Background
Maximillian Godefroy was born in 1765 in France.
Maximillian Godefroy was born in 1765 in France.
It is believed to have received a thorough training in engineering and the Fine Arts in France.
Leaving for America in 1805, Mr. Godefroy subsequently settled at Baltimore, Md., where he became an instructor in architectural drawing and military engineering at the old College de Baltimore, later known as St. Mary's Seminary. His first building in the city was the Seminary Chapel (extant in 1939) designed in the French Gothic style and erected in 1807.
During the two decades in which Mr. Godefroy remained in Baltimore several noteworthy buildings were built from his plans, of which the First Unitarian Church at the corner of Charles and Franklin Streets, completed in 1817, is considered his best work, although the interior has been marred by recent remodelings. In addition he was architect of the old Commercial and Farmers Bank, a two-story brick structure at Howard and Redwood Streets; the First Presbyterian Church, dating from 1814; and was associated with Benjamin Latrobe on the Baltimore Exchange, completed in 1816. Also ascribed to him is the old Court House at Richmond, Va., erected shortly before he returned to Europe.
With his wife, an accomplished writer whom he married in Baltimore, Mr. Godefroy arrived in London, England, in 1819 and maintained a home in the city until 1827, and during those years many of the pictures he painted in America were entered in public exhibitions.