History
Home 1923 George Goedecke founded Goedecke Painting, in Manchester, New Hampshire, after establishing himself working as a painter with local contractors. He had achieved "Meister Maler" or Master Painter status in the decorative arts in the Kaiser's Palace in Berlin, Germany before and after World War I; and had a flourishing business in Germany until the rampant inflation wiped out his company. As a master craftsman, George soon expanded the business and trained a crew to do painting, wallpapering, gold leaf, and faux finishes.Early customers often saw George bring his supplies slung over the handlebars of a bicycle with no tires, just rims, that he pushed by hand.
 
1932 Herbert Goedecke joined his Dad at age 16, after being forced to drop out of school after completing his sophomore year at West High School. Father and son expanded the business to 20 plus employees in season including "Uncle" Roy Todt and brother-in-law Milton Spencer.
1937 Herbert marries Grace Goodwin and she becomes the bookkeeper for the company.
1942-1945 "Grampa" George kept the business alive while Herbert serviced planes in the United States Army Air Corp and Uncle Milton served in the United States Navy.
1947 Herbert and Milton return from service to help Grampa George build up the business to one of prominence.
1954 George retires and Herbert takes over the control with Milton as the Chief Foreman.. The business and reputation grow and the service areas, outside of Manchester, include Portsmouth, Keene, Northern Massachusetts, and Center Sandwich.

Herbert Goedecke

1954-1965 Herbert's sons, George, Carl, and Alan, plus many of their high school friends find summer employment to help them through college.
1966 Alan Goedecke joins his Dad after receiving a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Vermont. He works full time for one full year then enters the United States Army Engineers to follow his older brothers as a 2nd lieutenant to fulfill his six year ROTC obligation. He figured it would be a good backup plan to break off with Dad, if he didn't want to continue in the family business.
1969 1st Lieutenant Alan returns. He and Dad agree to set up a partnership.
1970 Alan Goedecke marries Nancy Schindler.
1971 Before final partnership agreement can be signed, Herbert dies of a massive heart attack; which left Alan to take over the business, which at the time had 26 employees.
1973 Alan teams up with fellow contractor Jack Hallet to open up "Goedecke Decorating Center" at 280 Route 101 in Bedford. It starts with a 1,000 square foot showroom, ware house, and a shop to continue the contracting. Nancy starts to "help out" doing odd jobs around the building.
1976 Alan and Jack double the building size to make an 1800 square foot showroom.
1984 Jack Hallet buys the contracting business and forms his own business.
1985 Alan adds a warehouse addition of 1800 square feet and expands the showroom to 3800 square feet.
1987 Sales rise to almost one million dollars and the recession starts a four-year decline to 1/2 million. Nancy takes over the window treatment department.
1988 Alan and Nancy's sons Herb and Peter start helping in earnest as Nancy and Alan struggle with declining sales.
1990-1994 Sales start picking up and Herb leaves for college to study cross cultural ministries. Pete stays home and helps out while attending the New Hampshire Technical College to become an airplane mechanic.
1996 With both boys working in the business, sales finally push past one million. Herb and friend Mike wander off to South America for 2 years of missionary support work; mostly construction related.
1998 Peter marries Sheryl Ricard and becomes our top ceramic installer. Herb returns and takes over the flooring department.
1999 Adam's Mills building, right next dorr, goes on the real-estate market. Herb and Peter join Nancy and Alan on the Board of Directors and the family decides to double our facility with a new store. Mike agrees to be our general contractor and finish carpenter. The summer becomes a blur of planning, working night and day. Sales increase 47%. On Columbus Day weekend, family, employees, and friends move our entire operation from the "old" building to the "new" building and we open for business the next day.
2000 We finally hold our Grand Opening in February because we are too busy to plan it any sooner. Customers and representatives praise our store and we are named top family business in Bedford, NH. Sales boom to 2.2 million dollars.
2001 We are invited to join Flooring America; the largest buying group in the United States. Sales hit 2.5 million dollars.
2002 We become a Hunter Douglas Gallery Dealer, the first in Northern New England and sales move to 2.75 million.
2003 Goedecke Decorating Center celebrates 80 years of decorating excellence. We have 11 full-time and 15 part-time employees, and 6 very busy installation subcontractors. The next generation of Goedecke Decorating was born to Pete and Sheryl, a baby girl Alison Grace. Sales reached 3.1 million.
2005   Benjamin Moore Paint is added to our product offering. We start an expansion program by increasing our warehouse size. Jonathan Walter is born to Peter and Sheryl. Yearly sales exceed 4 million.
2006   Mike Ellis agrees to return and help with a redesign of the showroom. Lots of time is spent to make the showroom more open and to show more flooring samples. A new center aisle displays twelve different tile ideas. In September we opened as a Benjamin Moore Signature Store.