Osgood, Sidney J.

OSGOOD, Sidney J. (1845-1935) and his son S. Eugene OSGOOD (1880-1952) of Grand Rapids, Michigan were talented architects who designed many facilities for the Masonic order in the United States and Canada including a refined neo-Gothic design for the Masonic Temple for the Scottish Rite, King Street West at Queen Street South, HAMILTON, ONT., 1922 (Spectator [Hamilton], 10 April 1922, illus. & descrip.; C.R., xxxvi, 19 April 1922, 57). Born at Ellsworth, Maine on 26 March 1845 S.J. Osgood trained under his father Joseph, a prominent builder of churches throughout New England. He settled in Grand Rapids in 1876 and designed many of the major commercial and industrial blocks in that city. In Michigan his works included the Kent County Court House, Grand Rapids (1884; demol. 1969), the Mason County Court House, Ludington (1893-94), the Union Depot, Muskegon (1893-95) as well as court houses at Allegan County and Muskegon County. Together with his son, with whom he formed a partnership in 1902, he designed Masonic buildings in Manistee, Muskegon, Battle Creek, Charlotte, Ypsilanti, Holland, Bay City, Stugis and Grand Rapids, Mich., Providence, R.I., Rochester, N.Y., South Bend, Ind., Canton, Ohio, and at Brockton, Mass. In 1925 they were appointed consulting architects for the George Washington National Masonic Memorial at Alexandria, Virginia, a monumental landmark costing $3 million dollars. S.J. Osgood died in Battle Creek on 3 September 1935 (obituary in the Grand Rapids Press, 4 Sept. 1935, 1 and 2; biography in H. Withey, Biographical Dictionary of American Architects, 1956, 449-50). His son continued to practise in Grand Rapids until 1950 and died there on 3 May 1952 (obituary in the Grand Rapids Press, 5 May 1952, 2)