Detroit's Historic Places of Worship 9780814334249, 0814334245

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A PAINTED TURTLE BOOK DETROIT, MICHIGAN

COMPILED AND EDITED BY

Marla O. Collum Barbara E. Krueger Dorothy Kostuch PHOTOGRAPHS BY

Dirk Bakker WITH A FOREWORD BY

John Gallagher

Detroit’s HiSToric PLACEs of orship

W

© 2012 by Wayne State University Press, Detroit, Michigan 48201. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without formal permission. Printed in China.

library of congress cataloging-in-publication data Detroit’s historic places of worship / compiled and edited by Marla O. Collum and Barbara E. Krueger ; photographs by Dirk Bakker ; with a foreword by John Gallagher. p. cm. “A Painted Turtle book.” Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-8143-3424-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8143-3811-7 (e-book) 1. Church architecture—Michigan—Detroit. 2. Church buildings— Michigan—Detroit. 3. Historic buildings—Michigan—Detroit. 4. Detroit (Mich.)—Buildings, structures, etc. I. Collum, Marla O., 1970– II. Krueger, Barbara E. III. Bakker, Dirk. NA5235.D48D48 2012 726.509774'34—dc23 2011042965

CONTENTS Foreword by John Gallagher · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Preface · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Acknowledgments · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Maps · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

vii ix xi xii

PART I · 18481860 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Saints Peter and Paul Church, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · 2 Mariners’ Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 8 Second Baptist Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 14 Fort Street Presbyterian Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 20 Most Holy Trinity Church, Roman Catholic· · · · · · · · · · · · · 26 PART II · 18601890

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13.

Saint John’s Episcopal Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Christ Church, Episcopal · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Central United Methodist Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Saint Joseph’s, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Saint Albertus, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Saint Mary’s, Roman Catholic· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Sainte Anne, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·

32 36 44 52 58 64 70 74

PART III · 18901920 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27.

First Presbyterian Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 82 First Congregational Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 88 Cass Avenue United Methodist Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 96 Trinity Episcopal Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 104 Sweetest Heart of Mary, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 110 Our Lady of the Rosary, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 116 Saint Josaphat, Roman Catholic· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 120 Temple Beth El · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 126 People’s Community Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 132 Holy Family, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 138 Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Episcopal · · · · · · · · · · · · · 144 Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 150 The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Roman Catholic · · 152 Saint Charles Borromeo, Roman Catholic· · · · · · · · · · · · · · 158 PART IV · 19201950

28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37.

Most Holy Redeemer, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 166 Holy Cross Hungarian Church, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · 172 Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 180 Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph Protestant Episcopal Church · · · 190 Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 198 Saint Florian, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·206 Nativity of Our Lord, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 212 Saint Aloysius Church, Roman Catholic · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 218 Historic Trinity Lutheran Church · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·224 Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church · · · · · · · · 230 Architects · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 237 Artists, Artisans, and Craftspeople · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 243 Glossary · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·249 Bibliography· · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 251 Index · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · 253

v

FOREWORD

W

henever I drive up Woodward Avenue, past the fast-food drive-ins and the parking lots and the gaudy newer buildings, I take solace in the noble churches that still grace Detroit. Grace is the correct word here: Through a blend of spiritual inspiration and architectural craftsmanship, Detroiters built one magnificent house of worship after another in a burst of creativity that spanned roughly eight decades, from the mid-1800s to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Prior to that, Detroiters were still evolving their town and hadn’t yet reached the mature stage where great architecture became both possible and demanded. After the Depression and then the World War II years, Detroiters tended to find their expressways and shopping malls the more engaging built form. But from the 1850s to the 1930s, across a range of religious experiences and ethnic heritages, Detroiters listened to that still small voice that called forth the architectural excellence on display in this book. What Dorothy Kostuch, Marla Collum, Barbara Krueger, and Dirk Bakker have done is preserve in words and photographs many of the best examples of Detroit’s houses of worship. They’ve chosen thirty-seven of the finest, from the city’s earliest surviving church—Saints Peter and Paul on East Jefferson downtown—to Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hamtramck, built in the early 1940s. Their examples are drawn largely from Christian denominations, mirroring the religious history of this period in Detroit, but the 1903 home of Temple Beth El provides ecumenical reach. Dr. Kostuch, Ms. Collum, and Ms. Krueger blend social and historical background with a precise command of architectural detail. The numerous photographs by Mr. Bakker amply show the care and creativity Detroiters lavished on these buildings. Visit these churches and you’ll trace the evolving story of Detroit itself. Mariners’ Church near Hart Plaza testifies to the importance of river traffic in early Detroit—the

name of the church refers, after all, to the generations of sailors and dockworkers who gathered there for moments of peace and serenity. Second Baptist near Greektown recalls the determination of free African Americans to build a home in a northern city, a city important as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Detroit’s successive waves of European immigrants built their churches not only to worship but to express their ethnic solidarity— from the Irish at Most Holy Trinity to the Germans at Saint Joseph and the Poles at Saint Albertus. The list goes on. These churches gave the newcomers not only a spiritual home but a place to maintain cultural ties in an often strange new land. Today, these churches are enduring monuments of Detroit architecture. They are the rocks standing onshore when all the sand has washed away. These churches have survived fires, economic hardship, and changing tastes. Their massive masonry walls were built to challenge the centuries, their ornate carvings and sculptures to

inspire not just the builders but the builders’ children’s children. Some day those great stone blocks may crumble away but not this year or, most likely, not in our lifetime. But the mason’s trowel has created something more than grand empty edifices. Faith has touched these stones, and faith brings them alive, gives them an inner light that burns down the decades to our time and beyond. These twin attributes—architectural workmanship and enduring faith—shine through every one of the entries in this splendid book. You see them in the loving details captured in the dozens of photographs. Study for a moment the baptismal font at Fort Street Presbyterian, or the wood carvings at First Congregational, or the stained glass at Cass Avenue United Methodist. We can tell a people by what they spend their money on. The people of faith who built these houses of worship lavished their hard-earned dollars on the very best materials and workmanship. No one can visit these churches and not grasp the profound importance that worship held in their builders’ lives. We live in a more secular age now, and the old saying “they don’t make them like that anymore” has never been more apt. But the early builders did their work well—so well, in fact, that today we still marvel at what their labors wrought. Visit these houses of worship. Learn something of Detroit’s social and religious and ethnic and artistic history. Perhaps even linger a moment to murmur a prayer. You’ll be the better Detroiter for it. John Gallagher

foreword

vii

PREFACE

I

n Detroit’s more than four-hundred-year history, it has spawned hundreds of churches. As Detroit grew from a remote fort to a village to a town, its church structures became increasingly sophisticated and diverse, reflecting the makeup of the changing population. The original French settlers were followed by the British, and events in Europe during the nineteenth century brought Irish, Polish, and German immigrants to the city. Striving to maintain their cultural identity and heritage, each group built a church that became the focal point of their community. Churches were places of worship, but they also maintained a connection to the homeland and allowed families to continue the centuries-old traditions of their faith. Through the church structure, with its magnificent stained glass, sculpture, and architectural features, they could express their ethnic pride not only to each other but also to the entire city and leave an enduring legacy. It is that legacy—ethnic identities represented through architectural expressions—that this book celebrates and strives to preserve. Such a book seems especially important as the urban landscape of Detroit undergoes significant change. This book is the first and only comprehensive survey of Detroit’s churches. Although many significant houses of worship have not been included, a best effort was made to feature a sampling that reflects the extensive variety of building styles as well as those of great architectural and historical significance. A sketch of the founding congregation opens each entry and traces its development and changes to the present day. The main body of each entry provides a thorough architectural description and includes notable sculptures, stained glass, and other decorative and structural features of the building. Each entry was extensively researched, utilizing public resources, church archives, and oral histories provided by clergy, parishioners, and church staff. Research was also conducted on the stained glass workers, stone carvers, ceramic workers, wood carvers, organ companies, mural painters, architects, and builders who worked on these buildings. We hope this book will perpetuate

or rekindle an appreciation of Detroit churches, and Detroit itself, as the city continues to undergo a twenty-first-century transformation. ✤

✤

✤

We dedicate this book to Dr. Dorothy Kostuch, a longtime instructor of art history at College for Creative Studies in Detroit (formerly Center for Creative Studies or CCS), who died December 26, 2005, after a long, courageous battle with cancer. Dr. Dorothy, as she was called, had been a cloistered nun for nearly fifteen years after she graduated from high school. She was encouraged by her superiors to use her many talents and further her education. Ultimately Dorothy received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in New York and traveled all over Europe to visit architecturally important buildings. Dorothy returned to her Detroit beginnings and a teaching position at College for Creative Studies (CCS) where she greatly influenced many students, staff, and fellow faculty members. Her expertise in art

history and medieval architecture led her to teach a course that included visits to many Detroit churches. This, in turn, allowed her to become acquainted with many others interested in the history of Detroit, including the librarians at the Burton Collection of the Detroit Public Library and Lucy Hamilton and Nola Tutag, authors of Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit. As one thing led to another, Dorothy and Lucy Hamilton joined efforts to write a book on historic Detroit churches utilizing all the research from their own work and that of Dorothy’s students over the years. After Lucy Hamilton passed away in 1996, Dorothy worked diligently to continue work on their book. In early 2000 we, as graduates of the historic preservation program at Eastern Michigan University, became acquainted with Dorothy and accepted her offer to help her complete the book. As our memorial to Dr. Dorothy, we intensified our efforts after her 2005 death so that this book would be available to the thousands of Detroiters who lived for and loved their churches. All proceeds from the sale of this book will be returned to the Detroit church community. In addition, we would like to acknowledge all of the CCS students who took Dr. Dorothy’s classes over the years and did much of the initial research, as well as several of Dr. Dorothy’s colleagues—including Mary McNichols for her research and contributions to the architects' bios—and anyone else who worked on various aspects of the book. Marla Collum and Barbara Krueger

preface

ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

G

rateful acknowledgement is made to the following, whose financial support has helped make Detroit’s Historic Places of Worship possible:

benefa c t or s Janet L. Kreger Mr. and Mrs. W. Gerry Miller III Leonard and Harriette Simons Endowed Family Fund

p a t r ons St. Aloysius Catholic Church Parishioners and Pastor Margaret and David Erdman Martin and Lucy Overhiser Maggie Rawlings and Bill Meindl James A. Turner and Stephanie R. Miller John Zehren

sup p or t er s Tom Blackburn Walter W. Forsiak Jaroslaw (Jerry) Michael Grenda Dr. Charles K. Hyde Kristine and Jeff Kidorf Nancy and Bud Liebler In memory of Michael Patrick McCourt Richard and Susan Rogers Richard and Mileva Sobodash Bonnie Townsend

acknowledgments

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DETROIT AREA

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Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church 9000 Woodward Avenue

People’s Community Church 8601 Woodward Avenue

Maryg r rove College o

Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church 8501 Woodward Avenue

Fenkell St

Most Holy Redeemer, Roman Catholic 1721 Junction Avenue

Wyoming St

The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Roman Catholic 9844 Woodward Avenue

Schooolcra Rd

Holy Cross Hungarian Church, Roman Catholic 8423 South Street

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Plymouuth Rd

Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph Protestant Episcopal Church 8850 Woodward Avenue

Nativity of Our Lord, Roman Catholic 5900 McClellan Street

Greennfield Rd

Saint Florian, Roman Catholic 2626 Poland Avenue, Hamtramck

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Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church 8625 East Jefferson Avenue

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Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church 3150 Commor Street, Hamtramck

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Saint Charles Borromeo, Roman Catholic 1515 Baldwin Street

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Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Roman Catholic 5930 Woodward Avenue at Edsel Ford Freeway service drive

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Sainte Anne, Roman Catholic 1000 Sainte Anne Street

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PART I.

1848-1860

1 Saints Peter and Paul Church, Roman Catholic 629 E. Jefferson Avenue dedicated June 29, 1848 architect Francis Latourneau

D

etroit’s oldest existing church building, Saints Peter and Paul Roman Catholic Church, was built to be the cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Detroit, a role it served for twentynine years. For his cathedral, in 1843, Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere purchased land on Jefferson Avenue from Antoine Beaubien that had been granted to the Beaubien

family by the French kings in 1745. Construction of the cathedral cost $30,000 and took four years to complete from the day the cornerstone was laid to the day it was completed and consecrated, which was the day of the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (the patron saint of the bishop). Francis Latourneau (also recorded as Letourno and LaTourno) is cited as the architect, assisted by Rev.

Peter Kindekens, Vicar General of the diocese, who supervised the construction. The remains of Bishop Lefevere rested in a crypt under the main aisle of the church until 1939, when they were transferred to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery with other bishops. His successor, Bishop Caspar Henry Borgess, gave Saints Peter and Paul Parish to the Jesuits (an order of

priests dating from ca. 1550) in 1877 in return for their commitment to found a college for the citizens of the city. The Jesuits constructed two buildings adjacent to their church to be used as a day college. The University of Detroit and Mercy College joined in 1990, becoming the University of Detroit Mercy, whose law school now occupies the buildings. Architecturally Saints Peter and Paul Church draws much inspiration from neo-Classical and English Regency styles. The building is a rectangular, three-aisle Roman basilica in plan with a semicircular apse at one end. The primary building material is local, red-orange brick laid in English bond with courses of headers and stretchers. Kelleys Island pale gray limestone forms the decorative elements. The core structure contains seven bays. Saint Catherine’s Chapel, attached to the rear of the building and dedicated in 1918, adds an additional two bays to the overall structure. Each brick bay is marked by a tall, round-arched window and separated by brick pilasters capped with Ionic limestone capitals. Initially, the main facade had only one door flanked by double pilasters with a window on either side. In 1892 two additional doors were added in case of “fire or panic,” as a church bulletin of the time pointed out. Decoration over the central door features a carved wooden tympanum, classical moldings, a smaller triangular pediment displaying Bishop Lefevere’s coat of arms, and a louvered fanlight. Also during the renovations of 1892, a side door opening onto Saint Antoine was sealed. On the facade behind the wide frieze rises a low, square structure housing the chimes. This is the only indication of a grand, multistoried clock tower and spire that were originally intended for this church. In 1857, barely ten years after its completion, the interior of Saints

Peter and Paul underwent major alterations. Displeased with poor acoustics attributed to the deeply curved barrel vault of the nave, and with the ponderous appearance of the interior caused by the massive proportions of the columns, Bishop Lefevere ordered the changes that we see today. A shallow or depressed barrel vault, which is divided into bays, rests on an entablature with multiple moldings. Bishop Lefevere had the circumference of these columns reduced by two-thirds. In a running frieze directly above each arch, painted in gold leaf, is the name of Jesus in eighteen languages, an addition made by the Jesuits. A monumental altar of white Carrera marble was donated by the Fleitz family in 1908. The sculptor, Gustav Adolph Mueller of Detroit, applied Classical forms and elegant Renaissance detailing. The side altars are devoted to Jesus, on the left, and to Mary, on the right. The windows are simple, unadorned amber glass in small rectangular panes. According to church records, these windows are the third set installed in the building. The paintings in the church provide many mysteries for unraveling. Above each arch of the nave arcade is the painted image of a biblical figure. Framed by an arch and following the curve of the barrel vault of the nave, these images are painted on canvas. The paintings in the half-dome apse above the main altar depict three scenes. On the left, over a niche statue of Saint Peter, Christ is depicted giving him symbolic keys of authority. On the right, over the statue of Saint Paul, his conversion is portrayed. In the center is the ascension of Christ. These paintings are not the first ones in the apse. Earlier schemes of decoration appear in historic photographs. Major interior renovations completed in 1917 give the church

Saints Peter and Paul at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and St. Antoine

saints peter and paul church, roman catholic

3

Detail of Jefferson Avenue entrance

Detail of a column, reduced in circumference by Bishop Lefevre in 1857

the “white” appearance it has today. All is designed in a subdued neo-Classical mode to complement the existing architecture and create a sense of elegance and beauty. White marble wainscoting sheaths the walls. The communion rail and pulpit are sculpted in white marble. A vestibule, fabricated completely of white marble, was added. The vestibule now greets the congregation as they enter the church and provides a buffer between the outdoors and its busy street and the worship space. The Jesuits have been faithful keepers, establishing the promised college and administering the church in both prosperous and lean times. As their mission statement

declares, they press on, “struggling with the challenge of urban change.” When the Jesuits proposed converting the church into a law library for the college because of a dwindling congregation, a handful of devoted parishioners convinced them to retain its religious status. Saints Peter and Paul was established to serve the residential area near the Detroit riverfront. That once residential area is now the heart of Detroit’s downtown commercial district, but the church has an active congregation, lunchtime worship services to serve workers downtown, and a warming center that serves the homeless population of Detroit. ■

saints peter and paul church, roman catholic

5

Saints Peter and Paul interior looking toward altar

7

2 Mariners’ Church 170 E. Jefferson Avenue constructed 1849 architect Calvin N. Otis

Original Mariners’ Church (Burton Historical Collection)

8

part i. 1848–1860

L

ocated in the heart of downtown, Mariners’ Church is an anomaly as far as Detroit churches go. Formed from the wishes of a will, it is the oldest stone church in the city and for quite a while shared its building with commercial enterprises. The City of Detroit paid to move it several blocks to its current location, and the church is nondenominational although it follows Episcopal doctrine. In 1842 Mariners’ Church was founded by the will of Mrs. Julia Ann Taylor Anderson (1794–1842) on land purchased by her husband, West Point graduate Colonel John Anderson. The Anderson family had long been active in the American Seaman’s Friend Society. In 1848 the legislature of the State of Michigan passed Act 142, incorporating Mariners’ Church and creating a self-perpetuating board of trustees to oversee the non-denominational congregation. The trustees developed an

ingenious plan to provide additional income by having rental space on the first floor and placing the sanctuary on the second floor. Completed in 1849, this building was the first of a series of gray limestone churches built in the Gothic Revival style, sometimes identified as “Perpendicular Gothic,” with stone from quarries in Lake Erie, called Kelleys Island limestone. It had Tudor-arched windows with wood pinnacles and other embellishments; a gold finger painted on the outside wall directed people to a rear staircase that led to the second floor sanctuary. This early structure fronted onto Woodward Avenue but abutted a commercial building on the northeast, so there were no windows on that side. By 1900 the once active church had a declining membership because the development of motorized vessels meant fewer sailors stopped in Detroit. Also, the nearby residents were moving away from the river. In the ensuing years, the main function of the church was to shelter the homeless, at the church and a nearby outreach location. By World War II, politicians were calling for a total renovation of the riverfront, including the construction of a civic center. The church’s centennial celebration in December 1949 lit a symbolic candle, affirming the church’s connection to the Detroit River. As a result of the celebration coupled with strong public sentiment, in April 1954 City Council voted to move the building and provide a new site. Beginning in late December 1954, it took four months to move the three-thousand-ton structure to the new site adjacent to the auto tunnel to Canada. Because of the sloping topography, the building could be positioned so the previous second-level sanctuary was at ground level on what is now Hart Plaza, and the previous street-level commercial frontage became a walkout basement level accessible from the area adjacent to the tunnel entrance. The first major alteration was

Mariners’ Church with Renaissance Center in background

Mariners’ Church interior looking toward altar with foreign flags on display

11

opposite: Stained glass detail of altar window by J&R Lamb Studios

the construction of a memorial bell tower, in which stone was used to match that of the main building. Next was the addition of stained glass by the J&R Lamb Studios, including the blank wall that now faces Jefferson Avenue. The nave windows celebrate the traditions of the various branches of the military. The background glass has a stenciled fleur-de-lis pattern, which historic photographs indicate came from the windows at the previous location. The large east window, “Christ Stilling the Tempest,” incorporates symbols of Great Lakes history and figures from Detroit and American Anglican history. The west rose window was donated by the Browning family of Bob-Lo boat and Island fame and is reminiscent of a ship’s compass. In 1965 Rev. Richard W. Ingalls Sr. (1926–2006) agreed to serve the church. He faced two major hurdles: providing a means to attract a congregation that could financially support additional renovations and overcoming the deep divisions within the church trustees, half of whom favored closer ties with the Episcopal Diocese and half who were determined to protect the church’s independence. Ingalls sided with the latter and cast his fate in the debate that came down to a nearly thirty-year struggle over the church’s autonomy. In 1991 Wayne County Circuit Court ruled in favor of Mariners’ Church. After an appeal by the bishop, the Michigan Court of Appeals made a 1994 decision, also in favor of Mariners’ Church, thus ending this chapter in the church’s history. The January 1966 funeral of George W. Stark, a twenty-year president of the Detroit Historical Society, filled the church and provided the necessary impetus for resurgence. This was also the inauguration of the Helen Calder Memorial Organ, a product of the Casavant Freres Company in Quebec. Shortly thereafter, city people and suburbanites were drawn to Mariners’; a multiyear restoration

Mariners’ Church being moved to current location (Burton Historical Collection)

program was formulated that coincided with groundbreaking at the mammoth Renaissance Center project literally next door. On November 10, 1975, came word of the loss of the steamship Edmund Fitzgerald during a storm on Lake Superior. Upon hearing the news, Rev. Ingalls went to the church tower, rang the bell twenty-nine times, once for each of the lost sailors, and proceeded to the sanctuary for prayer. Before he concluded, various Detroit media appeared and the resulting publicity inspired singer and songwriter Gordon Lightfoot to write the ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” Henceforth there has been a memorial service each November that includes ringing the recovered bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald. Under the guidance of the Studios of Potente of Kenosha there have been more recent renovations, including the completion of Sunday school rooms and a small chapel in the basement level, with new light

fixtures made with old stenciled fleur-de-lis glass found stored in the church. On display in the mid area of the church are maritime paintings, old maps of Detroit, and models of ships. An early spiral staircase to the sanctuary was moved to provide more space in the altar area. The flooring in the sanctuary was refurbished, and the pulpit was raised to be three steps above the altar, reusing bits and pieces of wood from the old organ. Stations of the Cross on the walls are carved in three-quarter relief, and foreign flags are placed above the pews. In January 2005 Rev. Ingalls and the congregation celebrated the fortieth anniversary of his services to Mariners’ Church. Rev. Richard Ingalls Jr. took over for his father in January 2006. Even though this building is not a great cathedral, it holds a significant physical and social position in Detroit and has remained true to the ideals of its founder, Julia Ann Taylor Anderson. ■

mariners’ church

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3 Second Baptist Church 441 Monroe Street dedication Dedicated as the First German Reformed Church, April 12, 1852 architect Unknown

