Ludwig Volusin Bude, East Saginaw, Michigan
(Born 1823, Halle Saxony; died 1910, Saginaw, Michigan)
Ludwig Volusin Bude arrived in Saginaw about 1850.1 No documentation for his architectural training has been located. Early references list his occupation as a builder. By the early 1870s he listed as both an architect and a builder. From his home and studio, located on the corner of Emerson and Baum Streets, he taught perspective and architectural drawing.2 A founding member of Saginaw’s Germania Society,3 he was on the faculty of the Germania’s school until 1873. His pupils included Arthur Heun, who became a prominent architect in Chicago, and Fritz Wagner, who founded the Northwestern Terracotta Works.4 Although not substantiated by records, circumstantial evidence suggests that many early Saginaw architects received their initial training from him.
While the majority of his surviving buildings are in the Second Empire and Italianante styles, so few buildings by him have been documented that it is difficult to understand the breadth of his work. The house he designed for the Goppelts located at 411 Hayden is the most completely documented example of his work. Architectural drawings and specifications for this home are preserved in the Local History and Genealogy Collection at Hoyt Library. In many ways these ink and watercolor renderings are as elegant as the building that was constructed from them. They testify to his skills as a designer and a draftsman. As one of Saginaw’s pioneer architects, he set a very high standard. Through the buildings he designed and the students he trained, his influence on the course of Saginaw’s built environment far exceeds the number of his buildings that survive.
.
Representative Work:
Saginaw:
Henry Passolt House, c1872,1001 South Jefferson
Mason Building [Bliss Block], c. 1868 Southeast corner of South Washington and E. Genesee:
Henne Building - Tuscola Street
Sources:
1“Architect of Many Buildings: Volusin Bude Answers Final Summons Sunday.” Saginaw Daily News. 12 September 1910. 7.
2 East Saginaw Directory, 1876.
3“Bude Saginaw’s Early Architect.” The Saginaw News. 5 February 1950.
4 “Architect of Many Buildings: Volusin Bude Answers Final Summons Sunday.” Saginaw Daily News. 12 September 1910. 7.
Map
