The Historic Center Avenue District and wandering through the endless rows of homes along Center Street and surrounding neighborhoods is a great way to spend a few hours on a sunny day. Along the way, you’ll learn about architecture and local history.
This fall, the trail takes you back to the leafy sidewalks and streets of the area for the third time to take in more historic architecture and learn about local history.
In 2020 and 2021, Route Bay City has offered our readers several walking tours of historic architecture. In November 2020, Route Bay City described in detail our first work Self-guided walking tour Center Avenue District. This route aligns perfectly with our May 2021 tour on another section of Center Avenue. Cross the river and you can stroll the Midland Street Historic District on a select tour in December 2020.
The George W. and Maria C. Mann House, built in 1882, is located at the western end of the Center Avenue neighborhood assembly.
- 701 N. Grant St., the George W. and Maria C. Mann House
Near the western end of the Historic District is the home of George W. and Maria C. Mann at 710 N. Grant St.
The one-story porch wraps around the southeast corner of Mann’s home.George Mann has worked as an attorney and secretary for Bay City Brick, Tile, & Terra Cotta Manufacturing Co. in 1879. He purchased this lot for $300, and built this house in 1882. In 1892, the owners of the house changed hands to Amos J Wolfet of Bay City Meat Company. Amos and his wife Mary were the first of four generations of the Wolfet family to live in the house for 80 years, ending in 1972.
The Mann House has high crowns above its windows. On the south side, large windows let the sun in.The Victorian Stick House features distinctive plaster molding, decorative trusses and distressed corner panels. Inside, the main floor features spacious rooms that radiate from the foyer. The house also has a two-storey cross gable with a one-story porch. A porch column and balustrade wrap support the spindle around the southeast corner of the house. Gables feature decorative trusses. The windows of the house are distinguished by high sills and crowns. Bay windows face south. The entrance to the second floor is marked by a bend on the south elevation.
The stick house style peaked in popularity in the 1860s and 1890s. Today, few of these homes remain in urban areas.Stick-style architecture experienced a peak in popularity between the 1860s and the 1890s. Decorative wood trim was applied to the exterior to draw attention away from the house’s basic wooden frame. Few are still urban, and we in Bay City are lucky to see examples of this.
Dr. was built. Virgil and Mary Tupper House at 1001 Center Ave. As a wedding gift in 1906.
- 1001 Center Ave. , Dr.Virgil A. and Mary (Cranage) Tupper House
This two-story Georgian stone and brick home was designed by local architects, Clark and Munger. Clark and Munger are also responsible for the Bay City Times Building at 311 Fifth St. and Alpena City Hill.
The dental moldings of the cornice give the house an elegant look.Thomas and Julia Bates Cranagh built it in 1906 as a wedding gift for their daughter and son-in-law Mary and Virgil Taber. Thomas Cranage was a very successful Bay City entrepreneur who owned Pitts and Cranage, two lumber and salt mills. He also served as president of Michigan Salt Corporation, vice president of First National Bank, and president of Bay County Savings Bank. Thomas Cranage, along with E.W. Williams and N.P. Bradley, founded the Michigan Sugar Company in 1897.
The home’s original owner, Dr. Virgil Taber, brought pioneering surgical practices to the area.Virgil Taber was a surgeon and general practitioner who was also the founder of Mercy Hospital, now Bradley House at age 100 15y St.
Virgil is remembered for the pioneering surgical practices he brought to the city. A native of Pennsylvania, he spent most of his childhood in Bay City with his uncle Dr. Horace Taber.
Fluted columns surround the main entrance to the 1964 home converted into offices.Inspired by his uncle, he devoted his practice exclusively to surgery and devoted his life to learning new techniques in Europe. It is noteworthy that he was the first to perform an appendectomy in Michigan, use invasive anesthesia, and bone implants. Taber was a member of the American Medical Association and Michigan State Medical Association, and served as president of the Bay County Medical Association.
The central entrance facing Center Avenue features a red quarry portico and balcony.In 1901 he married Mary Cranagh, daughter of Thomas.
The entrance to the house is centrally located with a loggia and a porch made of red quarry. Adjoining it is grooved columns around the front door. In the corners of the building, brick columns are surmounted by travertine coils. A notable feature of the house is the dental moldings of the cornice.
Travertine rolls atop brick pillars in the corners of the Tupper House.The house also features a rooftop and brick pillars with unique capitals that divide the facade into three bays. Sash windows appear in the home with keystone sills lining the porch.
The house was converted into office space in 1964 by Peter B.
Georgian Revival originated from the colonial architecture of the Atlantic coast and during the reign of King George Four of England between 1714 and 1830. In the 1870s it re-emerged, and between 1900 and 1910 it was one of the most popular styles of Revivalism in architecture.
This revived, two-story colonial-style home was built in 1913. It has a symmetrical design consisting of side gabled roofs, one-story suites, and brick interior chimneys.
- 1701 Center Ave. , The Grant H. & Anna R. Piggott House
This home gives more Bay City history as it is one of the homes built by Lewis-Built Homes for the city. Bay City was known all over the world as the capital of prefab houses or mail orders. The Lewis Built Homes in Bay City operated between 1913 and 1973.
This 1913-built home, known as the “Lennox” model, is a two-story colonial home. The symmetrical face consists of side gable roofs, bungalows, and interior brick chimneys. In 1917, the catalog price was $1859.06 – wooden shutters and interiors cost extra.