Exterior view, on Monroe Street in Greektown

15

S

econd Baptist Church is located in an area known as Greektown, adjacent to downtown Detroit. Until the 1900s, Greektown was the center of Detroit’s German community. Today the site is intermingled with ethnic food and specialty shops, parking structures, and a large casino. As Detroit’s seventh oldest congregation, Second Baptist was the first to accommodate African American worshippers. The proximity to the Detroit River and easy access to Canada enabled the site to become a major stop on the Underground Railroad, assisting over five thousand freedom seekers from 1836 to the end of the Civil War in 1865. As early as 1836 some freed African American men and women, members of the First Baptist Church, started their own house of worship as a result of some discriminatory practices in the First Baptist congregation. Initially they met in private homes and later in an old schoolhouse. Wanting a permanent home, in January 1857 they purchased a small single-story building formerly occupied by the German Reformed Presbyterian Society. This is now the current site; a second floor was added in 1865, with additional alterations in 1881, in 1890, and in 1914 after a fire. When the sanctuary was relocated to the new second floor, the seating capacity expanded from 285 to 1,500. A 1926 multistory activity center on the south and a modern flatroofed office/educational tower that was built in 1968 on the north now flank the church. In 2006, to unify the entire complex, the church and the activity center were covered with a thin brick siding, and the educational tower acquired a contemporary sign. Architecturally, the center structure exhibits some characteristics of the Gothic Revival style with a triangular gable and a Tudor-arched two-story stained glass window. The angel stained glass in the double

16

part i. 1848–1860

doors at street level is the primary indication of the church entrance. A large wooden stairway leads up to the narthex and the sanctuary. In the sanctuary the oak balcony curves around the south and west sides and forms a third floor. Overhead twelve large stained glass panels of opalescent glass are set in a grid of oak beams that curve slightly across the ceiling. Although the panels initially functioned as a skylight, the congregation found the sun to be too strong. The skylight was covered and today the stained glass panels are backlit with

artificial lighting. Other stained glass panels with symbolic medallions are found in the south balcony; behind the pulpit and organ is a round window with an image of Christ at its hub. Second Baptist has some interesting artwork. Christ over Detroit is a large 1954 painting by twin brothers Elliott and David Skinner. If you look closely at the familiar buildings of Detroit, you will see a tiny lamb trying to find its way toward Second Baptist Church. Another is a 1977 painting by artist and member June Swad depicting each of the sites

Detail of stained glass

where members of Second Baptist have worshipped. A significant part of Second Baptist’s past was its involvement in the Underground Railroad. If a nearby barn was full, the church opened its doors to refugee slaves where they could receive shelter in a twelve- by thirteen-foot basement room. Several significant figures in the abolitionist movement were associated with the church including Sojourner Truth, John Brown, and Frederick Douglass. In 1987 the Good Neighbor Restoration Project, sponsored jointly

by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Second Baptist, renovated this important historic basement room. Detroit’s schoolchildren and other visitors have been able to visualize some of the experiences of the freedom seekers during special programs led by the longtime historian of Second Baptist, the late Dr. Nathaniel Leach (1911–2005), and now others. Maps are painted on the walls showing the perilous routes of the people seeking freedom in Canada. Second Baptist was the first Michigan church to sponsor a

school for African American children and, among other notable events, was the place of baptism for Detroit-born Ralph Bunche (1904– 71), who was long involved with the United Nations and received the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize. Second Baptist has been the “mother” to over thirty area churches. Because of its proximity to Greektown, the major athletic fields, the Renaissance Center, and the People Mover, Second Baptist Church continues to function as a vital force in the spiritual and political life of the city. ■

second baptist church

17

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part i. 1848–1860

Historic basement room of Second Baptist with map of freedom trail routes

second baptist church

19

4 Fort Street Presbyterian Church 631 West Fort Street dedicated November 18, 1855 architects Albert Jordan and Octavius Jordan with James Anderson

T

he 125th anniversary publication of Fort Street Presbyterian Church issued in 1980 begins with a passage taken from the December 15, 1855, edition of Boston’s Ballou’s Pictorial: The new Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit . . . is situated on the corner of Fort and Third Streets and near the Michigan Central Railroad depot . . . built of limestone from the quarries at Malden, [Amherstburg, Ontario] about twenty miles distant. It is one of three new Presbyterian churches lately erected in that city. The great increase of population . . . warranted the (Presbyterian) society, upon the loss of their house of worship, which was destroyed by fire in January 1854, in dividing and organizing three churches.

After the 1854 fire, the downtown area west of Woodward Avenue had a growing residential area but no Presbyterian church. Land was purchased at Fort and Third streets, spearheaded by Detroit families such as the Algers, Buhls, Chandlers, Heckers, Joys, and Zugs, all wealthy business people who lived in the immediate area. The architects chosen were Messrs. O. (Octavius) Jordan and A. (Albert) Jordan. However, according to a longstanding oral tradition, it seems very likely James Anderson, a

Close-up of Pewabic tiles in the floor

20

part i. 1848–1860

draftsman in the Jordan firm, was responsible for a large part of the design. In 1855 the 167-member congregation undertook the major financial burden ($70,000) of erecting the impressive Gothic Revival church that still stands today, albeit with some major reconstruction after two different fires. Because of the initial expense, the earliest interior was not completed until 1870 when the horseshoe-shaped balcony and the black walnut pews were installed. The facade of the main building is not symmetrical, with a small tower on the left and a very tall corner tower with a 265-foot steeple on the right. There are central front doors, up a few steps from the street, topped by a very large stained glass window. The numerous crockets, finials, and gargoyles make for an ornate appearance. The gable roof is steep, with buttresses supporting the gray limestone walls. With all the decoration acting as “camouflage,” Fort Street Presbyterian can still be characterized as a typical New England meetinghouse because of its width and length. The interior is highly decorated with the ceiling supported by ornate hammer beams interspersed with gilded features. The triple-lancet stained glass windows are grisaille. There is a large stained glass window

Exterior view looking across Fort Street

in the balcony, also grisaille but with more color. A rose stained glass window is in the chancel, partially surrounded by the organ pipes. The black walnut pews are slightly angled toward the chancel, sitting on a stone floor dotted with Pewabic tiles. Music was, and still is, an integral part of Fort Street’s mission. In 1914, a new pipe organ incorporating a small part of the original 1855 instrument was built by Wangerin-Weickhardt of Milwaukee. The instrument has four manuals and 3,253 pipes ranging in length from sixteen feet to a quarter of an inch. When the first fire occurred in 1876, the roof collapsed and the steeple fell into the street, leaving only the exterior walls standing. According to church records, the original design was carefully followed when the church was rebuilt. In 1914 a second major fire destroyed the roof of the sanctuary. Again the congregation was quick to rebuild, dedicating the reconstruction on April 11, 1915. When Rev. Edward Pence was assigned as the new minister in 1900, the neighborhood around Fort Street was changing, becoming one of more moderate means, with commercial areas beginning to encroach. It was Pence’s goal to make the church more a part of the “new” community, and he encouraged the ministry to evolve. In 1908 an adjoining Church Hall building was constructed on the north as a result of the generosity of James Joy, who donated the property, and Mrs. Mary Scotten, who gave $50,000. Designed to complement the exterior of the church proper, the addition contains a small chapel. The chapel has doors that can be opened to a very large meeting room with a curved balcony and a kitchen facility overlooking the

at left: Close-up of grisaille stained glass opposite: Looking toward the altar, with organ pipes and three-sided balcony

23

Looking toward the rear balcony

Close-up of eagle lectern

Detroit River. The lower level was converted to a gymnasium and, during World War I, made available to soldiers who were using the train station across the street. Fort Street also began sponsoring one of the first Boy Scout troops west of the Alleghenies. The special music program includes annual performances of Handel’s Messiah. Concerts often use the historic Swift Memorial Organ or the Schulmerich carillon, which was installed on the 125th anniversary of the church in 1980. The position and mission of Fort

Street Presbyterian Church in the community continue to be those of an urban church with a congregation from all over metropolitan Detroit. An Open Door program provides meals, clothing, health care, and job interview training for hundreds of Detroiters every year, and the church will continue to develop programs that address the needs of the people of its immediate neighborhood despite the untimely death of Pastor Mark J. Keely (1955–2006), in whose name the church has begun a scholarship fund. ■

fort street presbyterian church

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5 Most Holy Trinity Church, Roman Catholic 1062 Porter Street dedicated October 29, 1856 architect Patrick Charles Keely

Looking toward the rear balcony

27

M

ost Holy Trinity holds the distinction of being the second Roman Catholic parish founded in Detroit and the first to serve the city’s Englishspeaking population, which was predominantly of Irish descent in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1834, just a year after the creation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Michigan and the Northwest, Father Frederic Rese, a priest from Cincinnati, was appointed its bishop. For the new parish, Most Holy Trinity, he purchased the old wooden meetinghouse of the First Protestant Society at Woodward and Larned. It was carefully deconstructed and rebuilt at Bates and Michigan, now the site of the Cadillac Tower. No sooner had the move been completed than Detroit was struck by a severe outbreak of cholera. The little church was immediately converted into a hospital, since there was none in the city. Until the plague subsided in the autumn of 1835, Rev. Father Martin Kundig cared for the sick and dying, beginning Most Holy Trinity’s ministry to the afflicted that has become legendary in Detroit.

Bishop Rese was succeeded by Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere, whose decision to build the cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul at Jefferson and Saint Antoine in 1844 altered the history of Most Holy Trinity. The bishop wanted the two parishes to merge. After Trinity was closed for a brief period, its members requested permission to relocate their church to an area where they could maintain their identity. In August 1849 the whole building at Cadillac Square was hoisted onto rollers and moved to Sixth and Porter in a neighborhood that became known as Corktown. Within a few years, more and more immigrants fleeing the potato famine in Ireland arrived in Detroit. Soon there was need for a larger church. Patrick Charles Keely, an Irish Catholic and well-known East Coast architect of Catholic churches, was selected to design the new church. The new church was constructed around the existing one, a practice common in the Middle Ages, so that services could continue uninterrupted. When work had progressed far enough, the older interior building was demolished. Designed in a modest Gothic Revival style, Most Holy Trinity has a simple rectangular plan with a dominant central, buttressed tower with an octagonal spire. Three entrances indicate the space that one finds inside: a central nave flanked by single, side aisles that are nearly as tall as the nave. The side elevations have nine bays, each separated by a stepped buttress and marked by a tall, double-lancet window. The building is constructed of local red brick with smooth limestone trim. This deceptively plain exterior gives way to a visually rich interior. Pointed ribbed vaults span the width of the nave. The nave arcade rests on gilded foliate capitals that are mounted on clustered piers. Throughout the interior, references to the number three symbolically identify the church and refer to the Trinity. Tri-lobe motifs in the spandrels of the nave arcade are

one example. The narrow panels of the double-lancet, grisaille windows in the aisles are ornamented with a pattern of trefoils, each one containing a three-leaf clover. All of the stained glass dates from 1870. In contrast to the simple patterned windows of the aisle, one behind the altar stands out. Signed by Detroit artist Ignatius Schott, this stained glass window depicts the Holy Trinity. Schott also painted the Stations of the Cross, which were set in Gothic-style, carved wooden frames seen in historic photographs. The original altar nearly filled the east wall with its intricate carvings of crockets, finials, and an elaborate central pinnacle. In 1890 a balcony was added, allowing ample room for an organ and choir. The pipe organ was built by Andreas Moller in 1867. The organ is the oldest in Detroit and the oldest in existence built in the state of Michigan. In the last half of the twentieth century, the Corktown neighborhood surrounding Most Holy Trinity Church, the hub of the Irish community in Detroit, has undergone extensive changes. Construction of the John C. Lodge Freeway in the 1950s cut the parish in half, destroying several blocks of homes and businesses and thus reducing essential income. Decisions by the congregation to simplify the church caused it to be whitewashed outside and inside, including the furnishings. In addition, alterations were made to carry out the directives of the second Vatican Council during the 1960s. The magnificent high altar was removed, disassembled, and relegated to the church basement along with the carved communion rail, which is thought to have come from the first church on Cadillac Square. Most Holy Trinity Parish marked its 150th anniversary in 1984. From its roof to its foundation, the old structure was badly in need of repairs. The urgency to do so was confirmed in 1985 when a fire broke out, apparently in the heating system, which partially destroyed

the sanctuary. Sections of the handcarved wooden communion rail were salvaged and reconstructed to form the current lectern and altar for the side chapel. The decoration of the sanctuary wall was inspired by designs of A. W. Pugin, who originated the Gothic Revival in England. The diaper pattern has floral symbols that represent the makeup of Most Holy Trinity’s multicultural congregation. A shamrock denotes the founding Irish community; a yellow hibiscus, the Maltese community active since the 1920s; and a red rose, the more recent Latino community. Each of these symbols is portrayed in a triple branch, symbolic of the Trinity. Set against the sanctuary wall, in place of the high altar, is a sixteenth-century walnut choir stall that functions as seating for the celebrant of the mass and assistants. A new side altar dedicated to Our Lady of Guadalupe, important to the Mexican community, is placed prominently to the right. The Stations of the Cross, which were removed from their old frames and painstakingly restored, are rehung between the aisle windows. After the restoration was completed the church was rededicated on Sunday, June 14, 1987, Feast of the Holy Trinity. True to its beginnings as a hospital, Most Holy Trinity Church has always maintained a free medical clinic. Other services include open door counseling and community outreach programs involving individual casework, group work, and legal advocacy. The church has had a long roster of pastors devoted to its mission. Notable among them is Father Clement Kern, who attended to the parish and the needy for thirty-four years. A bronze sculpture of Kern by local artist Edward Chesney stands in the nearby Clement Kern Gardens Housing Development. Today the congregation remains alive and well as it continues to serve its diverse congregation in ways they have come to expect. ■

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PART II.

1860-1890

6 Saint John’s Episcopal Church 50 E. Fisher Freeway (I-75) at Woodward Avenue dedicated December 19, 1861 architects Albert A. Jordan with James Anderson

Exterior view looking down Woodward Avenue

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hen Saint John’s Episcopal Church was built, it was just beyond the city limits, which were surrounded by orchards, farms, and a few homes. Soon, as the city spread beyond the immediate riverfront, this area became known as the first of two Piety Hills because of the increasing number of churches. In the mid-1930s the City of Detroit decided to widen Woodward Avenue because of the increase in auto traffic. Rather than look for a new site, the congregation decided to stay and undertake the monumental task of moving the church. In 1936 the tower was dismantled stone by stone, the entire church was rolled back sixty feet, and the tower was rebuilt. Today, with the north side right next to the freeway service drive and a large parking lot on the south, the church is within walking distance, not to a residential area but to Comerica Park (home of the Detroit Tigers), Ford Field (home of the Detroit Lions), and the Fox Theater. Henry P. Baldwin, entrepreneur and later governor of Michigan (1869–73) and U.S. senator (1879– 81), felt an Episcopal parish needed to be in this vicinity. He was the chief benefactor for the early church (now the chapel), built in the middle of the property. At the chapel’s 1859 dedication it was apparent that the building was too small. The architects James Anderson and Albert Jordan were immediately commissioned to design a larger building, which was dedicated in 1861 and placed to the immediate west of the chapel. The current church was designed in the style of Gothic Revival with the same light gray limestone exterior as many other Detroit churches. A massive square tower with a louvered belfry is at the left corner of the asymmetrical facade and joined to the main building with its delicate octagonal turret. Gargoyles, common to early European churches as downspouts, are Close-up of glass mosaic super reredos

interesting decorations on the exterior, sculpted by Walter Schweikart, a Detroit stonemason. The layout of the church gives the impression it resembles a Latin cross with transepts when in actuality the spaces provide facilities for sacristies and offices. The nave itself is divided into five bays with the interior resembling an English meeting hall. Triple aisles run straight from the vestibule on the west to the altar on the east. The ceiling of Saint John’s has elaborate hammer beams that once stretched from wall to wall. When the church was moved in 1936, several alterations occurred, designed by architect Wirt Rowland. A nave arcade was created from massive steel piers to reinforce the roof during the move. The steel was covered with plaster to simulate the church interior. The balcony was shortened by two bays, those nearest the chancel. Initially the east wall of the chancel was only a very shallow space. During the pastorate of Rev. William Prall, he wanted a large choir to accompany the religious services. As there was not enough room in the chancel for a choir, the church was closed for about ten months in 1892 while the old chapel was moved ten feet to the east and a new rib-vaulted apse was constructed in between for a fifty-person male choir. The Henry Baldwin family donated the new reredos, the marble relief of the Last Supper, and the angel glass mosaic (identified as a super-reredo in church histories), which was constructed in place by Venetian artists “after” a painting by Ella Condie Lamb. The family also gave the circular stained glass window, Christ Blessing the Children, in memory of their deceased son. The stained glass in the church is varied but significant, representing changing styles from 1865 to the mid-twentieth century. The sanctuary windows are very interesting in that the upper halves are the original grisaille windows (probably

by Detroit’s Friederichs and Staffin), but the lower halves were replaced by figural windows from Gorham, J&R Lamb, and Tiffany studios, all located in New York City. The Tiffany windows (1880, 1882, 1897–98) consist of opalescent glass, while the others are antique glass and every piece has painted elements and details. In 1961 a large five-light memorial window was installed over the central portal in the main facade. Designed by J. Wippell and Company in England, it is discussed in detail in Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit. The organ was originally installed in 1901, it was rebuilt in 1936 and 1966, and it was rebuilt yet again in 1988. Saint John’s has a rich musical heritage dating back to a very early boys’ choir when the church was first organized. The oldest part of the complex is the chapel, now tucked behind the sanctuary. It survived being dismantled and rebuilt twice, first in 1892 and again in 1936. The small chancel contains an altar and reredos carved of American walnut by German American Alois Lang. Beginning in 1874 and for many years afterward, the chapel was the site for signed services for the deaf community. In the early twentieth century members of the Armenian Apostolic Church met here. Today the chapel is used for lectures, private prayer, and the 8:00 a.m. Sunday service. Saint John’s is very proud that the size of their congregation has quadrupled in the last several years. Under the leadership of the Rev. Father Steven J. Kelly SSC (also the chaplain of the Detroit Police Department), the congregation is committed to its mission. Saint John’s continues to be involved with the surrounding community and offers their facilities to Literacy Volunteers of America, AA, and other groups as needed. Firmly ensconced between the new stadiums and the theater district, Saint John’s maintains high visibility and a strong identity. ■

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7 Christ Church, Episcopal 960 E. Jefferson Avenue dedicated April 9, 1863 architect Gordon W. Lloyd

Close-up of painted wall medallions

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hrist Church was founded in 1845 as an offshoot of Saint Paul’s Church, now the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul. The growth of Detroit in an easterly direction necessitated another Episcopal parish to accommodate the increase in churchgoers. Christ Church thus became the second Episcopal church in Detroit but has the distinction of being the oldest Protestant congregation, worshipping continuously in its original location for over 160 years. Within a stone’s throw from the Detroit River, today the historic church is dwarfed by the nearby Renaissance Center. When the site was chosen by banker and railroad president Charles Trowbridge, Lt. Montgomery Meigs, an army officer stationed at Fort Detroit, was asked to design the first church. This was a small wooden building that only seated three hundred people; by 1860 an additional room was needed as the residential area around Jefferson

Avenue continued to grow. For Gordon Lloyd, the new architect, this would be his first commission. He submitted proposals for a rectory (never built) and a small chapel that would provide worship space until the large church was completed. The limestone chapel, dedicated on January 9, 1861, took the place of the original wood building and still stands on the Woodbridge side of the complex. Today it is known as Mary’s Chapel. Six months later the cornerstone of the current church was laid, with construction complete by Easter week 1862. The gray limestone structure is in Gothic Revival style and based on the Latin cross plan. The main facade, which fronts on Jefferson Avenue, has a large seven-lancet stained glass window within the steep front gable. The original main entry to the church was through the ornate square tower on the corner. The tower has four stages, with a belfry and the oldest set of bells in the city. The tower’s interesting wedge-shaped roof has four pinnacles and an opening intended for a clock that was never installed. Flanking the northeast side of the facade are two buttresses surmounted by pinnacles. On each side of the church is a unique configuration of three bays that have a projecting gable at the level of the roof; each bay is pierced with a single triangularshaped window. The windows are high, nearly at clerestory level, resulting in a rather dark but cozy interior. The transepts occupy two bays that form a gable almost the same height as the nave roof. On the interior, spanning the length of the church, is a hammerbeam ceiling. Where the braces meet the hammer beams, carved wooden angels dangle long chains with lanterns to light the nave below. Galleries fill the lower arms of the transepts; however, those in the west have gated pews and face inward toward the nave. Originally the east transept was identical; however, a significant alteration

Exterior view looking toward Renaissance Center

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Interior view of Christ Church looking through the choir area toward the altar

