(Bonas essay) A.N. Godefroy Abraham Nicolaas Godefroy was born in Amsterdam in 1822. In 1838, as a 16-year-old boy, he entered the employ of the Department of Urban Construction in his hometown. Here he makes himself the profession of an architect in practice. He is closely involved in the construction of J.D. Zocher Jr.'s stock exchange on the Damrak. From 1845 to 1850 he works at the office of I. Warnsinck, where he is involved in, among other things, the development of plans for an insane asylum near The Hague and the design of a church for the Reformed Congregation in Gorinchem. In 1849, Godefroy wins the competition for a society building for the Royal Dutch Yacht Club in Rotterdam, enabling him to work as an independent architect. For this club building (1851) with its facades plastered in a soft yellow color, he applies the round-arched style. The Nieuwe Waalse Kerk on Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, built between 1854 and 1856, he designs in a classicist main plan, but with a facade in neo-Romanesque style. Godefroy received many commissions from commerce and the welfare and health care sectors. In these buildings, efficiency is paramount and the style is kept sober. For the Binnengasthuisterrein in Amsterdam, to replace several medieval buildings, he designs a maternity clinic for lower-class women. In this complex, built between 1868 and 1870, they will be able to give birth under decent conditions. Next to the maternity hospital, the "Building for the Care of Women-Sick" (1873-1877) was erected, intended primarily for "decent" middle-class women. With its richly decorated facade, it stands out from the maternity clinic next door. Godefroy became a member of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst in Amsterdam in 1842, the year of its founding. In 1851, after completing the Yacht Club building in Rotterdam, the architect returned to his hometown and became active in the Society. He is a juror at competitions, a member of the Board, secretary (1854-1862) and chairman (1862-1867). He publishes his own work or translations of foreign articles in the Bouwkundige Bijdragen, the society's journal. Usually these publications are of a technical nature. Godefroy takes a special interest in the history of Dutch architecture. He sees its study as an important source of inspiration for all Dutch architects. Together with Warnsinck, he submits a proposal to the Board of the Society for the publication of 'Images of old existing buildings', buildings which the architects believe occupy an important place in Dutch architectural history. The first issue appears in 1854. Upon his death in 1899, Godefroy left the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Bouwkunst a large number of these images, masterful in quality, and now in the possession of The New Institute.