Life) Suite is by no means cheap, but luxury comes with a price. A centerpiece of the spacious, open-plan suite is an 8-foot-long tub that fills from a faucet in the ceiling. A high-tech shower provides what designers describe as a "choreographed showering experience."
The suite soon will be equipped with what probably is the company's most talked-about invention in recent years: the Numi toilet. Already for sale, the squat, boxlike wonder also is on display at the Design Center.
"Think of a smartphone. This is a smart toilet," communications director Todd Weber pointed out. "As you approach it, the cover will raise. If you're a gentleman and you wave your foot to the side … it will raise the seat. If you do that again, the seat will go down."
The toilet also is equipped with a foot warmer and a night light. But it's the seat-lowering feature that women in particular may appreciate.
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