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occurred during World War II in that this gallery was transformed into Saint Michael’s Chapel with the seating changed to face the east and an altar installed for private devotions, weddings, and funerals. Many medallions honoring and memorializing church members and military people are on the walls. In 1903 renovations lengthened the chancel by thirty feet to accommodate a choir so that the east chancel wall is directly against the older Mary’s Chapel. Three tiers of choir stalls were placed on each side of the chancel, facing each other. Pipes of a new organ (replaced again in 1978) were placed on the wall above them. The entire altar was refurbished in the spirit of the Arts and Crafts Movement, with a mosaic of Christ ascending, designed and assembled in Brussels; the mosaics flanking it were only made in 1982 from original drawings the church archivist found tucked away in the parish archives. The 1903 renovations also saw the addition of a baptistery. This space was created down several steps at the juncture of the west transept and the chancel and now contains an Italian marble font and the columbarium. The 1906 stained glass window, Christ and the Little Children, located here was donated to document the family of the first pastor, Rev. William N. Lyster. Lyster family photos were sent to Germany so the faces of the entire family could be replicated by the Mayer of Munich stained glass studio. Christ Church also has stained glass windows by the English firms of Clayton and Bell; Heaton, Butler and Bayne; and J. Wippell and Company; by George Payne Stained Glass Studio and J&R Lamb Studios, both of New Jersey; and by Willet Studios of Philadelphia. There are also two windows by Tiffany Studios. Most likely Detroit’s Friederichs and Staffin did the old grisaille windows. The Tiffany image Close-up of ceiling hammer beams

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Detail of 1982 mosaics, made from earlier plans discovered in the archives

of Saint Elizabeth of Hungary in the west transept can also be found in a window of the American Red Cross building in Washington, D.C. Newly installed memorial windows in the upper transepts were designed by the New York artist Ellen Steinfeld and fabricated by Shadetree Studio in Petoskey. As part of the church sesquicentennial and in celebration of the millennium, Christ Church initiated a capital giving campaign. Several stained glass windows have been cleaned and now have vented exterior laminated glass with west

transept tracery stone replaced. A major renovation in 2008 has created very open interior circulation, providing barrier-free access among the five buildings, including the sanctuary, which make up the complex. Architect Edward Francis of the Detroit firm Gunn Levine (now Resendes Design Group LLC) has provided many glass walls, moved two stained glass windows (one of which will be placed on a back-lit interior wall and the opening from which it came is now a double-door access to the sanctuary), and added a new entrance at the rear of the

facility with a tower that compliments the Lloyd-designed tower on Jefferson Avenue. In addition, there is better access to the community hall, as well as a lift. The lower-level education area has been updated with a completely new heating plant. From serving Detroit’s elite families at their founding to ministering to the less fortunate to attracting today’s diverse population, the members of Christ Church are facing the future “living their faith” and fulfilling the missions they hold dear. ■

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Close-up of Tiffany Studios window depicting Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, Christ Church

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8 Central United Methodist Church 23 East Adams Avenue dedicated November 17, 1867 architect Gordon W. Lloyd architect of 1936 alterations Bruce Werner

Widening of Woodward Avenue in 1936 necessitated moving the church back twenty-five feet (Burton Historical Collection)

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entral United Methodist Church organized in 1810 and is considered the birthplace of Protestantism in Michigan. After being located at several small sites closer to the river, this church strategically decided to move to the northeastern rim of Grand Circus Park. The park is now a historic district with forty commercial buildings,

many by noted architects and the major nucleus of the 1807 urban plan of Judge August B. Woodward. Immediately adjacent to the huge parking lot for Comerica Park and Ford Field and across the street from a thriving entertainment district, Central is only a stone’s throw from Saint John’s Episcopal Church and, as such, part of what was known as the first Piety Hill area of churches of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Like many other churches on Woodward, this church was altered in 1936 as a result of the widening of this main boulevard. The church is Gothic Revival in style, with the primary building material of light gray regionally quarried limestone. As with other Detroit churches, Central has dark limestone trim on the doors, windows, finials, turrets, and buttresses. The square four-stage tower with steeple on the corner is quite imposing, along with the large multilancet window that fronts onto Woodward Avenue. The clock in the tower has four faces whose dials measure seven feet in diameter and still chimes every hour and half hour just as it did when the church was first dedicated in 1867. In 1916 when a new fifty-rank Skinner organ was purchased, it completely filled the small chancel. Thus the choir and the organ became the background for the pulpit and altar until the total reconstruction of the building in 1936–37 when the congregation decided to move the church back when Woodward Avenue was widened. During this process the church was closed for ten months, during which time the congregation used the parish house for services. Engineers developed a unique solution in that the narthex and tower were first physically separated from the nave. Then two sections of the nave totaling twenty-eight feet, one at the west end of the nave and one at the east end, were demolished, leaving the central crossing intact. This crossing was then moved to the east against the old chancel and the tower and

Exterior view from across Woodward Avenue

Interior view with unusual arches as a result of the move

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narthex were rolled up to connect with that portion. In the basement one can see the rails inserted to move the building, but on the exterior it is very difficult to see any evidence of the relocation. During all of this the chancel was increased by those twenty-eight feet, thus allowing for the altar to be raised and to include carved oak choir stalls, baldachino, reredos, lectern, and pulpit. All the wood carving was done by master carver Alois Lang. The paintings of the twelve apostles on the arch of the altar wall are by Detroit artists and twin brothers Elliott and David Skinner. Because twenty-eight feet were removed from the nave, there were major changes to the interior, although they are not readily apparent. Today the diagonal walls of the transepts and the shortening of the nave translate into an interior space that is nearly octagonal, with a curved balcony that flows around the sanctuary. The multiple angles and different roof levels of each transept are gathered like the folds of a pocket handkerchief and touch the ridge of the nave roof. Overhead in a paneled, coffer-like ceiling are 230 iconographic symbols painted by Detroit artist Thomas di Lorenzo. In 1950 the church decided to replace the original grisaille stained glass windows because of their poor condition. Willet Studios of Philadelphia was selected to design the new windows, each fashioned in a pictorial style contained within medallions of deep blue and brilliant ruby red glass. The great west seven-lancet window, dedicated in 1955, contrasts the evils and virtues of the contemporary world. In 1961 M. P. Moller Organ Company rebuilt the organ, creating a new four-manual console and adding additional ranks of pipes, opposite: Interior painting by the Skinner brothers

at right: Portion of west stained glass window detail

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Detail of painted ceiling

enlarging the organ to 73 ranks. In 1975, the Moller ranks were revoiced to blend with the remaining Skinner ranks. The last major restoration of the organ was in 1991 by Roger Mumbrow, who restored the Bombarde rank, rebuilt and reinstalled the harp, and replaced the swell principal with a larger scale rank. In 2004, a zymbelstern was added to the organ by Renaissance Pipe Organ Company, and this company maintains the instrument to this day. The organ now stands as 4,220 pipes, 73 ranks, and 59 stops. During World War I, responding to the city’s rapid growth and changing needs, the original 1865 chapel just to the east of the church was replaced by a six-story parish house designed by the Detroit architectural firm Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. Here is space for the Sunday school, an auditorium, meeting rooms, offices, and a gym. From an 1802 barn loft in the farming community of River Rouge to circuit riders spreading the word of Methodism to a location in central Detroit, the ministry of Central has not changed over the years. They are committed to “transforming the world from one of war and violence to one of peace and justice” and to sustaining outreach programs in central Detroit. ■

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9 Saint Joseph’s, Roman Catholic 1828 Jay Street dedicated November 16, 1873 architect Francis Himpler

Close-up of pulpit, with earlier speaker’s platform in foreground

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ppearing to have been picked up and moved from Germany, this parish served the immigrant German population just east of downtown Detroit. An offshoot of “Old” Saint Mary’s and like so many of Detroit’s churches, Saint Joseph’s was a connection to the old country and served to uphold culture and tradition. The parish was a focal point of the German Catholic community for generations and fulfilled a critical role in the education of the children of the parish. Saint Joseph’s is an outstanding example of a Gothic Revival hallen-kirchen (hall church). The characteristic feature of this form, common in southern Germany, is that all three aisles are nearly equal in height, giving the impression of

a single, large interior area. The architect, Francis Himpler, born in southern Germany, was a natural choice to design the building in a style and form that would be familiar and welcoming to the many German-born parishioners. Dominated by its central, massive tower and spire, the building is solid masonry constructed of regionally quarried limestone with sandstone trim. In 1873 the tower was complete only to the primary roofline. The octagonal base portion of the tower, housing six bells behind its louvered Gothic arches, was completed in 1883 and the spire added in 1892. Copper pinnacles were installed in 1911, completing the building that remains largely unaltered today. Covered in slate and copper, the tower and spire soar to nearly three hundred feet. Also covered in slate and copper is an elaborate flèche located at the crossing of the nave and transepts of the roof. The interior is a single soaring space supported by clustered columns of solid virgin timbers spanning the entire distance from foundation to roof. The vaulted ceiling is painted blue with stenciled stars. With its large expanse of interior space, the building has been described as an acoustic delight. Ornate details including over sixty pieces of sculpture and intricately carved wooden altar, pulpit, and confessionals further denote its Victorian-era styling. Several of the carved pieces in the church were created by Charles Van Depoele, who played a significant role in the development of the electric light and the electric streetcar. The pieces he created for Saint Joseph’s, including the communion rail and one confessional, are his only known documented church furnishings. Another craftsman of note was Anthony Osebold, who created the additional three confessionals and one side altar. The original Odell organ was installed in the choir loft in 1873. After it became unplayable, the organ was rebuilt, implementing

Interior view looking toward altar

Side aisle

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Interior view looking toward organ lo

many parts from the original organ and reusing the original case. The new, rebuilt organ was installed and dedicated in 1973 as the Joseph A. Schulte Centennial Organ, in honor

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of a longtime parishioner and donor who made the new organ project financially possible. The five tall, narrow, stained glass windows in the apse are the

signed work of the internationally known studio Mayer of Munich. These windows, imported when the church was built, are thought by the Mayer Company to be their earliest work exported to North America. For this reason, the building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places at the national level of significance (as opposed to state or local level), the only church in Detroit to hold that distinction. In these same windows, the geometric patterns of red, yellow, and blue are Himpler designs that recently were discovered in archives. However, the geometric borders were created by the Detroit firm Friederichs and Staffin Company. This documentation suggests a unique and unusual collaboration between the architect and two stained glass studios in the creation of the windows. Also of note is the large rose window of the seven sacraments on the east aisle near the side altar and pulpit. The rose window was donated by the Friederichs family, parishioners and co-owners of the Friederichs and Staffin Company. One additional window by the same firm on the west wall is the window depicting the “Good Shepherd,” created as a memorial to Rev. Johann Ferdinand Friedland, the first pastor of Saint Joseph’s. Directly opposite on the east side wall is yet another work of importance, a window with a rarely depicted scene of the death of Saint Joseph, imported from the Tiroler Glasmalerei Company in Innsbruck, Austria. The sandstone rectory, built in 1896, still stands to the east of the church. A school built in 1889 to the north of the church as the Saint Joseph Commercial College and later known as Saint Joseph’s High School was closed in 1964 and has since been demolished. Today Saint Joseph’s is no longer predominantly German but still serves as a neighborhood parish with mass in German once a month. Saint Joseph’s is now clustered with two nearby sister parishes, Sweetest Heart of Mary and Saint Josaphat. ■

Exterior of Saint Joseph’s

10 Saint Albertus, Roman Catholic 4231 Saint Aubin Street dedicated July 4, 1885 architect Henry Engelbert

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aint Albertus is Detroit’s oldest Polish Roman Catholic parish. By 1870 the number of Polish immigrants in Detroit was large enough for them to consider forming their own parish and building their own church. There are three versions of the founding. An early rumor speculated that a Polish parish was being formed because the German community of Saint Joseph’s relegated Poles to the last pews in the plans for their new church at Jay and Orleans. A later chronicler attributed the founding to their Saint Stanislaus Kostka Society, a group of Polish laypeople organized to collect money and other resources for the proposed Polish church. In his history of Saint Albertus prepared for its centennial, the historian and priest Rev. Joseph Swaste claimed that it was Rev. Simon Wieczorek, then serving the Polish community, who convinced Detroit’s bishop, Caspar Henry Borgess, of the need for a Polish parish. A site for the new church was selected at Saint Aubin and Fremont (now Canfield) located on the north and east boundaries of the city on lots that once were part of the Saint Aubin family strip farm. The first Polish church in Detroit would be named after Saint Albert, a bishop from Bohemia. He was revered in the western Prussian area of Poland, formerly the homeland of the Poles in Detroit. But the Polish name of the saint, Wojciech, for Adalbert or Adalbertus, was mistranslated as Albertus, hence the name of the church. The first Saint Albertus church building was a modest wood frame structure built in 1872. In less than a decade, the steady stream of Polish immigrants to Detroit required a larger house of worship. In 1884 Pastor Dominic Kolasinski received the bishop’s permission to build a new church. Designed in a western Polish or western Prussian Gothic Revival style, the original spire rose 280 feet. Describing the consecration ceremony and the

new structure, the Detroit Free Press called Saint Albertus the largest Polish church in America. Both the architect and his patron may have worked out the adoption of the western Prussian style of Gothic chosen for Saint Albertus. Henry Engelbert, born in Germany and himself a Catholic, would have been familiar with German Catholic parish churches. Pastor Kolasinski, a native of western Poland, arrived in Detroit in 1872, the church styles of his homeland very fresh in his memory. The dominant octagonal central tower of Saint Albertus originally terminated in a tall spire just like church towers in Prussian Poland. In 1913 a storm damaged the slate-covered spire of Saint Albertus, and the copper-clad, truncated, conical cap that one sees now replaced it. That is the only substantial change made on the exterior of the church. Significant Gothic features of the interior are the pointed, ribbed vaults of the nave and side aisles, the pointed arches of the nave arcade, and the tall triple-light stained glass windows used throughout the church. Four-part ribbed vaults cover the five bays of the nave and side aisles, except in the transept where an eight-part ribbed vault forms a square. The vaults spring from clustered columns with oak leaf capitals. By using slender columns and having the height of the side aisles only slightly lower than that of the nave, the architect creates the illusion of an almost uninterrupted interior space like that of a German hall church. The low springing of the vaults creates a deeply recessed spandrel between the nave bays. A painting in each spandrel of the nave arcade depicts a church in western Poland with an image of the particular Madonna and Child that was worshipped there. A striking feature of the interior of Saint Albertus is the application of vibrant color to every surface. Vivid reds, blues, and golds are used throughout the church on

Interior view looking toward white altar

Chapel at Saint Albertus

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Exterior view with striking octagonal tower

altar frames, in patterned friezes, and in the stained glass windows. There is lavish use of sculpture in the sanctuary. The main altar of white marble is set against a gold mosaic ground. When the altar was consecrated in 1907, a Detroit Free Press reporter claimed that it was the only altar in the city made of marble. Rising over the main altar is an elaborately carved canopy. At its peak a statue of the patron saint of the church, Saint Albertus, is seated on his bishop’s throne. Two marble side altars are unique in that they display in clear glass cases, in European style, lifelike clothed effigies of Saint Hedwig, a fourteenth-century queen of Poland, and Saint Stanislaus Kostka, a sixteenth-century Polish Jesuit. No Gothic Revival–style church would be complete without stained glass. Most of the windows in Saint Albertus are composed of three lights surmounted by an octafoil. The coloring of the windows is dominated by vivid reds and blues like those used in the rest of the church. Three companies were responsible for the design and manufacture of the windows: Friederichs and Staffin (later Detroit Stained Glass Works) designed seven in 1889; the others were done by Mayer and Company of Munich, Germany. The one exception is the window depicting Poland’s King Mieszko in 966. This window was made by the Thompson Art Glass Company of Detroit in 1966 to celebrate the millennium of Poland as a Catholic country. In addition to the church, other buildings in the Saint Albertus Parish complex were a rectory, a school, and a convent for the Felician Sisters who taught there. In its prime, the Polish neighborhood, which was expanding around the church, could boast having the first Polish seminary in the United States (later moved to Orchard Lake, Michigan) and the first Formation House for the Felician Sisters in the United States. Several commercial establishments and many homes

Interior view detailing the four-part ribbed vaults in ceiling

completed the Saint Albertus district, later known as Poletown. Today, Saint Albertus church, rectory, and school still occupy the corner at Saint Aubin and Canfield. The school was closed in 1966 but continued in use for various purposes until the church was closed in 1990. In 1991 ownership passed

from the Archdiocese of Detroit to the Polish American Historical Site Association, whose members maintain it. Although the church is no longer affiliated with the archdiocese, masses are scheduled throughout the year, and Saint Albertus is open regularly for tours, weddings, and other events. ■

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11 Saint Mary’s, Roman Catholic 646 Monroe Avenue dedicated August 16, 1885 architect Peter Dederichs

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ld” Saint Mary’s Church has a major presence in the bustling business district known as Greektown (originally Germantown), along with Second Baptist Church, a casino, office buildings, parking structures, Detroit police headquarters, and a nearby freeway.

The church is the third oldest Roman Catholic parish in Detroit, preceded by Sainte Anne’s (French) and Most Holy Trinity (Irish). The original parish comprised German Catholic farmers who emigrated from Neustadt, Germany, to Detroit in 1830 and farmed in the immediate area. By 1833 the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, of which Detroit was a part at the time, sent Father Martin Kundig to serve the growing German Catholic population. He conducted German services in a small room at Sainte Anne Catholic Church, and by 1840 the need for a separate German Catholic church was apparent. On land provided by the Beaubien family, Father Kundig guided the congregation in building the first Saint Mary’s, with the cornerstone laid in 1841 and the dedication in June 1843. After Kundig’s tenure, the Redemptorist Fathers, an order of priests, were in charge until 1872, followed by the Franciscan Fathers until 1893 and then the Holy Ghost Fathers C.S.Sp. to the present. In 1868–69 the Redemptorists hired architect Pius Daubner to design a new school, which still stands across the street as an imposing brick Italianate building but is now a community center and thought to be the oldest surviving school building in Michigan. By 1876 the Franciscan Fathers needed a rectory. Designed by Julius Hess, it is in the style referred to by W. Hawkins Ferry as “Victorian Potpourri.” This patterning and style certainly offered impetus for the exterior of the soon-to-be new Saint Mary’s. Because of the increasing immigrant population, a larger church was needed after the Civil War. A young local architect and Saint Mary’s parishioner, Peter Dederichs, was called upon for this task. The old church was demolished to make way for the new building. Most architectural historians refer to the building as several European styles combined to form “High Interior looking toward altar

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View of altar

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Exterior view from Monroe Avenue

Victorian Romanesque.” The red brick exterior of Saint Mary’s is very decorative with twin towers rising in four stages, topped with octagonal belfries. A large rose stained glass window is set within a square and topped by the triangular gable of the steeply pitched barn-like roof. The use of white limestone surrounding the round-topped windows on the cornices and the window tracery makes for a lively polychrome appearance. There is a shallow entry porch with triple portals very close to the sidewalk. From the exterior, one can clearly see the Latin cross ground plan with four bays in the nave, intersecting the deep transepts. The crossing is marked on top by a tall lantern, with the apse and ambulatory completing the structure. Inside there is a highly decorated barrel-vaulted ceiling with a tall nave arcade. The round arches and Corinthian capitals proceed uninterrupted around the walls of the transepts. This continuous free-flowing space is not unlike that of German hall churches. The rear balcony was extended forward in a curve to accommodate the organ and a large choir and is supported by iron columns. Large polished granite columns are from Vermont and, according to church tradition, were intended for the Capitol Building in Lansing. Abandoned on a wharf in Buffalo because they would not meet the building requirements, the columns were rescued by Dederichs for use in Saint Mary’s. The interior seats 1,200 and offers a wealth of lovely plasterwork, stenciling, and painting. A significant focus is the sanctuary and main altar. Sheltered in the seven-sided domed apse is the towering wood altar dating from about 1855 and carved by the Redemptorists. It forms reredos for saints important to the worshipping community and is topped by a large lunette with two doves. Two smaller altars flank the central one and are also carved of wood. In preparation for the centennial

Ceiling detail

celebration in the mid-1980s, the Conrad Schmitt firm of Wisconsin designed a comprehensive new color scheme for the church’s interior, resulting in blue and ochre pastel walls that shimmer with pale silver arabesques. On Good Friday 1994, the altar on the right was destroyed in a fire caused by a candle. It has been faithfully reproduced, and today electric lamps replace the candles. The stained glass windows throughout the church, including the clerestory, were designed by the Detroit firm of Friederichs and Staffin (later Detroit Stained Glass Works) and date to 1885. The current organ was installed in 1990 and is a tracker with two separate cases. The woodwork has developed a unique patina from the smoke and heat of the Good Friday fire. An interesting feature are the three grottos installed between 1907 and 1923; two are located in the base of each tower and the third is just inside the south door to the

church proper, all with near lifesized figures. Over the years, Saint Mary’s gave birth to the German American parishes of Saint Joseph’s (1856), Saint Anthony’s (1857–2006), and Saint Boniface (1866–1989). Local African Americans worshipped in Saint Mary’s between 1911 and 1928 when the Holy Ghost Fathers assisted in the formation of the first black Catholic Church in Detroit, Saint Peter Claver. Saint Mary’s complex received a Michigan historical marker on May 3, 1981, with many local dignitaries attending the ceremony. The main outreach program is the Saint Vincent de Paul Society for whom Saint Mary’s Church is the home base. “Old” Saint Mary’s is a regular stop on church tours sponsored by the Detroit Historical Society. Today the parish continues to flourish with worshippers to the daily noon mass from the surrounding businesses and the regular congregation of about six hundred members. ■

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Saint Mary’s interior looking toward organ lo

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12 Sainte Anne, Roman Catholic 1000 Sainte Anne Street dedicated October 30, 1887 architect Leon Coquard, employed by Albert E. French