The entrance to the centrally located house opens onto a central hall surrounded by a staircase. It also has transom, side lights, pillars and brackets. There is an addition to the house in the rear.
The home is noteworthy because it comes from Lewis-Built Homes in Bay City, which makes mail order homes.Grant Piggott, originally from Ontario, Canada, served as Vice President of Piggott Brothers, which was a homeware company located at 1009-13 Water St. It was here that the Piggott family built their own business complex and saw it expand to five floors.
This Colonial Revival home is reminiscent of the style that has become popular in New England; It is one of the most famous architectural styles in the United States and appeared in the late nineteenth centuryy Century during the fascination with English and Dutch styles of the colonial period. It was popular until the post World War II era.
Lewis Manufacturing was founded in Bay City in 1896 by Adna Lewis, who had previously worked as an accountant at Miller & Lewis, a lumber and salt manufacturer in the city. His company, Lewis Manufacturing, started lumber for the North American Construction Company, which began advertising pre-cut cottages nationally. By 1910, Lewis was president of Lewis Manufacturing and vice president of the North American Construction Company.
Lewis-Built Homes has 105 homes to order, and they range in style from bungalows to cottages to twin homes for anywhere from $300 to $2,600. Lewis homes built under the name “Liberty Homes” entered the 1920s and ceased operations in 1973.
The front porch of the house is two stories high.
- 1800 Center Ave. , The Robert & Jennie Bousfield House
Robert Busfield came to Bay City from Ohio with his brother Alfred after buying the Portsmouth and Bay City Woodenware Company. In 1881, it was incorporated under the name Bousfield & Company and was the largest manufacturer of buckets, tubs, and tubs in the country. Robert served as Vice President.
Bousfield Brothers focused on barrel manufacturing during the height of the Bay City timber age. Barrels had many uses including storing foods such as salt or fish.
The balcony features Corinthian columns.Bousfield purchased this plot of land from local lumberjack Fremont Chesbrough, who lived at 1515 Center Ave. Designed by local architects, Pratt & Koeppe, the house combines Neo-Classical and Colonial-Revival elements with bay windows and arches installed with a unique balcony overlooking the veranda. Completed in 1896.
The original owner, Robert Busfield, and his brother, Alfred, came to Bay City after purchasing the Portsmouth and Bay City Wooden Ware Company. Subsequent owners are Frank Woodworth, Wood Baron and Mayor of Bay City; William Ballard, MD; and Jack Correll, owner of Monitor Sugar and the Robert Gage Coal Company.
The Brothers Company was the largest manufacturer of buckets, tubs, and tubs in the country.The house is in the Queen Anne style of two floors and comes with a cross gabled garage on the property. The roof of the house is gabled on the hip and has arched dormer windows, has cut large and bay windows, and a two-storey porch with pans with Corinthian columns. The northeast corner of the house has an abandoned portico with a one-story cross gable garage.
Robert Busfield moved to Bay City in 1880 after buying a company here. He bought land from a lumberjack, and in 1896, he built this Queen Anne-style house.The Queen Anne style was popular between 1880 and 1900, and was popularized by English architect Richard Norman Shaw. Interestingly, Queen Anne ruled England from 1702-1714, but Queen Anne’s architectural style is more closely related to the Elizabethan (1558-1603) or Jacobean (1603-1625) era.
The mid-century style of the Goodeine House, located at 2506 Center Ave. Among the Victorian mansions lining much of Center Street.
- 2506 Center Ave. , Julia Lillian Goddeyne House
This home is located, at the east end of the precinct, along Center Street. The mid-century architecture looks strikingly different from the Victorian, Revival, and Queen Anne homes that dominate the area.
Lillian Gooden worked as an English teacher at Bay City Central High School and as a ceramic artist. Her father, Leo Godin, founded Goddeyne Hardware store at 3research and development Johnson Streets. Her brother, Joseph Godin, was a famous Bay City architect, and was behind the Bay County Building, James Clements Airport Administration Building, Farragut School, and many other structures in Michigan. His Art-Modern home is located in the Carroll Park neighborhood.
This style of home was very popular in the years after World War II as soldiers returned to start families and buy new homes and cars.This one-story house is also a fine example of post-World War II architecture and was built in 1954. The horizontal lines of the house highlight the low profile of the house, with low chimneys, large windows, and a horizontal strip on a sloping roof. . The house also has a half bay on the front elevation of the house, a built-in garage, and two indoor chimneys.
The house’s horizontal lines—including the distinctive banding on the sloping roof—emphasize the home’s low profile.Inside, the home has an open floor plan with many built-in features, including tongue-and-groove birch work, heated floors, and bathrooms decorated in light green, flamingo pink, and the famous Syracian blue tile at the time. At the back of the house there is a sunroom that overlooks a patio and a built-in barbecue.
The interior design of the house includes many built-in features such as underfloor heating. In the back, the sunroom overlooks a patio and built-in BBQ facilities.Mid-century architecture was popular between 1935 and 1975, usually split between farm level and split. This home is a ranch style, originating in California during the 1930s and 1940s and influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Prairie Style Home.”
This style of home flourished after World War II as returning soldiers needed space for growing families and attached garages for the new family car.