Drew Vogel, CEO of Diamond Vogel and grandson of Andrew Vogel (founder), shows how to make paint on a 120 year old grinder using wind power.
The Old Mill, located on the Diamond Vogel campus, honors the Orange City-based paint company’s Dutch heritage. Each year during the Tulip Festival, the Diamond Vogel Old Mill opens its doors to thousands of visitors, with guided tours that share its unique history.
The Old Mill was built in 1967 by Diamond Vogel’s founder, Andrew Vogel, after his retirement. The design is based on windmills that were found in Vogel’s birthplace, Friesland, Holland. Andrew Vogel worked in his father’s paint shop in Friesland until immigrating to America in 1913, and settled in northwest Iowa. In 1926 with two small paint grinding machines, Andrew launched what would become Diamond Vogel.
One of the company’s favorite pieces of history in The Old Mill is a 120 year old paint grinder that uses wind power. The Vogel Old Mill stands 50 feet tall with 16-foot blades, which always rotate in a counterclockwise direction. This mill could produce up to 20 gallons of paint a time.
Everything within the Vogel Old Mill is genuine or recreated in typical Dutch fashion with many of the artifacts on display brought over from the Netherlands or donated by Andrew Vogel.
Today, Diamond Vogel is a leader in the coatings industry that serves a broad array of customers and technologies. They manufacture paint and coatings for the industrial, architectural, aerosol, industrial wood, traffic, and automotive markets while adhering to Andrew’s simple mission of exceeding customer’s expectations by delivering a quality solution.