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o discussion of churches would be complete without the mention of Sainte Anne, Detroit’s first church, which has often been called the “Mother Church of Detroit.” Named to honor the patron saint of New France, Sainte Anne Church has endured as the sole institution that has existed in Detroit throughout virtually its entire history. Sainte Anne was Detroit’s only church for more than a century, acting as the center of social and religious activities for its early inhabitants. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain, which would later become Detroit on July 24, 1701, as a fur-trading outpost. One of the first buildings to be constructed within this fort was a small log structure that would serve as a place of worship. On July 26, 1701, two days after de la Mothe’s arrival, the Feast of Sainte Anne was celebrated in a modest thatched log structure. This simple shelter would be the first of eight subsequent buildings that would house the church of Sainte Anne. Tragically, fire in 1703 burned the church’s first registry. The baptism of Cadillac’s daughter, Marie Therese, on February 2, 1704, marks the resumption of the church records that remain unbroken to the present day. Sainte Anne is the oldest parish in both Detroit and the State of Michigan, as well as the second oldest continuously active Roman Catholic parish in the nation, predated only by Saint Augustine parish in Florida, which dates to 1565. The impressive landmark is situated near what is now the foot of the Ambassador Bridge, which spans the Detroit River. The building permit to construct the church was issued by the City of Detroit on January 18, 1886, to Albert E. French. Design of the building has long been attributed to Leon Coquard, a Detroit architect who was also a member of Sainte Anne’s. Further investigation determined that Coquard worked for French and

likely contributed to the plans for the building. French, however, must be recognized as the architect of Sainte Anne’s. The facade features twin spired octagonal towers with metal louvers. A large cross caps the peak of each spire. The spires were rebuilt in 1934 in a somewhat smaller and simplified form after a windstorm caused heavy damage. The tower bases are connected to a central gable by elevated flying buttresses. A magnificent rose window dominates the lower portion of the facade, centrally placed between each tower base. The use of flying buttresses, pointed arches, steep pitches, and abundant stained glass, as well as an emphasis on verticality, are all defining features of Gothic Revival. Fully developed Victorian Gothic Revival in style, both the interior and exterior exhibit a French influence. Orange-red brick on the exterior wall surfaces contrasts with a limestone first story. Gargoyles are located on the main entrance of the north facade above the main entry doors. Slightly projecting, blind arcading is located under the eave forming a short parapet wall. The roof was replaced in 1976 with new slate, its original material. The building has a cruciform plan. The pale blue, eighty-five-foot ceiling with gold leaf ornamentation surmounts the grandly elaborate space. A Gothic arcade supported by clustered iron columns with foliated capitals separates the nave and side aisles. The communion rail at the main altar was originally located in the previous Sainte Anne Church and was carved by Julius Melcher in 1851. The rail was later lengthened and reinstalled in the current Sainte Anne. Ferenc Varga carved the main wooden altar of sacrifice in the apse in 1976, when other alterations were made. The pews are plain oak with ornately carved pinnacles at each end cap that mirror a carved stone detail Exterior from plaza

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Interior looking toward altar, with early speaking platform in center

on the exterior of the building at the base of each tower. The west tower contains a steeple bell from the former Sainte Anne Church that was a gift from Mrs. Antoine Beaubien in 1848. The east tower contains the stairs to the choir loft and the bell tower. Granville Wood and Son of Northville, Michigan, supplied the pipe organ, built and installed at a total cost of $3,000 at the time of the construction of the church. Large doors on either side of the main altar lead to the chapel, located directly behind the apse. The chapel contains the original main altar from the previous Sainte Anne’s as well as the tomb of Father Gabriel Richard, cofounder of the University of Michigan and Sainte Anne’s renowned pastor. Father Richard served the parish from 1798 until he contracted cholera and died while tending to the sick in an 1832 epidemic. The tomb had been located directly under the main altar of Sainte Anne’s, a traditional place of honor. However, in 1976, his remains were moved to the chapel in an effort to make the tomb more accessible to the public. Grisaille windows located at the rim of the nave were relocated from

the previous Sainte Anne. Friederichs and Staffin (Detroit Stained Glass Works) crafted the chancel windows in the upper apse and the large rose window located at the rear of the building. English artists produced the two large transept windows in 1919 to replace windows that were destroyed by a tornado. This marked the first inscriptions written in English, as all others were in French. The remaining group of stained glass windows, located on the side aisles nearest the floor, is unique in that they depict the saint who shares the name of the parishioner who sponsored its purchase. In 1967 demolition of Sainte Anne’s was considered, leading concerned people of all faiths to join together in an effort to raise money to make repairs to the ailing building. Fortunately the funds needed were raised and the repairs successfully completed. Located near the international gateway to Detroit and the United States, Sainte Anne’s once served pioneers who came seeking opportunity. Now in its fourth century, Sainte Anne’s continues this original mission in serving its primarily Latino congregation. ■

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13 Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church (now Pilgrim Church) 1435 Brainard Avenue dedicated February 26, 1888 architect Hess and Raseman

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rumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church is Detroit’s last major example of Venetian Gothic, an architectural style popularized in the second half of the nineteenth century by the English writer John Ruskin. The aesthetic movement inspired an extraordinary original interior decorative scheme now covered over but once existed as the

only known interior treatment of its kind in Detroit. In response to development in the northwest area of the city, this congregation started as an outgrowth of Fort Street Presbyterian Church. The Young People’s Christian Union of Fort Street Church started a mission Sunday school at 484 Trumbull Avenue in 1877. Two years later, Fort Street Presbyterian purchased land at Trumbull and Brainard, the present site of what was Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian. They first erected a forty-three by

Exterior of church, looking from across Grand River

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Close-up of tower

eighty-foot, five-hundred-seat “modern Gothic” brick chapel at the rear of the lot. The chapel, a gift of the Fort Street Church, was designed by Julius Hess and dedicated July 2, 1881. Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church began with seventy members, half coming from Fort Street Presbyterian. Rev. Allen M. Dulles was the church’s first pastor. The neighborhood soon became affluent and the congregation included many prominent representatives of professional and business life in Detroit, such as James Scripps and George Booth, who lived across the street. Both are mentioned as members, although Scripps built Trinity Episcopal nearby and the Scripps-Booth family has a long history as Episcopalians. The present church, built at the front of the same lot, was begun in 1886 and completed in 1888 at a cost of $36,000. A permit was obtained in 1887 for a one-story, ninety-three by seventy-eight-foot brick church to be constructed and attached to the front of the original chapel. Because of the remarkable growth of the congregation, a balcony on three sides of the auditorium was also designed by Hess and Raseman and added in 1890. The resulting interior had the largest auditorium of any Presbyterian church in the city at the time. After the balcony was added, the seating capacity was increased to 1,200. The original chapel, connected to the church and accessed through doors in the sanctuary at either end of the church platform, was demolished and replaced by a three-story neo-Gothic activities house. Smith, Hinchman and Grylls received the commission in January 1910 to design the Sunday school

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building. Theodore Hinchman, partner and founder, supervised the work, which was completed in 1912. The building, attached to the east wall of the church, contains a Sunday school, dining facilities, and a gymnasium. The exterior is of pressed Detroit common brick on a rock-faced ashlar foundation. Smooth-cut stone trim provides the color contrast so essential to the style, especially in the characteristic horizontal bands. Entrance vestibules fill the corner spaces on the Trumbull Avenue elevation. The cylindrical tower is a High Victorian element of design, prominently located at the corner of Trumbull and Brainard. Above, double pointed arched openings in the sides of the square and a tall, four-sided pyramidal roof topped with an ironwork finial complete a complex and spectacular landmark. A number of pinnacles are located on the projecting points of the roofline. On the building’s interior, pews radiate outwardly in a semicircle facing a raised platform. The floor is slightly bowl-shaped. Large open trusses with hammer beams and Gothic tracery mark the division between the central space and the crossarms and run diagonally in the central space as well. A gilded pendant hangs from the central crossing; a large crystal chandelier used to hang from the center of the auditorium. Four Gothic-style canister fixtures hang from the ceiling beams and feature a decorative pattern that echoes the balcony railing. The woodwork was originally all golden oak. The hammer beams (now painted over) and the wooden altar wall are Carpenter Gothic in style. The large stained glass windows on

three sides of the auditorium give a predominantly yellow glow with blue, pink, and green highlights. The stained glass windows, made in Chicago, were done in bright yellow tones to blend with the woodwork and decor. The current slightly off-white color scheme is the result of a 1959 redecoration that covered over the original polychromatic scheme. The ceiling is of pressed plaster and had a handsome imprinted decorative design. The walls and ceiling were originally a mustard yellow tone, which can still be seen behind the smaller, flanking bays of organ pipes. This decorative scheme in the Aesthetic mode was one of the most artistic interiors in the city and was unique in Detroit. The subdued colors of greens, reds, and golds replaced bright, harsh colors, evidence of taste so progressive and unusual that it was likely considered avant-garde by many. Installed directly behind the pulpit, centered behind the east truss, are the three sections of goldpainted organ facade pipes. This Granville Wood and Son instrument was built in Northville, Michigan, during 1888–89 and installed in September 1889 at a cost of $4,000. Granville Wood was regarded as a leader in the Detroit musical scene. The organ is the largest instrument by that firm to survive unaltered. The Pilgrim Church/I Am My Brother’s Keeper Ministries, which had been under the longtime direction of Pastor Henry Covington (1957–2010), currently occupies the building. Pastor Covington was the subject of several Detroit Free Press columns and the inspiration for the book Have a Little Faith by Mitch Albom. ■

Interior with semicircular pews

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14 First Presbyterian Church (now Ecumenical Theological Seminary) 2930 Woodward Avenue dedicated May 17, 1891 architect Mason and Rice

Exterior view from across Woodward Avenue

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ntil the summer of 1816 the only religious services in Detroit were, for the most part, provided by a Catholic priest, Father Gabriel Richard of Sainte Anne Catholic Church. A group of Protestants led by Governor Lewis Cass sent a request to Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey for a Presbyterian minister. Shortly thereafter John Montieth (1787–1868) arrived to begin services for Protestants of all denominations, guiding the development of the First Evangelical Society and laying the foundation for the first Presbyterian church in the city. Montieth proved to be a strong leader and quickly became friends with Father Richard, with whom he cofounded a school of higher learning in Detroit in 1817. By 1837 the school had become the University of Michigan and was moved to Ann Arbor. Montieth was its first president, with Father Richard as vice president.

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opposite: Interior with ornate chandelier hanging in central tower

Altar of First Presbyterian Church

By 1825 the First Evangelical Society was legally incorporated as the First Protestant Society of Detroit, a designation it still carries today. For the first seventy-five years, the Protestants met in various locations in the immediate downtown area; the 1855 site was later occupied by the J. L. Hudson department store on Woodward Avenue. This downtown area became increasingly

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commercial and congested and, like many other churches, the society decided to purchase land farther north. The site chosen was on Woodward Avenue, several blocks north of Grand Circus Park, in what was known as the first of two Piety Hill areas. The architects for the new church, Mason and Rice, chose a style that was becoming popular in

the eastern United States, Romanesque Revival, or, as it was more popularly known, Richardsonian Romanesque. George Mason made at least one trip to Boston’s Trinity Church where he made detailed notes of the color and patterns, both exterior and interior. These notes can be found in the unpublished scrapbooks of Mason and Rice at the Burton Historical Collection.

“I Bring You Good Tidings of Great Joy”: Tiffany Studios commemorating the first sermon by Reverend Montieth in 1816

Stained glass detail

As the site in Detroit was a much smaller tract of land than in Boston, therefore the design was necessarily more compact. A central tower rises ninety feet above the four short transepts that define a Greek cross and practically covers the whole church. With red Portage sandstone from Houghton County, Michigan, selected as the building material, the tile roofs, circular towers, and terracotta finials make the exterior very lively. The main entry was on Woodward Avenue, but the front porch was relocated to the Edmund Place facade during the 1936 alterations. As with several other Woodward Avenue churches, First Presbyterian relocated the front entrance in 1936 when the boulevard was widened. At that time Mason also removed the circular towers. For the new Woodward facade, he

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created an arcade of five tall arches that are flush with the rose window above and contain leaded windows with shell-shaped motifs. The interior of the church is organized around the tower with its four massive supporting arches, each having a span of forty feet. The resulting central space has slightly curved pews arranged concentrically around it, with balconies repeating that arrangement facing the north transept. The communion table is at the end of the north transept at floor level with the pulpit on a platform immediately behind. The choir loft rises steeply behind the platform, encircled by organ pipes, within that arm of the Greek cross. Decoration of the interior is colorful, in the Richardsonian tradition. The twelve vaults of the tower are painted aqua blue with the stenciled spandrels of the arches in mauve. The stained glass windows in the tower echo the aqua-color theme. Frescoes in the center of each of the four tower arches depict the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John with their attributes. Rich wood paneling surrounds the sanctuary. Stained glass windows are very prominent in the decoration of the church. The most commanding window is the large rose above the west balcony facing Woodward Avenue (the original entry of the church). It consists of six cusped occuli with flame motifs, surrounding a central occuli, with smaller circles completing the composition. The central occuli contains the Star of David, an image found in many late nineteenth-century churches. The south balcony has a series of three stained glass windows, the left window by the Tiffany Studios

in New York. The words “I Bring You Good Tidings of Great Joy” commemorate the first sermon by Rev. John Montieth in 1816. The central window, also by the Tiffany Studios, depicts John the Evangelist with his attributes of an eagle and book and is a memorial to Rev. George Duffield Sr., pastor from 1838 to 1868. The third window echoes the aqua windows in the tower. On the north wall under the east balcony is an opalescent double-lancet window from the Tiffany Studios, “Jesus in Sorrow.” The organ, by the Farrand and Votey Company, was originally installed in 1891 by Jacob Farrand Jr. in memory of his father, Jacob Farrand, and his sister Mary. It was rebuilt and added to in the 1930s by Casavant Freres of Saint Hyacinth, Quebec, and was rededicated on Sunday, October 13, 1935. In 1911 a visually compatible adjoining “church house” was built with offices and classrooms, and immediately adjacent to the sanctuary is a large meeting room now called the Renaissance Room. Because of declining membership, in 1990 the congregation of First Presbyterian voted to merge with Westminster Presbyterian Church in northwest Detroit. The Woodward Avenue facility was then rented to the Ecumenical Theological Seminary (ETS). In 2002 the Presbytery of Detroit gave ETS the complete facility and all endowments, which paved the way for accreditation from the Association of Theological Schools. July 2006 brought a new president, the Rev. Dr. Marsha Foster Boyd. She is committed to bringing members of Detroit’s diverse community together in an ecumenical learning environment. ■

15 First Congregational Church 33 East Forest Avenue dedicated December 13, 1891 architect John Lyman Faxon

The evangelist Matthew painted on the ceiling by Boston artist Miss Lyle Durgin

Interior detail

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ongregationalism was brought to America by the Pilgrims in 1620 and gradually became a major church group in New England. This religious culture moved westward with the country’s expansion, arriving in Michigan’s northeastern Oakland County by 1827. In 1844 members began to meet in Detroit’s old City Hall on Cadillac Square. During the next forty years at least two houses of worship were built, but by 1886 members decided to purchase property north on Woodward Avenue for a larger church. The church committee responsible for selecting an architect was probably familiar with the April 1889 issue of the Inland Architect, which had an article and photographs about First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, designed by Boston architect John Lyman Faxon. Two years later Faxon was invited to design Detroit’s First Congregational Church, which is nearly a stylistic twin of the church in Newton. Based on the plan of a Greek cross, the style of the church is Romanesque Revival with strong Byzantine elements, as detailed by Faxon himself in “The New Old First,” an 1891 church souvenir publication. The facade is of

rough-hewn blocks of red Houghton County, Michigan, sandstone. The three main facades each have a broad triangular gable with that fronting on Woodward Avenue containing a deep porch with five Romanesque portals. The multiple columns on the porch, capped with large capitals, are an important part of the decoration that includes polychrome patterning of diamond, dogtooth, and dagger shapes in green and yellow. A large semicircular arch above the porch contains two tiers of miniature round-topped arches surrounded with glazed tiles. Like the main facade, those on the north and south have broad triangular gables, each pierced by a large, circular, stained glass window with cookie cutter–style tracery. A 120-foot square tower rises on the south. It has three tiers of ascending open arcades with a tall triangular roof repeating the shape of the front gable. At the peak stands an eight-foot cast bronze statue of the archangel Uriel. The church’s interior is dominated by large ribbed vaults that create the effect of a huge dome. The east arm of the Greek cross contains a semicircular vaulted arch with the chancel on a raised platform, creating a distinct space for

Interior with large ribbed vaults and the original cruciform chandelier

Close-up of interior behind altar

the pastor and the choir. The arch is supported by marble columns topped with white capitals that are carved like lace. Additional smaller vaulted arches are to the right and left of the chancel, each with intricate wood carvings. Pews in the sanctuary are arranged concentrically to focus on the chancel. Filling the segments of the vaults are immense images of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, painted on canvas by the Boston artist Miss Lyle Durgin in a Venetian Renaissance style. The balance of the interior is highly decorated, with large angels, gold crosses, and many Christian symbols all placed on a background of wine red. The ribs of the vaults are also highly decorated, and First Congregational still has its original light fixtures. Suspended over the sanctuary is a large cruciformshaped chandelier with wall sconces in the shape of crossed cornucopias. The cookie-cutter stained glass windows in the north and south gables are basically clear glass, allowing significant light into the sanctuary. Encircling the building are relatively plain windows with repeated leaded circular patterns. In the narthex are life-size images in opalescent glass of men who are considered great religious prophets (Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel). The five identical stained glass windows in the back of the chancel, now backlit, all have an image of a banner. All of the stained glass in the sanctuary was designed by Donald McDonald of Boston. The current organ is one of many in Detroit from Casavant Freres of Saint Hyacinth, Quebec, and dates to 1918–19. The balcony at the Woodward Avenue side of the sanctuary was specially constructed to accommodate the large organ, somewhat obscuring the stained glass windows of the prophets. In 1966–67 the organ was rebuilt and completely restored. The chapel behind the church was completed and used before the main sanctuary; the two were

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Sandstone columns at front entry

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Eight-foot bronze statue of the archangel Uriel at the peak of the tower

originally separated by an open passageway. The 1924–25 twolevel Community House attached to the rear of the church was designed by Albert Kahn as a parish house. Today First Congregational Church is located in the heart of Detroit’s Cultural Center. Church records indicate that the congregation was very involved in the Underground Railroad at a previous location near presentday Fort Street and Washington Boulevard. The lower level of First Congregational features an Underground Railroad Tour where visitors have a chance to play the roles of slaves escaping to Canada. This project has been spearheaded by the Rev. Lottie Jones Hood and now has three program partners: Eastern Michigan University, Ecumenical Theological Seminary, and Wayne State University. ■

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Exterior from Woodward and Forest avenues

16 Cass Avenue United Methodist Church 3901 Cass Avenue dedicated November 13, 1892 architect Malcomson and Higginbotham

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hen the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church was first formed in 1880–81, it was as a mission from Central Methodist Episcopal Church on Woodward Avenue at Grand Circus Park. The land purchased for the new mission church was part of the original General Lewis Cass “ribbon” farm that extended all the way down to the Detroit River. When this new parish was founded at Cass Avenue and Selden Street, the surrounding area was fast growing. Silas Farmer, secretary of the church’s board of trustees, had already written a comprehensive history of Detroit and Michigan and was instrumental in guiding the fate of the parish. By May 1883 sufficient funds had been gathered to begin construction of a building. The board of trustees commissioned the local architectural firm Mason and Rice to design a “small chapel and a congregational house.” The house faced south on Selden with

the chapel immediately behind it, saving the corner for future construction of a large church. Both structures are extant, but when a new, larger church was finally constructed, the facade of the congregational house was altered to agree with the style of the new church. Another Detroit firm, Malcomson and Higginbotham, was commissioned to design the new church. It was their first major collaboration since becoming partners and they chose the popular Romanesque Revival style for the building. The cornerstone was laid September 1891 with the dedication November 1892. The exterior of the church is a buffcolored limestone (now somewhat discolored by city pollution), set in a coursed ashlar pattern. A massive square tower is located where the two streets converge, rising to a height of eighty-six feet. Within the tower are slender portal-like openings, and the whole structure

Stained glass window detail

opposite: Stained glass, designed by architects, fabricated by Tiffany Studios, New York

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Exterior from corner of Cass Avenue and Selden Street

Close-up of stone tympanum above door

is capped with a tall, prominent triangular green roof. Alongside the tower and the south-facing facade is a somewhat miniature conical stair tower topped by a picturesque witch’s cap. There are three important facades, depending on the point of view, and all contain a dominant gable pierced by round-arched stained glass windows. Research confirms the roof of the church was also green slate but has been replaced. The main entrance into the church is through the doorways in the tower. Above the doors are stone tympana with acanthus leaves framing the faces of two angels and the name of the church, all carved into the stone. Once inside, the tower space is continuous with that of the narthex, revealing the interior to be that of a shallow Greek cross. Since its construction the interior has remained relatively unchanged, with

immense red oak trusses springing from sturdy columns. The ceiling is divided into rectangular panels, outlined by red oak frames. The auditorium seats about six hundred with a floor that slopes down toward the chancel, providing good viewing from the pews. A curved railing separates the sanctuary from the chancel, which contains the pulpit and altar. Behind and recessed within the chancel’s semicircular arch are two banks of seats for the choir and the organ pipes. The organ was built in 1892 by Johnson and Sons in Westfield, Massachusetts, as their Opus 779 and, almost entirely unaltered, is reputedly the largest nineteenthcentury organ in Michigan, with three manuals and thirty-four ranks of pipes. The interior is dominated by the two immense stained glass windows in the north and south transepts,

cass avenue united methodist church

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Interior showing ceiling details

one of which was featured on the cover of Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit. These windows have very arabesque lines with pastel floral elements—the north window has warm tones, with cooler tones in the south window—creating a mood reminiscent of an ornate Persian rug. Careful observation reveals the blossoms chosen for representation, and the manner in which they are placed forms a religious iconographic scheme of Victorian floral symbolism. Somewhat unusual is the fact these windows were designed by the architects but fabricated by the Tiffany Studios in New York. They are very unlike the firm’s popular figural and landscape themes as found in several other Detroit churches (Saint John’s Episcopal, Christ Church, Trinity Episcopal, and First Presbyterian). Additional stained glass windows are attributed to Friederichs and Staffin (Detroit Stained Glass Works) and contain less complex designs than those of the large windows. Smaller arched windows are found on the same facades as the larger windows, adding an interesting rhythm to the exterior fenestration. Today known as Cass Community United Methodist Church, their main focus has always been the surrounding community. As early as 1894 the founder of the Visiting Nurses Society was given support. In the 1930s, during the depression, there was an outreach program of food and clothing. More recently a Cass Center Advisory Board was established, with financial and material donations coming from the corporate community as well as other churches in the southeast Michigan area. The original chapel is now a youth center, and the church social program operates out of another building on Cass Avenue, just across Selden Street. ■

