The collection is organized by format and size. Box 1 consists of tracings, Box 2 mostly of tracings. Boxes 3-8 are rolled blueprints and architectural drawings (8.5 cubic feet). Each rolled drawing may include: building blueprints, tracings, elevations, and other related architectural drawings. These are housed in large telescope style boxes. Box 9-10 include one folder of biographical materials and building specifications. All of the materials are in good condition. Some of the specifications suffer from being stored rolled around the blueprints and are somewhat bent out of shape. The strength of the collection is obviously the drawings and building specifications. Materials vary in size and were boxed by size to fit into as few boxes as possible.
Biography:
Goddeyne, Joseph C. (May 8, 1889-June 24, 1964), a Bay City native, was a prominent Bay City architect whose plans frequently called for concrete construction. He earned a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a degree in architectural design from the University of Michigan.
Among his projects were numerous Catholic churches, schools, convents, including St. Paul’s Seminary in Saginaw, and county buildings in the Bay City area. Other buildings he designed include: St. Hyacinth Church and rectory, the James Clement Airport Administration Building, Holy Trinity Church, the Rachel Sovereign Memorial Home, and his own avant-garde, white and glass block home at 2275 Carrol Road. He created the drawings for the Alpena General Hospital, Rogers City Hospital, The Iosco County Courthouse, the Chippewa Memorial Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie, and Hubbard Memorial Hospital in Bad Axe, Michigan.
Two of his buildings of note are the Bay County Building and the Jesse H. and Anna Mulvane Besser House. The Bay County Building, located at 515 Center Avenue, on the corner of Center and Madison avenues, in Bay City, was built from 1931 to 1934 as a county-funded project to relieve local unemployment problems during the Great Depression. It is an 8-story Art Deco building. Goddeyne is credited with the building’s visually arresting exterior facade, unique to Bay City. This building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Jesse H. and Anna Mulvane Besser House, located at 232 1st Avenue in Alpena, was built from 1938 to 1939 in a very modern style with the most modern and efficient equipment installed for Alpena’s leading industrial pioneers. (For further information on these buildings see: Buildings of Michigan by Kathryn B. Eckert, 1993, pages 329 and 449-450.)
