Walk or drive along Center Avenue in Bay City and you pass one of the finest collections of late-1800s and early-1900s houses in Michigan. Most of them exist because of a single resource: the white pine that once covered the Saginaw Valley. This guide explains how the lumber boom made fortunes, who built the mansions, which houses are worth a slow look, and how to see them respectfully today.
The pine that built a city
Logs from the Saginaw Valley's forests were floated down the Saginaw River to sawmills at what is now Bay City, then shipped out across the Great Lakes. A state historical marker records that new saw blades and gang saws raised capacity so much that the Saginaw region produced about one billion board feet of lumber in 1882, which a separate Bay City marker identifies as the peak of the local industry. By 1872 there were 36 mills between Bay City and the mouth of the river, some of them among the largest in the country. By the 1890s the loggers had cut through the available pine, much of mid-Michigan was cutover land, and after 1900 the city's economy turned to other industries. Read the wider story in our history of Bay City.
Why Center Avenue?
In the 1870s Bay City was a boomtown with a housing shortage. Wealthy businessmen needed homes for their families, and they wanted to show off their success, so they looked for a new part of town to build in. A state historical marker says that between 1870 and 1940 the city's prominent citizens favored Center Avenue as a place to live, and that early in this period lumbermen built lavish residences. Today the Center Avenue Historic District contains more than 250 buildings on the National Register of Historic Places, and the marker calls it one of the most spectacular displays of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century residential architecture in Michigan.
The architects
Local architects designed many of the grandest buildings. The state marker names Pratt and Koeppe, Clark and Munger and Philip Floeter, whose work appears in the houses below. Floeter also designed Trinity Episcopal Church (1885-87), which you can see on our churches page.
Houses and the people behind them
The following examples come from a series of historic-home features written by an education coordinator at the Historical Museum of Bay County. They are private homes or offices, so please admire them from the sidewalk.
- Frederick W. and Bessie Bradley Residence, 1400 Center Ave. (1887). A Victorian of about 5,000 square feet and 23 rooms, with an octagonal tower, balconies, bay windows, a carriage house and one of the few remaining cast-iron perimeter fences in the city. Frederick Bradley ran Bradley Milling, which supplied the family's lumber business, and his father, Nathan Bradley, was Bay City's first mayor. Lumberman Selwyn Eddy bought the house in 1891 and lived there until 1905.
- George W. and Maria C. Mann House, 710 N. Grant St. (1882). A Stick Style Victorian built for a lawyer who was secretary of the Bay City Brick, Tile & Terra Cotta Manufacturing Company. Four generations of the Woolfitt family lived there for 80 years, until 1972.
- Dr. Henry B. and Florence Landon House, 700 N. Monroe St. (1888). A Queen Anne house designed by Pratt and Koeppe. Dr. Landon, a Civil War surgeon, was one of about ten doctors in Bay City at the time. It is now the city's oldest operating funeral home.
- Robert and Jennie Bousfield House, 1800 Center Ave. (1896). A Queen Anne with Neo-Classical and Colonial Revival touches by Pratt and Koeppe, with a two-story porch and Corinthian columns. Robert Bousfield was vice president of Bousfield & Company, described as the nation's largest maker of pails, churns and tubs. A later owner, Frank Woodworth, was a lumber baron and Bay City mayor.
- Dr. Virgil and Mary Tupper House, 1001 Center Ave. (1906). A Georgian Revival in stone and brick by Clark and Munger, built as a wedding present by Mary's parents. Her father, Thomas Cranage, was a Bay City entrepreneur in lumber and salt and a co-founder of the Michigan Sugar Company.
- Ernest and Susie Perry House, 2230 Center Ave. (1913). A Tudor Revival with more than 30 rooms, six fireplaces and an elevator, built for the president of Industrial Works, a railroad crane supplier. It may be the largest home built in Bay City.
Not every grand house belonged to a lumberman. The list also shows how the city's money diversified into salt, coal, sugar, cranes and manufacturing, and how later owners adapted the homes as offices, funeral homes and apartments.
Beyond the mansions
The lumber fortunes also paid for churches, libraries and civic buildings. Our neighborhoods guide covers the downtown and Midland Street districts, our churches directory lists several landmark sanctuaries, and the Polish heritage guide shows the other side of the story: the workers and immigrants who ran the mills.
How to see them
- Drive or walk Center Avenue at a slow pace, with a camera. Weekends and evenings are quietest.
- Respect privacy. Many of the houses are lived in. Stay on public sidewalks and do not enter private property.
- Ask the museum. The Historical Museum of Bay County, in the former armory on Washington Avenue, can tell you about current exhibits and any home tours. See the Things to Do page.
- Combine it with lunch. Gatsby's, Mulligan's and other restaurants are on or near Center Avenue; see our Eat page.
Sources
Facts are drawn from the City of Bay City's historic districts page, Michigan historical markers for Center Avenue and the lumber industry, the Society of Architectural Historians' Archipedia entry for Center Avenue, and the Route Bay City / Second Wave Media historic-home features, plus a public encyclopedia article. Sources sometimes differ on small details such as house numbers, and we note where we are unsure. This guide is independent and is not run by the museum or the city.