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Organ pipes detail

cass avenue united methodist church

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17 Trinity Episcopal Church (now Spirit of Hope Church) 1519 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard dedicated January 1, 1893 architect Mason and Rice

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n 1880 the congregation of what was then known as Epiphany Reformed Episcopal Church purchased a lot just south of the intersection of Grand River and Trumbull avenues and built a small frame church. The church was down the street from the home of James E. Scripps, founder of the Detroit News. Fortunately for Epiphany, Scripps joined the congregation and became the driving artistic and monetary force in building the present church, which changed its name to Trinity Episcopal Church in 1889. A trip to England in the 1880s sparked Scripps’s interest in English medieval Gothic architecture. Upon his return, Scripps intended to produce an authentic copy of a fourteenth-century English Gothic church and, in doing so, built Detroit’s first example of true Gothic Revival architecture. Trinity is clearly an amalgam of extensively researched architectural forms and details from various English

churches. The overall model was inspired by smaller parish churches rather than large cathedrals. To accurately capture the details of various churches in the English countryside, Scripps employed an English architect to take measured drawings. To carry out his vision back in Detroit, Scripps hired the firm of Mason and Rice, which had also been commissioned to design an addition for Scripps’s home on Trumbull Avenue. George Mason was the principal architect on the church project. From his training and travel abroad, Mason knew English medieval and Gothic architecture firsthand. The building permit for Trinity was issued on July 2, 1890, and was taken out by Scripps himself. Built almost entirely of local limestone with sandstone trim, the church has crenellations along every roofline, mimicking battlements of a fortress. The building is cruciform in plan with a massive square

opposite: Interior looking toward altar

One of several gargoyles on the exterior

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Exterior from Grand River and Trumbull avenues with numerous crenellations

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One of several stone carved angels

tower rising two stories above the crossing of the nave and transepts. A unique feature is the external stair tower, made in the traditional manner with stone steps laid in a spiral configuration. The walls are two feet thick of solid masonry without internal wooden or steel framing. Buttresses are utilized at each corner as both decorative and structural elements. Attached to the southwest portion of the church is a parish hall that is also built of limestone. Known as the Wilson Parish Hall, it was named after Rev. W. Warne Wilson, who ironically died the day of the hall’s dedication in 1926. The exterior is decorated with many gargoyles and expressive human and animal figures known as grotesques. The gargoyles not only function as drain spouts, directing water away from the exterior walls, but are also fabled to direct “evil spirits” outward and away from the church. Two significant stone carvings flank the Trumbull entrance. On the left is Richard II, king of England during the period this church invokes. On the right is John Wycliff, the first translator of the Bible into English. The use of ornate Gothic tracery in each of the windows is yet another example of the details copied directly from original English sources. The proportions of the interior are enhanced by the oak-timbered, paneled ceiling and massive stone clustered columns. The nave is configured in a typical manner with a lower ceiling in the side aisles

with clerestory windows above. The crossing vault beneath the tower is said to be the first true stone vault in Michigan, built entirely of stone without any type of interior reinforcement. The flat wall behind the altar contains a large stained glass window by Mayer of Munich with a Gothic arched wood ceiling above. Other stained glass windows in the building include works by the Tiffany and Willet studios. Stonecarved angels gaze down upon the worshippers in contrast to the gargoyles located at corresponding spaces on the exterior. The angels form the corbel bases of beams supporting the timber roof. An 1892 tracker organ from George Jardine and Son is original to the building and was a gift of George Scripps, James Scripps’s brother. Once the church of Detroit’s elite and privileged, Trinity today has a smaller congregation working with minimal resources as stewards of this architectural treasure. Other congregations have made this building their new home for worship, including Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian, formerly located just up the street. In 2006 Trinity Episcopal merged to form a joint Lutheran and Episcopal congregation and is now called Spirit of Hope Church. The congregation provides services to the surrounding area such as a soup kitchen, a preschool, and youth programs. As host to frequent gatherings and everyday activity, the building is utilized more now than perhaps at any other time in its history. ■

One of several gargoyles on the exterior

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18 Sweetest Heart of Mary, Roman Catholic 4440 Russell Street dedicated December 24, 1893 architect Spier and Rohns

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t one time able to seat 2,400 people, Sweetest Heart of Mary is considered one of the largest Catholic churches in metropolitan Detroit. The history of the church is rooted in the midnineteenth-century immigration of Poles who came to the Detroit area from north Poland. This group was bilingual and therefore once in Detroit looked for German parishes such as Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church located near the current Eastern Market. At some point, as a result of inhospitable treatment by the German congregation, about three hundred Polish families decided to start a church of their own, that of Saint Albertus. Father Dominic Kolasinski was invited from Krakow, Poland, to lead this new congregation. Just as construction of the church was completed, he had a major

disagreement with some of the trustees; the bishop sided with the trustees, and Kolasinski was quickly relieved of his duties. When Kolasinski’s supporters tried to prevent the next assigned priest from entering Saint Albertus, there were many problems. Father Kolasinski subsequently left for a parish in North Dakota. In his absence his supporters began their own imformal church community, the genesis of Sweetest Heart of Mary. In late 1888 Bishop Harry Borgess was reassigned owing to increasing public criticism of his handling of the Kolasinski situation. Kolasinski then returned to Detroit, hoping to be reinstated at Saint Albertus, but that did not happen. Kolasinski and his group of supporters purchased land at Canfield and Russell streets, independent of the diocese and only two short blocks from Saint Albertus, and proceeded to build a multipurpose building (school, rectory, and small chapel), designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Spier and Rohns. Dedicated June 10, 1889, this building soon proved too small. Father Kolasinski and the trustees again engaged Spier and Rohns, this time to build a “church of cathedral proportions.” Completed in 1893 and designed in the Late Gothic Revival style, the current Sweetest Heart of Mary is a cruciform-shaped building topped with very tall twin spires, which, along with the large stained glass window with its prominent star design, are the focal points. A flèche over the crossing has long since been removed. The front facade is highly decorative; the three entrances all have ornately carved wood doors. The middle door in a recessed portal is much larger than the adjacent doors. These doors have recently been replaced with replicas because of considerable termite damage. The lower half of the front facade is gray stone, which contrasts brilliantly with the red brick towers Recent small model of the church

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Exterior from Russell and Canfield streets

Interior with large transept stained glass window

crowned with white limestone and tall slate spires. The north, south, and east facades continue the red brick, with all the stained glass windows outlined in white limestone. The transepts are unusual in that they give a somewhat curved appearance and contain the largest stained glass windows in the building. Inside, the church is laid out with two side naves flanking the long central aisle. Large wroughtiron columns are encased in scagliola painted to represent marble. The ceiling is vaulted into a series of groined sections, the ribs of the sections branching into the tops of the columns that have indirect lighting hidden by the carved and gilded capitals. In between the groined sections, canvas has been glued to the ceiling and is painted with gold stars, angels, and the portraits of many saints. The tripartite main altar is extremely elaborate, carved of wood and painted white. It reaches to the top of the ceiling. There are five niches up rather high; the central one holds a nine-foot statue of the Virgin Mary and the others contain important saints. Behind the altar and high in the apse are two murals; the one on the left is a replica of a painting of the Immaculate Conception made famous by the Spanish painter Murillo (1617–82).

The two side altars are separated from the main altar by a tall Gothic-arched wall but are similar in concept to the main altar—they are painted white, exhibit gilding, and contain several statues in niches. Rounding out the east side of the church are additional smaller side altars contained within a portion of each transept. In addition to the altar, the other main focal points of the church are the two enormous (twentyfive feet tall and sixty feet wide) multilancet stained glass windows in the transepts. These windows have long been reported to have been designed by the local firm of Friederichs and Staffin, later known as Detroit Stained Glass Works. However, there is a possibility the windows were from the Wells Glass Company in Chicago; the church archives contain evidence of a lawsuit settled by a 1907 payment to the Wells Glass Company in the amount of $13,545.20. The main section of the south transept window tells the story of the boy Jesus working in his father’s carpenter shop, while the north transept window is dedicated to Saint Vincent de Paul and his charitable works. In addition, there are familiar themes in several other stained glass windows: “The Good Shepherd,” “Saint Michael,” and “Christ and the Little Children.”

These can be found in churches around the world and are easily recognizable. The windows cost $2,500 each, a large sum in 1893–94. The Holy Family window was exhibited at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago and, as with many other entrants in this category, was presented with a special award. The tracery at the top of the transept and nave windows is very interesting in that each has a different six-point star design similar to Polish paper cutouts (wycinanki). The 1894 Austin Organ Opus 2 was restored in 1977. It is a two-manual instrument with twenty ranks and now has an electromagnet system. On the site with the church are several related buildings: an 1889 school building, a 1900 rectory, and a 1923 convent. There have been several major restoration projects at Sweetest Heart, both interior and exterior, signaling a renaissance in the area. Of interest to genealogists, church baptismal records (1887– 1936), marriage records (1890–1936), and death records (1898–1934) are available at the Burton Historical Collection in the Detroit Public Library. In June 2003 several sister Catholic parishes in this area were “clustered” under the administration of a single priest: Sweetest Heart of Mary, Saint Joseph’s, and Saint Josaphat. ■

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View toward altar, Sweetest Heart of Mary

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19 Our Lady of the Rosary, Roman Catholic 5930 Woodward Avenue at Edsel Ford Freeway service drive dedicated March 1907 (Originally built as Saint Joseph Episcopal Church, dedicated February 10, 1896) architect Malcomson and Higginbotham

Carved stone sign from the original Saint Joseph’s chapel, still extant

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n 1883 Mrs. Lucetta Medbury provided funds for what was then Saint Joseph Episcopal Memorial Chapel, on land owned by her husband, to be built in honor of her parents. Ten years later the congregation had grown, and again Mrs. Medbury offered land and the funds for an Episcopal church to be built adjacent to the chapel. By 1904 there were plans for construction of a new Episcopal church, to be Detroit’s Episcopal Cathedral, nearby at Warren and Woodward avenues. Some members of Saint Joseph’s wanted to join the new church. Still others wanted to build another Saint Joseph’s church farther north on Woodward and Holbrook (which eventually occurred and is now Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph Protestant Episcopal Church). Fortuitously, the Roman Catholic parish of Our Lady of the Rosary, then located nearby on Harper Avenue, was in need of a larger facility. The priest, Father Francis Van Antwerp, purchased both the Episcopal church and adjacent chapel in 1907 for $20,000, and it became Our Lady of the Rosary. The original Saint Joseph’s chapel was built on what was then Medbury Street and is now the Edsel Ford Freeway service drive at Woodward Avenue. This single-story building is extant, with an exterior of red Ionia sandstone from midMichigan. Round-headed portals and windows give it a modified Romanesque Revival style. There is an adjacent square bell tower that at the time served as the entrance and vestibule for the chapel. The interior space is auditorium style with a wood truss ceiling with pierced end beams and carved foliage corbels suggesting a Victorian Gothic style. Today there are no pews, only chairs. A large three-lancet stained glass window is behind the table that serves as the altar for daily prayer services. When the larger church was constructed during 1893–96, the exterior was also red Ionia sandstone to match that of the chapel, with

elements echoing the Romanesque Revival style. The outstanding feature was and still is a 150-foot-high square corner tower with a crenellated parapet and an overhanging turret. A small circular tower on the north side of the facade houses a baptistery, with the principal church entrance between the towers in a single, round-arched portal. A large circular stained glass window is within a triangular portal overhead. When Father Van Antwerp acquired the church in 1907 and it became Our Lady of the Rosary, the first thing he did to give the church a Roman Catholic identity was to erect a gilded statue atop the tall corner tower. This nearly life-sized sculpture of the Virgin Mary is said to have been acquired from the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. However, in 1937 the base on which the sculpture was standing began to crumble. Instead of rebuilding the base, a structure was built that raised the statue up another ten feet, where it can be seen today. Father Van Antwerp also made arrangements to purchase new stained glass windows from a European studio that reflected appropriate subjects for a Roman Catholic church. The next priority was converting the interior space to accommodate the liturgical needs of a Roman Catholic service. The sanctuary was lengthened to the east, allowing the church and chapel to seem like one continuous structure on the exterior. This increased the church seating to 1,230 and provided room for an elaborate altar. An organ was installed in the new choir loft built on the Woodward side, allowing for a vestibule underneath at the main entrance of the church. Two semicircular niches and two confessional rooms were added. These structures were capped with decorative crenellations like those on the rest of the building, thus supporting the integrity of the original design. The interior of Our Lady of the Rosary Church was modified again during 1963–65 in response

Exterior from the middle of Woodward Avenue

opposite: Contrasting with modern renovations are the early stained glass windows from Europe

Contemporary cross and slatted screen detail renovations from 1978

to liturgical directives from the Second Vatican Council, and again in 1977–78 when the clergy and parishioners redefined their mission statement and wished to have a church that reflected it. Hugh Timlin, an artist-instructor at nearby College for Creative Studies (then Center for Creative Studies), was commissioned to create a different ambiance. After consultation with the Parish Council, all of the pews were removed and replaced with chairs so that the seating could be flexible. The decorative stone walls and painted ceiling treatments

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were all whitewashed. The new altar table, lecterns, baptismal font, processional cross, and candlesticks were fabricated out of materials, as the artist described, found in a city environment: wood, iron, and cement. A slatted wood screen created a semi-private prayer chapel. The urban landscape north of the Cultural Center continues to evolve; nevertheless, Our Lady of the Rosary stands steadfast on the site it has occupied for over one hundred years. The statue of the Virgin Mary prevails and now, with night illumination, is visible for miles around. ■

20 Saint Josaphat, Roman Catholic 691 East Canfield Street dedicated August 5, 1901 architects Joseph G. Kastler and William E. N. Hunter

Interior view with altar, early speaking platform, ornate chandelier, and transept

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teeped in Polish patriotism, Saint Josaphat, with its distinctive three spires, exists today as evidence of the former lively Polish quarter of Detroit. Immigrants from Prussian-occupied regions of Poland began to arrive in Detroit in the 1850s. The FrancoPrussian War of 1870–71 resulted in a further influx of immigrants from Pomerania and Poznania, Prussian Poland. In their new adopted land, immigrants found in the church a spiritual home and an intermediary to retain cultural and social traditions. At the turn of the twentieth century, the area surrounding the church was a self-contained, primarily Polish community where people lived and worked. By the 1870s the need for a Polish-speaking Catholic parish in Detroit was apparent. The Saint Josaphat Parish, founded in 1889, became the third such parish within a one-mile area on East Canfield Street to minister to the spiritual, social, and educational needs of Detroit’s east-side polish community. Saint Josaphat, Saint Albertus, and Sweetest Heart of Mary comprise the original three Polish-speaking parishes in this compact area, the center of political, entertainment, and social activities. The three church parishes, located so close in proximity, allowed regional ethnic traditions to be maintained without difficulty. East Canfield was at one time referred to as the “Polish Woodward Avenue.” The cornerstone of the present Romanesque and Gothic Revival church building was laid on April 22, 1900. Constructed of orange-red common brick, laid with red mortar, and accented in Indiana Bedford limestone, the three-steeple facade is dominated by a central, twohundred-foot spire that is flanked on either side by a twin-buttressed tower, one hundred feet in height. The central bay contains the primary entrance while each side tower base is slightly recessed from the central tower and contains a secondary entrance. The grouping

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Interior view with speaking platform and painted mural

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Close-up of a Station of the Cross

of three steeples, while a departure from architectural tradition of churches built in the United States at this time, was a more common configuration in earlier eastern European churches, and this form clearly reflects churches in Poland. An additional eastern European architectural influence may also be found in the steeply pitched roof over the nave, a typical roof form in areas with heavy snowfall. Once entirely covered with gray slate, the original roofing material was

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removed in 1964. Only the spires retain the original slate. The rectory was built in 1901, directly west of the church, and slightly farther west, a sisters’ residence was completed in 1907. The overall plan is cruciform with a barrel-vaulted three-aisle nave. The nave is equal in height to the transepts while the side aisles are considerably lower in height. The side aisles feature round arches supported by marble-like round columns and boxed piers. A clerestory

above the side aisles has roundheaded windows. The sanctuary is entered through a narthex that is separated from the main sanctuary. Two stairways at opposite ends of the narthex lead to a choir loft that is cantilevered over the rear of the sanctuary and supported by marblelike columns. The interior ceiling and wall surfaces feature an extensive collection of painted images. The flat wall surfaces are painted ivory. Stained glass windows were crafted by the Detroit Stained Glass Works and include depictions of the twelve apostles in large, round-arched windows. The rose windows on the east and west walls of the transept depict Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary. The windows in the clerestory without figures are the only windows that provide the names of the donors. The lighting system has remained unaltered since it replaced the original gas light fixtures in the early 1900s. Hundreds of bare lightbulbs line the ribbing of the vaulting of the apse, and a large chandelier hangs over the sanctuary also with bare globe-shaped bulbs. Three enormous bells are located in the central tower, just under the spire. The Stations of the Cross are original and labeled in Polish. The current twelve-rank pipe organ was purchased from the First Baptist Church of Royal Oak in 1966. The parish faced many challenges in the 1960s, including dwindling membership, deteriorating buildings, and the loss of the urban community it once served. A school run by the Felician Sisters was closed in 1960, as was their residence building. The school was demolished in 1961, and the site directly west of the rectory is now a parking lot. The church is now surrounded by low-rise multiple apartment buildings on three sides and the Chrysler Freeway directly to the east. The parish has redefined itself and is dedicated to serving the area it now occupies as well as many worshippers who travel from surrounding communities. ■

Exterior view from across Canfield Street showing three towers

21 Temple Beth El

Exterior of the original Temple Beth El at 3424 Woodward Avenue, now the Bonstelle Theater, owned by Wayne State University

1st Temple Beth El (now Bonstelle Theatre) 3424 Woodward Avenue dedicated September 18, 1903 architect Albert Kahn of Mason and Kahn

2nd Temple Beth El (now Lighthouse Cathedral) 8801 Woodward Avenue dedicated November 10, 1922 architect Albert Kahn

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Interior of the second Temple Beth El, at 8801 Woodward Avenue, showing the saucer-shaped painted dome

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hat began as a small gathering of worshippers in a Detroit home organized to become Michigan’s first Jewish congregation. From these modest beginnings, the congregation flourished and endured, leaving a significant architectural legacy for Detroit. The Beth El Society was formally organized on September 22, 1850, at a time when the population of Jews in Detroit was sixty. The first meeting was held at the home of Sarah and Isaac Cozens at Congress and Saint Antoine streets in Detroit. This original Orthodox congregation consisted of twelve German immigrant families led by Samuel Marcus, the first rabbi of the congregation who also served as cantor, teacher, shochet, and mohel. Articles of Incorporation were filed in 1851, and the name was changed to congregation Beth El. In 1856 the congregation adopted new bylaws and joined the Jewish Reform movement. For ten years the growing congregation continued to worship in private homes, above commercial buildings, or in other borrowed spaces. In 1861 they purchased the former French Methodist Church on Rivard Street. This building became known as the Rivard Street Synagogue until 1867 when the congregation purchased the former Tabernacle Baptist Church at Washington Boulevard and Clifford Street. As the congregation grew, groundbreaking for a new site at 3424 Woodward Avenue was held on November 25, 1901, and they were able to occupy it in 1903. The German Reform congregation adopted an unassigned seating system, reportedly one of the first congregations in the United States to do so. The Beaux-Arts, neo-Classical structure was designed by the Detroit architect Albert Kahn, himself a member of the congregation. A photograph of Temple Beth El is known to have hung prominently on the wall behind Kahn’s desk, evidence

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El has been greatly altered. The notable theater architect Charles Howard Crane was the architect of the renovation in 1924–25. A large addition was also made to the rear, and the renovation and conversion project left no elements of the original Louis XVI–styled interiors. The widening of Woodward in the 1930s resulted in drastic changes to the appearance of the facade and its setting. A large expanse of land in front of the building was lost, placing the front of the building very close to the newly widened major thoroughfare. In 1932, the building became the Mayfair Motion Picture Theater. According to a 1934 building permit, the front portico was enclosed and a marquis was added to the facade. It has been speculated that the facade’s elegant carving still exists under the modern enclosure. In 1951 the building was rented by Wayne State University and then purchased. Today the building is known as the Bonstelle Theatre and houses the Wayne State University Theatre arts program.

Exterior of the original Temple Beth El (Burton Historical Collection)

that this was a building of which he was particularly proud. The building, in essence, is a replica of the Pantheon, a Classical Roman form. Widely popular in the United States for public and institutional buildings from 1885 until the 1920s, neo-Classicism was a natural influence in the design of this building. A pediment entrance bay extends toward Woodward Avenue. Shallow, gabled wings also extend from the north and south side elevations. Smooth white limestone faces the front and sides while the less visible areas are of common, buff-yellow brick. On the interior, semicircular auditorium seating was located under the saucer-shaped dome, with its central core supported by piers. An adjoining assembly room with

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classrooms was separated from the auditorium by folding doors. The building also contained separate parlors for men and women and a library. The building is notable as one of the first synagogues in the United States designed to accommodate a multitude of uses in a single building by employing movable partitions that separated spaces to allow for religious, cultural, and social activities associated with modern Jewish worship. Again, as the congregation grew, they needed a larger facility and looked farther north up Woodward Avenue. After they moved, the building served as the Bonstelle Playhouse from 1925 to 1932. As a result of the major renovation to convert the building to a theater, the former Temple Beth

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monument to early twentieth-century Classical Revival architecture, the second synagogue designed by Kahn for the congregation is a true temple form. Greek Revival in style and based on the strict use of Ionic order both inside and out, the building is symmetrical with a shallow pedimented portico and dentiled cornice. Reminiscent of the Acropolis Parthenon, eight columns grace the facade, spanning both stories. Three entrance doors under the portico have simple, classical surrounds. The facade is limestone while the remaining elevations are common brick. The frieze states, “My house shall be a house of worship to all nations.” The main auditorium is a vast,

domed space. Curved pews form semicircular seating on a sloping floor with a balcony across the rear of the auditorium. Murals by Myron Barlow, the internationally known Detroit Jewish artist, were completed in 1925 and depict the Patriarch, Prophet and Priest, Student, and Immigrant. The former bema, the raised platform from which the Torah is read, was brought here from the previous synagogue at 3424 Woodward and now is located at the current Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Hills. In addition to the auditorium, the three-story building also contains numerous classrooms, lounges, offices, and meeting rooms with a lower level housing a social hall and gym. By 1960 Temple Beth El was the fourth largest Reform congregation in the United States with nearly six thousand members and needed a larger facility. Following the migration of many of its members to the northwestern suburbs, Congregation Temple Beth El is currently located in Bloomfield Hills at Telegraph and 14 Mile roads in a stunning building designed by Minoru Yamasaki and built in 1973. Many objects from the previous homes of Temple Beth El are now housed in its present synagogue, including the original ark, eternal flame, massive menorah light fixtures, and 40,000-pipe airpumped organ. Also from the first Temple Beth El at 3424 Woodward are a wide assortment of Heinigke and Smith enamel-painted medallion windows depicting the Ten Commandments, suspended in front of the glass walls that join the administration building to the foyer of the sanctuary. The second Temple Beth El, having served as the Lighthouse Cathedral for over twenty years, is now the Community Church of Christ. ■

Sanctuary of the original Temple Beth El. The round stained glass windows were later moved and incorporated into the second temple. (Courtesy of the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives at Temple Beth El.) Sanctuary of the second Temple Beth El. (Courtesy of the Rabbi Leo M. Franklin Archives at Temple Beth El.)

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22 People’s Community Church 8601 Woodward Avenue dedicated May 8, 1910 (Built as North Baptist Church/First Baptist Church of Detroit) architect John Coxhead

Stained glass window detail

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or over fifty years People’s Community Church has occupied the building that was originally North Baptist Church. That congregation merged with their mother church and took their name, becoming First Baptist Church in 1912, a little over two years after the dedication of this new building at Woodward Avenue and Pingree Street, as part of the second Piety Hill area of Detroit churches. The Gothic Revival gray structure is rough-cut limestone with

a gabled entry facing Woodward Avenue. The gable is dominated by a large arched and traceried stained glass window balanced by a flat-topped, square-buttressed tower with a louvered belfry. The main entry to the church is through the tower. The south facade, or educational wing, is dominated by another gable with a similar stained glass window. Between this gable and the tower is a flat-roofed portion, which contains a large conference room space, with stained glass windows on two sides. The north facade also has a tall gable with another large stained glass window. From farther up Woodward, looking south toward the church, one can see a very large skylight on the roof, an indication of the oculus stained glass dome in the ceiling of the sanctuary. The interior of the church is laid out in the Akron plan (developed for the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Akron, Ohio, which was very common in the late nineteenth century. A large rotunda, or auditorium, was surrounded by small rooms generally on two levels, which were Sunday school spaces. Doors (folding or sliding and in this case folding and inset with stained glass) could be opened between the spaces to increase the seating capacity of the church when necessary. However, here several of the early smaller rooms have been converted into office spaces. Dark oak wainscoting encircles the room with the wood pews curving around the sanctuary in a semicircular manner and slightly banked. The altar and baptismal area are raised as the focus for the congregation. At one time the auditorium could seat between 800 and 1,200, with all the Sunday school room doors opened to the sanctuary. Today there is still one larger opposite: Interior looking toward Woodward Avenue, with curved wood balcony and large stained glass ocular dome

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Interior looking toward altar, choir lo, and organ

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Exterior view from Woodward Avenue of front entry (right) and educational wing (le)

area that can be opened to the main auditorium. The altar area is quite ornate, with considerable gilding on the carved wood Gothic-style arches. These arches surround the marble baptismal pool located behind the altar, which is large enough to allow for full submersion. A balcony completely encircles the auditorium, with the portion directly above the pulpit designated as a choir loft that includes an expanse of organ pipes. Gilded wood ornamentation is found on the face of the balcony, creating a picturesque interior space. A spectacular and unusual sight is the ocular stained glass dome that dominates the rounded ceiling. As these domes were found in many buildings designed by the architect John Coxhead from Buffalo, New York, it was probably designed by him and fabricated by local artisans. Over twenty-five feet in diameter, the dome is surmounted by a huge skylight in the roof, which provides daylight. There is artificial lighting in the attic space to provide illumination after dark. Church lore states that local builder Guy Vinton designed the building, but documents from Buffalo show that Coxhead was the architect. The organ was built by the M. P. Moller Organ Company in Hagerstown, Maryland, Opus 6694. In 1954 People’s Community Church was established, and for a while they met in the home of a member on Detroit’s east side. Later, services were held in a small Baptist church nearby. When the membership reached six hundred, it was necessary to look for a larger building. First Baptist Church was moving to a new location in Southfield, and their church was soon to be available. The congregation of People’s Community Church had their first service in their new building on April 7, 1957. ■

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23 Holy Family, Roman Catholic 641 Walter P. Chrysler Freeway dedicated November 13, 1910 architect Van Leyen and Schilling

Close-up of painting detail

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n influx of immigrants from southern Italy and Sicily who settled on Detroit’s near east side in the early 1900s wanted a Catholic church of their own. Under the leadership of Father Giovanni Boschi, this congregation was organized in 1908. The chapel of nearby Saints Peter and Paul on Jefferson Avenue was used for worship until their own building was completed at 129 Hastings Street. Today, Hastings Street is the southbound service drive adjacent to the Chrysler Freeway. The original congregation was 80 percent Sicilian. Bearing a striking resemblance to Italian examples such as the Church of San Marco in Florence and Santa Susanna in Rome, the building is Italian baroque in style. The facade is two stories with the upper story more slender and dominated by a broken pediment. Paired pilasters flank a central bay, spanning both stories on the facade. Many small dentils in horizontal bands give the building interest and demonstrate attention to fine detail. A small louvered bell tower with a

Exterior from southbound Chrysler service drive

Interior looking down the central aisle toward the altar

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Ceiling paintings by the Italian artist Angelo Lanzini

One of five altars with scriptural depictions of the Virgin Mary representing the Italian communities from which members of the original congregation immigrated

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triangular pediment front is topped with a cross. The exterior is almost entirely brick except for a small band of limestone on the raised foundation. Originally painted gray, for many years the building was recognizable for its pale yellow paint color. Today a taupe paint color with cream trim covers the brick. The small capacity of the church is unique; it was not built on a grand scale like so many of Detroit’s houses of worship but on a more comfortable human scale. A rectory, built in 1970, is attached to the south side elevation, which replaced an earlier rectory on the site. A fenced, grass-filled sculpture garden is located south of the church, offering a buffer from the busy service drive. A basilican plan, the interior nave has a central aisle and lowerheight side aisles that run the length of the building. Essentially rectangular, very shallow transepts extending only slightly contain small chapels on each side elevation. Large, smooth, round columns divide the nave and side aisles and are painted pale gray. An egg and dart capital detail is painted gold, drawing attention to it. A half-dome apse is located above the main altar, characteristic of the basilican plan. The side altars reveal the southern Italian and Sicilian heritage of its early worshippers. The left altar is dedicated to Maria di Trapani while the right altar is dedicated to Maria delle Grazie di Terrasini. Five altars with sculptural depictions of the Virgin Mary represent Italian communities from which the original members immigrated. One additional altar is dedicated to Saint Joseph. Vibrant colors help create a brilliant and fascinating interior. A pale blue ceiling turns to a vibrant sky

blue in the half-dome apse where angels are floating, surrounded by stars. Many of the interior paintings are by the Italian artist Angelo Lanzini, some painted on canvas and later adhered to the walls. Four large panels applied to the barrelvaulted ceiling of the nave depict scenes in the life of Christ. Behind the main altar, gold stenciling is applied to a cream-colored wall. The wall behind each side altar is also stenciled with a deep blue and gold repeating pattern. The round-arched stained glass windows of the lower story are painted in bold, striking colors and are original to the building. The clerestory windows date from the early 1980s, replacing original clear glass with figural images, in a similar style to those below. One arched window located directly above the main entrance is not seen from the interior, obscured by the church organ located in the balcony. Numerous works of sculpture, most beautifully painted plaster, are found throughout the interior. Once a neighborhood parish located in the heart of Detroit’s Italian immigrant community, the church no longer presides over a residential area. The church once appeared to have been transplanted from an Italian piazza, clustered with its neighboring buildings. The current location facing the service drive of a major freeway causes the building to appear in isolation and very much out of context. Surviving the enormous change around it, the church exists as the oldest traditionally Italian Roman Catholic congregation in Detroit. Holy Family serves a special purpose as the mother church of many area residents of Italian descent. Worshippers from all over the surrounding area celebrate significant events and rites of passage here. ■

24 Cathedral Church of Saint Paul, Episcopal 4800 Woodward Avenue dedicated May 27, 1911 architect Ralph Adams Cram of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson

South transept wood carvings by John Kirchmayer

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he bright red outer doors of the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul are an indication of the treasures to delight the eye found within the massive walls. Located in the heart of the Cultural Center, Saint Paul’s is on the cusp of downtown revitalization and invites a look into its remarkable past. After the British captured Fort Detroit from the French in 1760, Anglican services were conducted in Detroit by an army chaplain. From 1802 to 1824, services were performed by a minister who crossed the Detroit River from Canada via canoe. In 1824, Saint Paul’s became a “parish” after being granted a charter from Governor Lewis Cass and the territorial legislature. In what was then the Northwest Territory, Saint Paul’s became the pioneer of Anglican Episcopal parishes. As with many Detroit churches, congregational growth was the basis for relocating into a larger building. Saint Paul’s was no exception and

has been in several locations. The current setting at the corner of Woodward and Warren avenues is the third site, having been preceded by a location at Woodward and Congress Street, and one at Congress and Shelby streets. The land for the Woodward and Warren site was purchased in 1892 and a small chapel (1896) served the congregation until Saint Paul’s officially was designated the Episcopal Diocese for Michigan. After consulting with architect and church member George D. Mason, the Boston architectural firm of Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson was chosen to design the new building, the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul. The cathedral is a limestone-clad structure of massive proportions, built on the plan of a cross. The front gabled facade is dominated by the compound arched recessed entry, flanked by two staircase turrets and topped by a very large rose stained glass window. The large buttresses supporting the facade step back and culminate in pinnacle turrets framing the rose window. The north and south elevations are also buttressed, and the five tall stained glass window openings are crowned with clerestory windows. There are two transepts, both of which include large stained glass windows. The original plans called for a bell tower over the crossing, which was never built because of financial constraints. The nave of the 208-foot-long interior has three aisles: a wide central aisle and two outside aisles that are separated from the pews by an arched arcade that forms a lowered ceiling over the outside aisles. There are four huge cylindrical stone piers at the four corners of the crossing, intended to carry the never-built tower. The piers and columns have commemorative inscriptions incised on them, including one from the

opposite: Interior view with carved wood reredos sitting directly below five-lancet stained glass window

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family of G. Mennen Williams, governor of Michigan from 1948 to 1960. In the south transept, a spiral staircase winds up to a bell choir gallery immediately in front of a large stained glass window. The wood carvings on the gallery are faces of children who sang in the choir at the time. To the right and left of the chancel are small chapels, with seating provided within the transepts. The Nativity Chapel on the right has a painted mural over the altar by Leo Cartwright, an employee of the Connick Studio of Boston. A large white marble baptismal font dating from 1834 is also in the south transept. Grace Chapel, in the north transept, is noteworthy in that the accoutrements (the altar, cross, rails, lectern, and two stained glass windows, “Visit of the Magi” and the rose window) were brought from old Grace Church. In 1867 some unhappy Saint Paul members had formed Grace Church, but by 1909 the two parishes agreed to merge into the cathedral parish and part of the agreement was to incorporate the above-named items into the new building. Most of the wood figures were carved by the well-known wood carver John Kirchmayer. At the time, Kirchmayer was living in Boston, but he is known as “of Oberammergau fame.” As in many early twentieth-century Detroit churches, tiles designed by Mary Chase Stratton from the Pewabic Pottery cover the floor, with specific symbolism found in the chancel. The ceiling of the nave and transepts is coffered, decorated with symbols depicting the heraldry of dioceses in England and America. Many early Episcopal churches in major cities possess a “who’s who” of the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century world of stained glass. Ralph Adams Cram is said to have planned the overall theme for the stained glass windows, which eventually included the participation of several fine American studios

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Exterior from Woodward Avenue

Pewabic Pottery tiles adorning the floor

Medieval stained glass windows flanking the altar

part iii. 1890–1920

(Charles Connick, J&R Lamb Studios, and William/Henry Willet) and European studios (Mayer of Munich Studio, Powell and Whitefriers, and Heaton, Butler and Bayne). The English stained glass window above the altar shows strong iconographic parallels with the carved reredos below, such that a Cram master plan likely guided the work. Dedicated in June 1979, the newest additions to the stained glass are the contemporary clerestory windows. After sixty years of plain amber glass, the congregation selected Donna Swanson Taylor, a former assistant organist at the cathedral, to design the brightly colored windows. “The Six Days of Creation” are on the south and major figures in the Old Testament on the north, all of which are easily visible from the floor. The J&R Lamb Studios of New York/New Jersey fabricated the windows. An unusual site in a midwestern church is the assortment of

medieval stained glass windows located on each side of the reredos, flanking the altar. As with some of the stained glass collection at the nearby Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), these windows were acquired in the late 1930s or early 1940s by Saint Paul members who were active at the DIA. Another unusual acquisition is two large tapestries on the north wall of Grace Chapel that depict scenes in the life of Saint Paul. Pope Leo X (1475–1521) commissioned a ten-tapestry project designated for the Vatican in Rome. The tapestries were designed by the well-known Italian artist Raphael in 1515 and woven by the Belgian Peter Van Aelst between 1516 and 1519. One set did go to the Vatican, and research shows that there were two and probably three additional sets of tapestries created. The tapestries at Saint Paul were donated by a local philanthropist in 1936, probably purchased through a European art dealer, and are part of those sets now scattered around the world. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London has the original cartoons for seven of the original ten tapestries. The organ is an Austin fourmanual, installed in 1921 and rebuilt in 1951 with a new console by Casavant Freres of Quebec, planned with the specific acoustics of the cathedral in mind. In 1982 the Episcopal Diocese initiated Herlong Cathedral School, located immediately east of the church. The school closed in 2006, and now a Head Start program and a Detroit Montessori School honor the cathedral’s longtime educational commitment. Also located at the cathedral campus, the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is the administrative home for ninety-seven Episcopalian congregations throughout southeast and mid-Michigan, supporting fifteen diocesan-wide social service agencies/programs and chaplains at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University. ■

Tapestry designed and woven during 1516–19 in Belgium

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25 Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church 8501 Woodward Avenue dedicated June 25, 1911 architect Badgley and Nicklas

Exterior view with People’s Community Church in background

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he former Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church’s innovative design and thoughtful use of materials make it a unique feature on the Detroit landscape. Located at the corner of Woodward Avenue and West Philadelphia, part of the upper Piety Hill area, this Presbyterian church was needed to serve the then sparsely populated but rapidly growing north area of the city. Katherine McGregor, daughter of lumber baron David Whitney, donated the land on which the building was to be constructed. Mrs. McGregor also donated the church organ and the land north of the building, which was originally used as a park and playground. The Cleveland firm of Badgley and Nicklas, nationally recognized architects of Protestant churches, was chosen to design the new church. The architects created an interesting and radical departure from more traditional churches in plan and profile. Sidney Badgley, in particular, was well-known for this type of church, which had an auditorium plan and centrally placed octagonal lantern. From the exterior, the structure is dominated by a feature that appears to be a tower but is actually an oversized lantern. Another distinctive feature of the Detroit church is the brown

stone used as construction material. This was used with a coarse “rockfaced” treatment, contrasted with smooth-cut limestone trim. The building has been described generically as modern English Gothic, but through the use of this wonderful, rough-cut stone, the design echoes characteristics commonly associated with the Romanesque Revival style where much of the beauty of the building is created by contrasting stone textures. In addition to the lantern, significant exterior features include a pair of two-story corner towers flanking a wide gable that contains a massive arched stained glass tracery window. A wide set of stairs on the facade leads to paired entrances placed at the base of the gable, which is slightly recessed from the corner towers. The towers, lantern, and south elevation feature stained glass tracery windows. A two-story educational wing attached to the rear of the church was built in a more simplified style but utilized the same materials and textures. The towers and lantern are topped with crenellations, providing a sense of strength and protection for the entire structure.

The interior can be described as a modified Akron plan in that the large auditorium space could be used separately from or together with an adjacent chapel. The west wall of the auditorium is designed like a pocket door with a movable soundproof screen that disappears into the wall space above to allow the chapel to become an integral part of the worship space. The Akron plan, first used in Akron, Ohio, in the 1860s and 1870s, catered to the comfort of all worshippers by permitting unobstructed views and enabling them to hear the

church service clearly. The pews are placed in a semicircle or fan shape around the pulpit, and a curving balcony echoes the shape of the pews on the main floor. The most notable feature of the interior is the massive lantern in the center of the ceiling. With windows on all eight sides, the lantern naturally illuminates the auditorium and creates airflow for passive ventilation. The uncharacteristically large lantern is supported by a large steel truss system hidden within the traditional stone and plaster walls. Dark oak and walnut woodwork contrasts

with cream-colored walls. A handpainted wall behind the pulpit features a cross, surrounded by lilies, simulating a Byzantine mosaic in gold and earthen tones. This color scheme is continued on the ceiling, with a combination of geometric and floral designs. The beauty of the interior is marked by its vast openness, handsome woodwork, and sparing use of decoration. In 1981, the church merged with the former Presbyterian Church of the Covenant located at East Grand Boulevard and Preston. The new congregation became the Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church of the Covenant. Most recently the building served as the home of the Abyssinian Interdenominational Center. ■

26 The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Roman Catholic 9844 Woodward Avenue first mass August 12, 1915 consecrated as cathedral Palm Sunday 1938 architect Henry A. Walsh

Carved stone figures on parapet connecting the towers

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nspired by traditional Norman Gothic architecture, the vast Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament was originally a parish church serving the newly developed Woodward Avenue–Boston Boulevard residential areas. The first mass of the congregation was celebrated in 1905 in a building that had been a shoe factory. Construction of the present building began in 1913, and the building was not entirely completed as we see it today until 1951. In 1915 Father John Connolly,

the founding pastor who served the church until 1941, offered the first mass in the bare building that was still very much under construction. When chosen by Bishop Edward Mooney as the cathedral of the newly created Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit in 1938, the structure was complete except for the towers. The church became the symbolic center of Catholicism in the region. As a cathedral, the building serves as the home church of the resident bishop and hosts the ordination of priests, celebrations of special masses and ceremonies, as well as regular worship services. The original design of the church called for a pair of 136-foot towers to dominate the cruciform structure, but they were not completed until 1951. Plans were made to add the towers and complete the facade, but World War II prevented the project from moving forward. George and Gerald Diehl, father and son Detroit architects, redesigned the tower additions because Henry A. Walsh, the original architect of the structure, was in ill health. On November 17, 1951, the pastor of the cathedral, the Most Rev. Allen J. Babcock, consecrated the completed building. The exterior is rock-faced Ohio sandstone and gray Indiana limestone. Limestone is also used for trim, tracery, and other facings. Pointed spires are located at each corner of the flat roof towers with smaller pinnacles in between each corner. A pierced carved stone parapet screen connects the towers. A large rose stained glass window is located above a central entrance on the facade. Life-sized stone statues flank a central figure of Christ in Gothic niches. The four carved white oak entrance doors feature panels depicting forty religious symbols and themes, ten on each door. Each side elevation is divided into five bays of large Gothic tracery windows separated by buttresses.

opposite: Renovated (2003) interior looking toward the altar

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Exterior from across Woodward Avenue with 1951 towers

A two-story stone Gothic Revival rectory completed in 1913 is located adjacent to the church to the southeast and is the same style and built of the same material as the church. In a typical Gothic configuration, the interior plan is based on a Latin cross plan. A tall, long, narrow nave with side aisles leads to a stone groin-vaulted intersection of the nave and apse. Wide transepts contain the choir and a chapel. The Willet Studios of Philadelphia produced seventeen magnificent stained glass windows that depict scenes in the life of Christ. Huge stained glass clerestory windows allow natural light in the nave. A significant, fifteen-milliondollar renovation was completed in 2003, designed by the noted architect Gunnar Birkerts, who has donated a large collection of drawings for the cathedral and other papers to the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan. Work on the exterior included a new roof and cleaning of the stained glass and stonework. Work on the interior included a new, distinctively modern altar, bishop’s chair, and baptistery, all offering a stark contrast in style and design to the conventional Gothic-inspired interior. Sound, lighting, heating, and cooling systems were updated, and new pews with expanded seating replaced the former original carved oak pews. To the north of the cathedral, Belmont Avenue was permanently closed to create a new landscaped plaza, allowing outdoor gathering space as well as a garden. Upon completion of this substantial work, the cathedral was rededicated on March 25, 2003. ■

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The Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, front entry from Woodward Avenue

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27 Saint Charles Borromeo, Roman Catholic 1515 Baldwin Street dedicated June 13, 1920 architect Peter Dederichs

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eter Dederichs designed this building, the last of his career, for Detroit’s east-side Flemish Catholic population. Originally an offshoot of the Belgian church Our Lady of Sorrows, Saint Charles Borromeo parish was founded in 1886. The parish had worshipped in two earlier structures on Field Street before moving to its present location. Baldwin Street positioned the parish at the heart of the Belgian community. By 1920 the majority of the church’s more than three thousand members were Americans of Belgian descent. The eclectic architectural detailing of the church draws inspiration from many sources but is predominantly Beaux-Arts in style. Owing to the building’s many features commonly associated with other styles,

it has also been described as Renaissance, Romanesque, Classical, Arts and Crafts, and Prairie in style. The building is constructed of red-brown brick on a raised Bedford limestone foundation. The limestone is also used in many areas of trim and decoration, including a two-story, triple-arched portico on the facade. Green ceramic tiles cover areas of the facade and each side elevation above each rose window and in the gable peaks. The roof is covered with red-clay tiles, offering yet another color and texture variation. Towers on each corner of the facade have low-pitched hipped roofs covered with the same redclay tiles. The north tower is taller, commanding a grand presence and anchoring the building at the corner of the street. The baroque interior has been compared to Saint Mary’s in Detroit, which Dederichs also designed. The plan is cruciform with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The interior is extensively ornamented with decorative plasterwork and painted murals. Saint Charles Borromeo was obviously very important to Dederichs, because when Dederichs died in 1924, his funeral was held at this church. He died before a final interior decoration scheme was finalized to cover the whitewashed interior; it remained that way for seventeen years until a deep blue appearance was decided upon by the congregation. Later still, the interior was painted an earth-tone salmon and teal color scheme. Today the interior is painted in cream tones with gold accents and faux painted marble columns. This new, architecturally appropriate color scheme was applied by Jeffery and Matthew Duchene in the 1990s. It took the two brothers, seventh-generation Detroiters, over four years to complete the work, and in the process they added four painted figures in the domed ceiling above the crossing of the two barrel

Exterior views from across Baldwin Street

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Interior looking toward altar

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1990s painted ceiling renovations by Duchene brothers

vaults. The painted figures represent Saint Martin de Porres, Saint Kateri Teakawitha, Saint Andrew Kim, and Father Solanus Casey, an Irish Capuchin who served the ailing and poor of Detroit. The figural stained glass windows are by Daprato Studios of Chicago and New York (now Daprato-Rigali Studios, Chicago). Comprising multiple panes of amber glass, the clerestory windows allow abundant light to flow into the building. Following a common feature of the interior, most windows in the church have round-arched windows including those in the side aisles and clerestory. The side transepts and main facade have round rose windows formed by a simple pattern of round windows. A Wurlitzer organ is located in the balcony. Rare for a church, Wurlitzer organs were a more common feature in theaters. Saint Charles Borromeo School, located behind the church on Townsend Street, was designed by

Van Leyen and Schilling. Completed in 1913 and doubled in size in 1925, the building is no longer owned by the parish and currently awaits redevelopment plans to convert it to residential use. The rectory, completed in 1912, is still in use and shares many characteristics with the church, such as a red-clay tile roof and similar brick. A 1924 convent and a recreation building were demolished in 1982. Listed as “questionably viable” in the 1989 church closing and reorganization plan of the Archdiocese of Detroit, Saint Charles Borromeo was in grave danger of being closed and was given a one-year probationary period to prove it could sustain itself. The congregation accepted this challenge and has since found creative ways to thrive with limited resources. Within three years, church membership doubled in size, and the congregation is now more vibrant and diverse, playing an important role in the promotion of neighborhood stabilization. ■

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PART IV.

1920-1950

28 Most Holy Redeemer, Roman Catholic 1721 Junction Avenue dedicated April 1, 1923 architect Donaldson and Meier

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he Redemptorist Order, under the leadership of Father Aegidius Smulders, founded Most Holy Redeemer Church and Parish in 1880. The parish was under their care for almost 120 years until 1999, when they ceded stewardship to the Archdiocese of Detroit. The predominantly Irish parishioners lived in what was then known as Springwells Township. As a site for the permanent church, the congregation purchased four acres of land at the corner of Dix and Lover’s Lane, now Vernor and Junction. Because the land was found to be too unstable to build upon, volunteers helped remove the sandy topsoil and assist with the construction. The result was a wood frame structure known as the Little Church on Sand Hill, dedicated in 1881. Fifteen years later this church was too small for the increasing membership and a second, larger church was begun in 1896. Twentyfive years later an even larger church was needed. Donaldson and Meier designed the third and present incarnation of Most Holy Redeemer. By Detroit standards the present church is immense, seating 1,400 worshippers. For the design, the architects adopted a Roman basilicatype plan with its characteristic long rectangular space, transepts, and high nave with clerestory housed under a cross-gabled roof. The exterior, especially the main facade, borrows elements from the Romanesque style. The large, round arch of the central entrance frames a mosaic that rests on a carved lintel, which stretches across the facade. At the clerestory level, a triple arcade of round-arched windows is surmounted by multiple blind arches that rise to the peak of the gable. Flanking the main facade, but set slightly back from it, are two lower side entrances. The concrete and steel frame of the structure is sheathed in brick facing and offset by crisp trim in Bedford limestone. The roof is Spanish tile in mottled red shades.

Standing separately but adjacent to the church is a massive bell tower that was completed in 1926 as a memorial to members of the parish who lost their lives in World War I. On the ground floor is a small but exquisitely decorated chapel. Its walls and barrel vault are embellished with gold mosaic. A richly decorated marble altar and baptismal font are placed in the center of the space. Nothing on the exterior prepares the visitor for the lavish materials rich in color, texture, and superb quality within the church. Although the roof structure is gabled, the interior space is a vast, flat ceiling with intricately painted, fine detailing. The flat but deeply coffered ceiling over the nave and transepts leads to the primary focus of the sanctuary, the magnificent high altar. Fashioned in Italy of numerous marbles, the altar is adorned with discreet insets of sparkling glass mosaics. Above, a semicircular apse is covered with a halfdome mosaic of the Last Supper that is so finely detailed it appears to be painted. Over eight thousand square feet of art tiles, designed and fired in the kilns of Detroit’s Pewabic Pottery, cover the floors of the sanctuary, aisles, narthex, and side chapels. The stained glass windows of the aisles, apse, and narthex, installed at the time the church was constructed, are ablaze with brilliant blue and red tones. Formerly attributed to the Connick Studio of Boston, the artist has recently been identified as A. Kay Herbert, a native of Scotland. The clerestory windows, which are a very different, simpler geometric design in predominantly blue, green, and purple, are the work of Detroit Stained Glass Works. In 1931 attention turned to completing the decoration of the church. The congregation developed a scheme for paintings to be done in the half-dome of the apse, on opposite: Side altar

Exterior with 1926 bell tower built as a memorial to parish members killed in World War I

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Interior showing deeply coffered ceiling and stained glass windows

the arch preceding it, and across the entire length of the frieze, just below the clerestory. Thomas di Lorenzo, a well-known Detroit artist, was selected for the task. In the frieze paintings, di Lorenzo depicted scenes from the life of Christ on canvas and affixed them to the wall. For forty years all of the paintings remained intact. In 1973 when the church decided to redecorate, Italian American Angelo Lanzini was commissioned to be the chief artist. He painted over the apse mural with what he deemed a more suitable image. Now a colossal bust of Christ, similar to the images found in the domes of Italo-Byzantine churches, peers down at the worshipper from the apse dome. Six additional altars are present, three in each transept. One of special note is the shrine to Our

Lady of Perpetual Help, created by the Daprato Studios (now Daprato-Rigali) of Chicago at the time the church was constructed. At the height of its popularity, the novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help required thirteen separate services every Tuesday with an average total attendance of eighteen thousand. Today at a newer altar in the church, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas, is revered by the thriving Latino community. Most Holy Redeemer has been described as a stabilizing “anchor” of southwest Detroit. Its complex of impressive buildings that includes a convent, a monastery, two school buildings, a gymnasium, and an auditorium occupies nearly an entire city block in the heart of the present-day Latino community. ■

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29 Holy Cross Hungarian Church, Roman Catholic 8423 South Street dedicated September 20, 1925 architect Henrik Kohner

Close-up of stained glass and painted mural behind altar

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n 1902 a young priest of Hungarian descent, Father Hubert Klenner, was assigned to Saint Elizabeth Church on the east side of Detroit. From that distance he tended to the spiritual needs of the 150 Hungarian Catholic families living in the Delray area of southwest Detroit. By 1904 the Delray area Hungarians were pressuring the bishop for their own parish, which was finally established in May 1905 with Father Klenner assigned there. As priest of Holy Cross Hungarian, Father Klenner immediately organized the building of a combination church/school, living quarters for the Dominican Sisters, and a rectory

for the priests next door. He stayed at Holy Cross Hungarian until 1921, when he was replaced by Father E. Richert, who then added four classrooms to the school. Soon afterward Father Richert was transferred to Cleveland, and Father Louis Kovacs filled his place. Father Kovacs did not serve the parish long, dying suddenly in 1927. But it was Father Kovacs who arranged for the building of the current magnificent church as the congregation had grown to 1,200 families with 500 schoolchildren. Father Kovacs engaged the architect Henrik Kohner to design the church. As funds were very

Exterior view with the interesting treatment of the towers

Interior looking toward entry doors

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Interior looking up main aisle toward altar

limited, Kovacs and his assistant pastor worked closely with Kohner, who supervised the construction himself. The cornerstone of the church was laid on November 26, 1924. The twin-towered reddish brick edifice, one of five churches then in the immediate neighborhood, is built on a rather high raised basement and is approached by a dozen concrete steps. The architectural style can be described as Gothic Revival, evidenced by the pointed arched doors, windows, and tower treatment. The gabled nave of the building has a greenish slate roof with cross gables containing both right and left transepts. The soaring front towers each culminate in a pyramid steeple topped with a cross. The naturally patinated copper-roofed towers with stepped buttresses are punctuated with various arched grill and window openings and have several decorative bands of white granite. There are two sets of double doors at the front entrance, with a triple lancet of stained glass above, set within a shallow Gothic portal of white limestone. The interior of the church is extremely colorful, decorated with stained glass from two studios: Detroit Stained Glass Works, while it was on nearby Fort Street, provided five of the sanctuary windows, with the balance from the firm of

von Gerichten Studio of Columbus, Ohio, at a cost of $12,000. Father Kovacs obtained fine Italian crafted items through the Daprato Studios (now DapratoRigali) in Chicago. The gilded white marble pieces included the main altar, baptismal font, several statues, two pairs of candlesticks, and the railing for the sanctuary. The 1925 invoice for these items reveals their cost: $3,930. Adding to the colorful effect are very intricate, large hand-painted murals completed between 1948 and 1950 by the artist Andras Daubner. In the early 1980s the murals were all cleaned and some of the border designs changed in anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of the church. In the late 1800s in the southwest section of Detroit still known as Delray, the first wave of Hungarians migrated to the United States as political troubles increased in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Some came to work in the coal mines of Pennsylvania and others went to Cleveland, Chicago, New York, St. Louis, and Detroit for unskilled factory jobs. The Delray area of Detroit attracted workers for the foundries that produced metal castings for the stove manufacturing and shipbuilding industries. After World War I, the second wave of Hungarian political and religious refugees came

to Detroit for the high wages at the numerous automobile plants. This number even included some who left the rigors of the Pennsylvania coal mines for the higher wages in Detroit factories. These people came with the hope of eventually returning to their homeland, but strong community ties and the relative betterment of daily life kept them in America. In the 1950s the third wave of Hungarian immigrants arrived in Delray as more fled from the midcentury Hungarian Revolution. In the mid 1960s the I-75 freeway was built and literally split the community in half. Sandwiched in between I-75 and the Detroit River near Fort Wayne, the once thriving Hungarian community was devastated, many people moved away, and the school at Holy Cross was closed. Both working- and middleclass Hungarians moved downriver, many to Allen Park, Melvindale, Lincoln Park, and Riverview. However, holy days, festivals, church socials, and similar events help maintain and perpetuate Hungarian traditions. Recently Holy Cross Hungarian Church celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary. Much refurbishing has taken place in order to retain the beauty of this lovely building. Many who moved to the suburbs continue to honor the commitment their ancestors made to their Hungarian heritage and to the church. ■

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Ceiling and stained glass at Holy Cross

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30 Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church 8625 East Jefferson Avenue dedicated March 28, 1926

architect Wirt Rowland of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls

Exterior from across Jefferson Avenue

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Detail of woodcarving behind altar and organ pipe facade detail

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rganized in 1854, Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church was originally located at the corner of East Jefferson and Rivard Street, serving the Presbyterian population of the east side of Detroit. This was a year of incredible prosperity for the Presbyterian Church in Detroit, as three major churches were all under construction (including Fort Street Presbyterian and First Presbyterian). The Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian congregation continued to worship at East Jefferson and Rivard near downtown until the new, present church was completed in 1926 at the foot of the Indian Village neighborhood. The newly constructed church became the home of the combined congregations of Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian and Bethany Presbyterian, reflecting the movement of population eastward from the core of the city. The design of the exterior is an American adaptation of English Gothic Revival. The building is rough-cut granite with limestone accents and a slate roof. The nave has stepped buttresses on each side elevation with limestone pinnacles. Limestone also forms the elaborately carved tracery of the windows. Primary access is through a recessed doorway on the Jefferson Avenue facade. There is a large stained glass window above this entrance, forming the dominant feature of the facade. The Willet Studios of Philadelphia created this and all of the other stained glass windows throughout the building. Essentially L-shaped, the church is formed by two distinct units: the sanctuary that faces Jefferson and

Detail of woodcarving

the Dodge Memorial Parish House at the rear of the lot that extends toward the side street, Burns. The two portions are joined at a massive square tower with large openings for the sounding of chimes and an ornate finial at one corner. The tower contains a twenty-three-bell carillon played from a keyboard just below the bell chamber. The bells were produced by the Gillett and Johnston foundry of England and were installed at the time of construction. Likely as a complement to neighboring homes, the Dodge Memorial Parish House was given a more residential appearance, with its smaller scale and Tudor Revival–style elements, such as halftimbering and stucco on the second story. The parish house contains a memorial chapel, an assembly room, offices, a library, and Sunday school rooms. The large basement contains a gymnasium with a stage, dining room, and kitchen. The rectangular sanctuary is comprised of a long nave with no transepts. Wide stone arches create the openings to the lower-ceilinged, cloister-like side aisles. The main ceiling is open to the high gable roofline with heavy exposed timbers that are richly accented in red, blue, and gold painting. The chancel is clearly the main focus with a raised platform, pulpit, and communion table. The display pipes of the 1926 Skinner electro-pneumatic organ are placed in the choir loft, creating a dramatic backdrop. The chancel area, with all of its magnificent wood carvings, is enclosed within a massive stone arch under a woodpaneled and vaulted ceiling.

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Downspout detail

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Interior looking toward altar, with colorful stained glass

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Twenty-three-bell carillon in the tower

Exposed and richly painted ceiling timbers

A sparing use of ornamentation in the sanctuary is a reflection of the Arts and Crafts Movement so popular in America at the time the church was constructed. Emphasis was given to the handcrafted details such as wood carvings, stone work, and stained glass windows. Traditional statuary is absent from the sanctuary, but spiritual and national symbolism can be found throughout, particularly in the wooden frieze located at the junction of the sanctuary walls and roofline. The clerestory level features large stained glass windows in rich, varied colors and finely illustrated detailing.

In building this church the congregation and its many patrons clearly spared no expense and sought out the best materials and craftspeople. They chose the most beautiful and highest-quality items that could be found, such as English bells, Italian marble, and wood carvings from Germany. Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church has remained a constant and stable positive force on the near-east side of Detroit. Today’s congregation is active and welcoming, coming from all areas of the metropolitan Detroit area to ensure the continued vitality of the congregation and the preservation of this spectacular church. ■

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Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian, rear of church house done in Tudor Revival style

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31 Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph Protestant Episcopal Church 8850 Woodward Avenue dedicated October 27, 1927, as Saint Joseph Episcopal Church architect James B. Nettleton of Nettleton and Weaver

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his congregation is the result of a 1971 merger between Saint Matthew Episcopal Church, previously located at Saint Antoine and Elizabeth in the downtown Detroit area, and Saint Joseph Episcopal Church at the Woodward and Holbrook site. Saint Joseph’s has a varied history. When the church’s previous location at Woodward and Medbury (now the service drive of the Ford Freeway) was sold to become Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church, some members went to join the new Cathedral of Saint Paul while others wanted to continue to worship as the parish of Saint Joseph. In 1907 land was purchased at Woodward and Holbrook, “out in the fields,” for construction of a new facility to be called

Pewabic tiles on sanctuary floor

Saint Joseph Episcopal Church. Parishioners built the early chapel themselves, working through the winter of 1908 to have it ready for Easter Sunday services. The chapel is still extant, known today as Jamison Hall. By 1926 the Saint Joseph congregation had grown considerably, and a larger facility was needed. James B. Nettleton, a member of Saint Joseph’s with the local firm Nettleton and Weaver, was selected as architect. Built in a modern Gothic style with Arts and Crafts overtones, the dark limestone exterior contrasts with the lighter limestone window moldings, tracery, and the concrete block of Jamison Hall. Buttresses wrap around the church, framing the large front recessed arch that contains the main entry and a large

rose window. A short stair tower to the balcony at the left of the church leads to the much taller tower that also has an entry to the church. The church has a Latin cross plan. The nave occupies a wide, nearly unbroken space with an arched arcade forming a lowered ceiling over the outside aisles. Within the chancel is a white Carrera marble altar table. Behind it, and extending the entire width of the chancel, a hand-carved walnut reredos by Alois Lang displays twenty scenes from the life of Christ. The sanctuary floor is Pewabic tile, as is a colorful plaque on the northwest wall. Spreading across the entire wood-trussed ceiling are painted panels that illustrate the history of Christianity, all by the Detroit artist Byron Rogers. Several design aspects of Saint Joseph’s church signal the arrival of the “machine age.” Steel beams reinforce the ceiling, and the acoustic tiles are among the earliest to be used in a Detroit church. The stone tracery of the stained glass windows no longer has organic shapes associated with the Gothic style but is rather mechanical in appearance. For example, in the rose window of the main facade, sharply cut quatrefoils are enclosed in crisply rimmed circles radiating from the center of a wheel. Similar in appearance are the spiky, spear-like shapes found in the tracery at the head of the clerestory windows and open arcades of the bell tower. The earliest stained glass windows in the church were lightly polychrome grisaille, but some have been replaced over the years. There are three single lancets of Tiffany Studios glass, a 1926 memorial to Carlotta Splane Page, in the front northwest stair tower. These were originally in the baptistery alcove, just to the left of the sanctuary. When a side altar dedicated to Saint

Hand-carved reredos by Alois Lang

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saint matthew and saint joseph protestant episcopal church

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Memorial Tiffany Studios windows to Carlotta Splane Page

Joseph replaced the baptistery, the Tiffany windows were moved. In 1956 five new stained glass windows in the south transept by the English firm of Wippell and Company honored Rev. William Kinder, pastor from 1925 to 1942. In their previous location near downtown Detroit, Saint Matthew’s was the second oldest African American congregation in Detroit and the third oldest in Michigan. In 1926 a fund-raiser was organized featuring Marion Anderson, who made her debut in Orchestra Hall on behalf of the church. Funds raised for a new parish house enabled Saint Matthew’s to offer twenty-five more years of service in their downtown location. In 1954, construction of the I-75 freeway destroyed a large part of their neighborhood. By the late 1960s the congregation began to investigate options for merging with another church. In 1971, Saint Matthew’s formed a partnership with Saint Joseph’s in Saint Joseph’s location at Woodward and Holbrook. Before leaving Saint Matthew’s, parishioners removed the cornerstone of the parish hall, depositing it and other historic memorabilia in the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. In 1998, in order to make room for two new sports stadiums, the old Saint Matthew’s was demolished. As part of consecrating the merger of the two congregations, the central medallions of stained glass, by the Detroit artist Mary Giovann, from the original Saint Matthew’s were brought to this site and were fitted to old openings. A small 1973 dalle de verre window in the south transept is the creation of the artist Andrew Maglia of Detroit; this window commemorates the merger of the two parishes. The work of architect, artists, and craftsmen complement and enrich each other in the best Arts and Crafts tradition. ■

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Interior looking toward Woodward Avenue entrance and rose window, Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph Protestant Episcopal Church

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32 Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church 9000 Woodward Avenue dedicated October 14, 1928, as Central Woodward Christian Church architect George Mason

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Exterior from across Woodward Avenue

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his building on Woodward Avenue at Josephine Street has served two congregations. It was constructed as the fourth home of Central Church of Christ, which had become Central Woodward Christian Church by the time the church was constructed. The congregation remained here until 1978, when they moved to Troy and sold the church to Little Rock Baptist Church. Little Rock Baptist Church was founded in 1936 with services initially held in members’ homes. As early as 1972, when Rev. Dr. James Holley began as the head minister, the congregation grew rapidly and began to look for a larger home. When the Woodward Avenue building was purchased in 1978, it was their fourth church home. The histories of Little Rock Baptist and Central Woodward Christian congregations are entwined in the church structure begun by the latter and brought to completion by the former. The church was designed by George D. Mason and Company.

Detail of woodcarvings

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Departing from the Gothic Revival tradition of the nineteenth century, Central Woodward Christian Church was built in the Gothic Revival style of the early twentieth century. On April 16, 1927, the congregation gathered for the groundbreaking of their new church. Central Woodward Christian Church is constructed of smooth gray limestone from the quarries of Bedford, Indiana. The tall Woodward Avenue facade is a single bay, recessed between massive corner buttresses. Near the top, the buttresses become octagonal in shape. The front and side surfaces display reliefs of the four evangelists. At street level the recessed arch of the main portal stretches across the entire bay. Above, a large stained glass window of four lights with a Gothic rose fills the second story, sitting on a pierced stone rail. An arched arcade crowns the facade and creates a link between the buttresses. Departure from traditional and a move toward Gothic Revival forms can be seen in the sculptural

treatment of arches on the main facade. Ribs of both the window and main portal arches dissolve into the splayed sides of their jambs. The same tendency occurs in the handling of the four stone-carved evangelist figures, especially in the hems of their robes that virtually meld with the limestone surface. A full view of the L-shaped plan of the church complex is best seen from the corner of Woodward and Josephine. Tall clerestory windows mark the four bays of the nave, which is interrupted by a doublegabled, shallow transept. Tightly abutting the nave is a low chapel that joins a tall square tower at the angle of intersection. The tower walls contain a thin, pointed, arched opening in each face. According to a sketch of the proposed church design, published in the Detroit News on January 6, 1926, the architects originally planned a single transept opposite: Stained glass representing famous African American ministers past, present, and future

and a slender spire over the crossing instead of the tower. Entry through the Woodward Avenue double doors leads into the paneled narthex. The interior of the church appears as a lofty unified space, with a large balcony above the narthex and under the west stained glass window as well as galleries in the arms of the shortened transepts. The transept arches rise the full height of the interior, their apex meeting the ridge of the wood-trussed roof, which is polychrome. In the sanctuary on a raised platform are the central pulpit and choir seating. Behind, tall pipes of the organ continue the visual sweep upward to the vault overhead. Standing out strikingly against the dark wood paneling of the sanctuary walls is the light gray Gothic frame of the baptistery painted to resemble limestone. Its fine detailing of carved crockets, pinnacles,

Detail of exterior with the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

finials, and lace-like Gothic tracery echoes that found on English Gothic tombs. Behind, steps lead down to a submersion pool whose mirrored wall allows the congregation to witness each baptism. The east end of the chancel is dominated by a large organ case in dark wood with zinc dummy pipes. The original organ has been removed. Stained glass in the church can be attributed to the original and present congregations. The Rev. Dr. Edgar DeWitt Jones, the first pastor of Central Woodward Christian Church and a noted Lincoln scholar, was responsible for the two windows depicting Lincoln and Washington in the north transept, both designed by A. Kay Herbert. Between 1990 and 1991, Anchor Glass Company of Inkster, Michigan, installed a complete program of stained glass in the

eight nave windows and the large west window previously filled with plain, unpainted glass. The artists Daniel Cicchelli and Dawn Sinkovich collaborated with Rev. James Holley on the designs. The most remarkable of these new windows contains images of famous African American ministers: Rev. Richard Allen, Rev. C. L. Franklin, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Rev. Holley, as well as a silhouette representing ministers of the future. Today, under the leadership of Rev. Holley, Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church has a membership of three thousand and an outstanding reputation for service to the community. The congregation purchased an old high school, once part of Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Parish, and in the fall of 2001 opened it as a charter school for two thousand Detroit children. ■

Late 1920s Abraham Lincoln stained glass window by A. Kay Herbert

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View from the main balcony showing several stained glass windows and the polychromed ceiling of Little Rock Missionary Baptist

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33 Saint Florian, Roman Catholic 2626 Poland Avenue, Hamtramck dedicated October 21, 1928 architect Ralph Adams Cram of Cram and Ferguson

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s more and more Polish Catholics immigrated to the Detroit area in search of economic security at the new Dodge, Ford, and Packard auto plants, there was a growing need for a Catholic church in Hamtramck. It was a major inconvenience and a hazard for people to cross the railroad tracks to attend existing churches in Detroit. This working-class neighborhood grew very rapidly as indicated by Archdiocese of Detroit records; there were 500 church families in 1912. A school was built in 1913 for approximately 750 children, and by 1915 1,400 church families had 1,200 students in the school. By 1918 there were 2,000 church families with 1,593 baptisms, 184 marriages, and 374 deaths, 283 of which were children, most of whom likely died as a result of the nationwide influenza epidemic. It is unclear why Saint Florian was chosen as the namesake of the church, other than he was already a favored Polish saint who, as a Roman soldier born near Vienna around ad 280, was martyred for his faith in the early fourth century. In 1138 Pope Lucius III gave some of the saint’s relics to King Casmir of Poland and to the Bishop of Krakow, and since that time Saint Florian has been regarded as the patron saint of Poland. He is also considered the patron saint of firemen worldwide after being credited with saving Krakow from a fire. The first building in 1908–9 was a brick two-story combination church and school. That building still stands and has served continuously as a school, although it has been altered by the addition of more classrooms. By 1920, and with the population of Hamtramck at forty-five thousand, a separate church was needed. At that time all debts connected with the first building were paid off, a remarkable feat given the great personal and financial sacrifices suffered by many parishioners during a time of lockout and strikes at the various auto plants.

The parishioners had a very large basement built and covered with a roof; this below-ground structure was the church for several years. When all the debts connected with this venture were paid off, an architect was selected to design a new church, using this basement as the foundation. Ralph Adams Cram of Cram and Ferguson in Boston had designed a nearby church, the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul on Woodward Avenue. It is possible the general style appealed to Father John Bonkowski and his parishioners. Like many of Cram’s churches, Saint Florian is in the Gothic Revival style, a modification of early English cathedrals. Cram received an award for the church in 1929 from American Architect magazine. The red-brown brick church sits high on the gray limestone basement foundation, with sixteen steps leading from the sidewalk to the front doors. The gabled nave has two transepts and is topped at the crossing with an ornamental pinnacled spire. The front of the building is quite imposing, with each of the twin towers containing niches with statues. The most impressive aspect of the church is the large, recessed Gothic arch that forms a portal over the great rose window. Also, this entry area contains a carved stone lunette of Christ on the cross with two angels over the massive wood doors. There are shorter attached towers, with gables on each side of the front facade, making the building look much wider than it really is. Several bands of gray limestone encircle the church, one at the beltline and others at various locations on the front facade and the sides. Another prominent feature is the checkerboard effect of brick and limestone high up on the exterior of the church. The interior is as striking as the exterior. There is a main center aisle with two side aisles and a transverse aisle at the rear of the crossing. The newly painted blue ceiling is vaulted with several Gothic arches

Interior looking up center aisle toward altar

spanning the interior space and angels painted in the area above the chancel. The ribs of the vaulting are accentuated with gilding. Each side aisle has a lowered vaulted ceiling. There are four large pillars from front to back on both sides, each with faux stone painting to resemble large blocks of limestone. The transepts are rather shallow—two small chapels are in the right transept; the left transept has one. Both transepts also hold confessionals, and the walls have large decorative blocks of gilded ornamentation. Carved in Florence, Italy, the reredos are stunning; they are polychrome carved wood depicting six scenes in the life of Christ. Faux painting also appears on the altar walls flanking the reredos. The chancel is rounded, with a floor of large black and white marble squares. There is a small chapel in each of the front towers, adjacent to the entry. The stained glass windows are from three different studios: Mayer of Munich, the J. M. Kase Glass Company of Reading, Pennsylvania (active 1909–34), and the Conrad Schmitt Studios of Milwaukee (now New Berlin), Wisconsin. Kase is reported to have designed and fabricated the altar windows, which represent five Polish saints: Saint Casmir, Saint Stanislaus, Saint Hedwig, Saint Hyacinth, and Saint Florian. These large figures are surrounded by light-colored foliate glass, allowing significant light to enter the sanctuary. However, the nave and the rose window are much darker (deep blue, red, and green) and were designed by the Conrad Schmitt Studios. Located in the balcony, underneath the rose window, is the organ. The top of the organ framework is slightly concave so that it does not obscure the stained glass. The Austin Organ Company built the organ

Large wall mural of Saint Florian, patron saint of firemen

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Large wall mural of modern Saint M. M. Kolbe

in 1928. It has forty ranks, three manuals, 2,528 speaking pipes, and a full facade of non-speaking pipes graded in size. The organ was renovated in 1982 by the White Organ Company, and a four-rank mixture of 244 pipes was added. Saint Florian has recently been redecorated. Large wall murals located just below and between the clerestory windows depict the liturgical symbols for the four evangelists: a winged angel represents Matthew; a winged lion for Mark; a winged ox for Luke; and a winged eagle for John. On the rear wall, flanking the organ, are two larger-than-life murals, one of Saint Florian and the other of Saint Maximillian Mary Kolbe (1894–1941). M. M. Kolbe was ordained in 1911 in Poland and began publishing newspapers and other periodicals to teach Catholicism. During World War II Kolbe offered himself in exchange for a Polish sergeant forced to enter a starvation chamber. Pope John Paul II made him a saint on October 10, 1982. Several of the early priests at Saint Florian were actually first-generation Polish Detroiters, educated at University of Detroit High School and then Saint Mary’s College/Seminary in Orchard Lake, a northern suburb in Oakland County. In September 1969 Cardinal Karal Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul II), as Archbishop of Krakow, visited the Orchard Lake campus and Saint Florian church, a highlight in the church’s history. In 2008 for the 100th anniversary of the parish, a Centennial Committee planned many events during the year, including a gathering of couples who were married at Saint Florian, a special mass for firefighters, the opening of the cornerstone placed one hundred years ago, and a presentation about the architect Ralph Adams Cram. ■

saint florian, roman catholic

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Close-up of Italian carved polychromed wood reredos

Exterior of Saint Florian

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34 Nativity of Our Lord, Roman Catholic 5900 McClellan Street dedicated September 22, 1929 architect Edward A. Schilling of Van Leyen, Schilling, and Keough

Exterior from across McClellan Street

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orship services for what would become Nativity of Our Lord were originally held in an abandoned school building in Leesville, a village now completely absorbed by the City of Detroit. Founded in 1911, the church was to serve the once rural but rapidly growing east side of Detroit near Gratiot and Harper avenues. The original congregation was predominantly of German and Belgian descent, with later influxes of Italian and Polish families. In 1912 the construction of a school building was begun on McClellan Street, just south of Gratiot. Worship services were moved to the basement of this new building in 1913. This original structure would be only the beginning of a complete parish that would follow: a church,

Close-up of column and its capital

convent, recreation center, and rectory. Once the school was constructed, attention was turned to building the permanent church building that we see today. The congregation began worshipping in the church in late 1926, even though the building was not completed and dedicated until almost three years later. Edward A. Schilling designed the basilica-type church, which exhibits neo-Renaissance styling. The exterior is multi-toned brick with limestone trim and a red-clay tile roof. The facade is a gable front with a massive, recessed arch. Corinthian columns on either side of the entrance support a round pediment above. A stained glass rose window with stone spindles in a radial pattern dominates the

space above the entrance in the upper portion of the facade. A square bell tower containing three massive bells is attached, adjacent to the church to the south. The bell chamber at the top of the tower has large openings formed by limestone columns and features intricate carved limestone decoration. Also covered with clay tiles, the roof of the tower is a bell-shaped pavilion. A baptistery is located on the ground floor of the bell tower, and the rectory is attached by a colonnaded walkway. The original school building located to the north, which once housed the church in the basement, was demolished in 1976. Although it does have side transepts, the rectangular space of the interior is emphasized. A series of massive marble-faced columns line the nave under a deeply coffered ceiling with decorated emblems. A clerestory level is located above the columns. The placement of the columns allows an unobstructed view of the chancel, which is placed under a half dome and is semicircular with a pedimented arch. The art nouveau–styled stained glass windows are the work of the Conrad Schmitt Studios of Milwaukee and were installed in 1944. The M. P. Moller Company organ located in the rear balcony was installed in 1931. The size of the congregation decreased in the 1950s when the construction of I-94 cut through the middle of the parish and left the church isolated from many of its parishioners. Nativity of Our Lord narrowly escaped closure by the Archdiocese of Detroit in its church reorganization plan of 1989. The church was classified as “questionably viable” and given a one-year reprieve to prove its vitality. The church survived by demonstrating that it is a self-sustaining parish. Its active and devoted staff and congregation responded to the threat and were moved to action, determined to keep Nativity of Our Lord alive and strong. ■

Stained glass window ca. 1944, “The Last Supper

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Interior looking toward altar of Nativity of Our Lord

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35 Saint Aloysius Church, Roman Catholic 1234 Washington Boulevard dedicated October 12, 1930 architect Walter R. Meier of Donaldson and Meier

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aspar H. Borgess, Detroit’s second bishop, purchased the former Westminster Presbyterian Church on Washington Boulevard in 1873 and dedicated the building to be a new Catholic church, Saint Aloysius. This new church would serve an important role as the temporary or pro cathedral of the archdiocese from 1877 to 1890. With seating capacity of only 728, there was a need from the beginning for a larger church, and in 1930 the church was razed. To remain in the same location but maximize the urban lot with limited space, a unique tripletiered design was developed for the interior of the new church. Donaldson and Meier had designed the adjacent Chancery Building to house the administrative office of the Archdiocese of Detroit in 1926. Using comparable design elements and materials, the new church was intended to complement the Chancery Building. Constructed of the same light gray granite, the Romanesque-styled facade shows a clear massing of parts. Unusual for Detroit churches, the building shares common walls with its neighbors, leaving the facade as the only visible elevation. A central bay of two stories, capped by a triangular pediment and framed by three columns, is flanked by two lower side bays. The arrangement allows for three separate doorways on the facade. Set deeply in round arches with carved moldings, the doors and arches are cast in solid bronze. A rose window fills the space above the central entrance. Over each side entrance, set in frieze-like niches, are statues of the twelve apostles carved by Samuel Cashwan. Corrado Parducci crafted the intricate carvings found on the remainder of the facade and its doors. The configuration of the interior space is unique. At first one hardly notices the compact, triple-tiered interior that is able to seat 2,100 worshippers. As in every Catholic church, the immediate focus is the

main altar, which is located in the “upper church.” In front of the altar, a brass communion rail encircles the lowest level one story below. Pews are arranged concentrically around the rail, facing the altar. A three-quarter, wrap-around balcony creates ample room for further seating. Gazing into the lower level, one sees that there are also altars, pews, and a vestibule with a baptistery. The three altars from the first Saint Aloysius church are preserved here. Thus, each level can be used separately if needed. Meier took great care to ensure that when the entire church was filled the main altar in the upper church could be viewed from every location, at every level. The interior of the church is also very special because of the lavish materials employed in its decoration and the complex iconography throughout. Artists working in bronze, ceramic, marble, and mosaic re-created the timeless symbols of Christianity. Filling the large upper section of the sanctuary wall, an image of Christ the Good Shepherd is set against a shimmering, gold mosaic. It establishes a focus for the main altar below. Artist Hildreth Meiere designed all the mosaics, and they were fabricated in Ravenna, Italy. Mosaics, which are figures of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, appear directly over the tabernacle. In the arch above is a depiction of Saint Aloysius on his deathbed. The decoration of the lower church also merits attention. Its walls are clad in several varieties of marble. At the back, extending fifteen feet under the public sidewalk overhead, is a combined crypt and baptistery. Leaving the vast open area filled with pews, one steps into a quiet, contemplative space sheltered by seven low groin vaults that rest on columns of marble. Each marble panel is bordered with iridescent Pewabic tiles glazed in matching green and gold. opposite: Triple-tiered interior with the main altar

Sandwiched in between two buildings, with solid bronze doors and intricate stone carving

Experiencing Saint Aloysius Church from the upper gallery is also rewarding; only from that vantage point can one see and appreciate the splendid trussed roof with its painted ceiling panels. Saint Aloysius Church is in a prominent location, adjacent to the headquarters of the Archdiocese of Detroit and close to downtown. In 1992 the administration of the church passed from the hands of diocesan priests to those of the Franciscan Friars. The mission of the parish is to serve senior citizens living in nearby apartment buildings and the homeless population of downtown Detroit. ■

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Trussed roof with painted ceiling panels, Saint Aloysius Church

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36 Historic Trinity Lutheran Church 1345 Gratiot Avenue dedicated February 15, 1931 architect William E. N. Hunter

Woodcarvings by John Kirchmayer

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rinity Lutheran’s congregation was formed in 1850 and consisted of people of German ancestry, with services held in German. Trinity became the “mother church” for all Missouri Synod Lutheran churches in the Detroit area. In November 1913, the church introduced services in English because of the increasing number of non-German-speaking families. Rev. H.C.F. Otte and his son, Rev. Dr. Gilbert Theodore Otte (1927–83), who succeeded his father as pastor, were determined to keep Trinity a downtown ministry. The early congregation met first in the wood-frame chapel of Christ Episcopal Church. Shortly thereafter they purchased the Western Seaman’s Friend Society chapel from Mariners’ Church and moved it to Rivard and Larned streets for their first church building. In 1866, the congregation built a new brick church at Gratiot Avenue and Rivard, which is the current site. However, this structure was razed in 1927 when the current parish hall became the new meeting place, soon followed by the present church.

The 1931 church was the gift of Charles Gauss and his wife, Margaret. Gauss (1875–1937) was a Detroit wholesale tobacconist and real estate investor who had recently sold a major parcel of land on the Rouge River to Ford Motor Company. Gauss, Rev. Dr. Otte, and the Rev. F. R. Webber of Cleveland (a member of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod’s committee on church architecture) exercised significant influence on the style, the plan, and the iconography. Rev. Webber was the author of a significant book, at the time, on religious iconography. Trinity’s style is primarily Gothic Revival and is loosely based on prototypes in the English Perpendicular Gothic style of the early sixteenth century. The tall, narrow proportions of the nave and the subtle emphasis on the verticality of the nave’s piers bear are reminiscent of King’s College Chapel (1508–15) in Cambridge, England, a work that was popular with other American Gothic Revival architects. Also derived from the English parish churches is the wood-trussed hammer-beam ceiling, here decorated with stenciled designs. The true date of the church’s construction is revealed in the hints of the Art Deco style of the 1920s and 1930s, seen in the figural sculptures on the smaller exterior tower and on the interior nave piers. The small, irregular lot and the preexisting parish house dictated the size and challenged the architect and designers to produce a somewhat unusual plan. The church property hugs the Rivard Street sidewalk with the entry on Gratiot at the narrowest end of the trapezoidal lot. The building is constructed of dark variegated granite strikingly contrasted with pale Indiana limestone. The bell tower is set back from the facade and also serves as the connector to the parish house. It rises to 104 feet and in 1931 was taller than the nearby Stroh Brewery. The space of the nave is delineated by single Gothic-arched

Exterior from across Gratiot Avenue

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Stained glass by Willet Studios

windows in the exterior facade and apse and by the five similar windows on each side. A narrow air space was left between the church and the parish house to allow natural light to reach the stained glass windows in the sanctuary. On the Rivard side near the apse, the shorter tower contains a sculpture of Martin Luther throwing the papal bull of his excommunication into the fire. The nave and chancel dominate the interior space, with

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inconspicuous side aisles that are capped with low groin vaults. An intricately carved wooden screen separates the narthex from the nave. With the organ loft directly above, one steps from a sheltered and restricted space into a soaring nave filled with color and pattern in the stained glass, the painted walls of the chancel and beams of the wooden ceiling, and the intricately carved pews and reredos. Only the austerity of the limestone piers and the small areas

of undecorated plaster walls act as a foil and contain the framework for this space that seats 450, including the balcony. The width of the chancel is smaller than that of the nave, just enough to provide tiny sacristies on both sides. Honoring a long tradition in art, the patron, Charles Gauss, is depicted in one of the sculptures on the nave’s piers. Intricate wood carvings are found in the reredos and other sanctuary locations. True to the Arts and Crafts tradition, artists and craftsmen in metal, stone, wood, painting, tile, and stained glass were commissioned to create decorations that would meld the interior and exterior into a unified whole. These include Willet Studios of Philadelphia for the exquisite, detailed clerestory stained glass; Detroit Stained Glass Works for the aisle-level windows and those in Luther Hall, all of which used Norman slab glass as stated in the 1929 church specifications; Viggo Rambusch and Rambusch Studios in New York for the murals and frescoes; Detroit’s Pewabic Pottery for the floor tiles; John Kirchmayer for wood carvings; and the Skinner Company in Boston for the Opus 808 thirty-one-rank organ, which has remained unaltered. For several years Trinity Church has provided an avenue for the promotion of ecclesiastic arts through annual art exhibits. The church is a leading member of the Downtown Detroit Churches Association, conducts an annual Detroit churches tour between Christmas and New Year’s, and has an annual Christmas crèche display. Historic Trinity has initiated their Dau Church History Library on the third floor of the parish hall, which is fast becoming an important archive for ephemera from Detroitarea churches. ■

View toward altar

Close-up of altar, Historic Trinity Lutheran Church

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37 Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church 3150 Commor Street, Hamtramck dedicated May 30, 1942 architect Howard T. Simons of Herman and Simons

Crucifix on facade

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krainians first immigrated to the United States in the 1870s, arriving in Detroit at the turn of the nineteenth century. From the beginning they were eager to preserve their language, customs, and faith. In 1911 they established their first parish, Saint John the Baptist, on Detroit’s west side at Cicotte Street. With more and more immigrants arriving, a site was chosen on the east side for a second church in Hamtramck on Grayling Street. In 1913 construction began on a small wooden chapel designed with a Byzantine-style onion dome. In Hamtramck the Ukrainian population continued to grow and prosper. In 1931 the church purchased five lots at Commor and McDougall, intending to build a larger church. With sufficient funds available, the worshipping congregation selected Howard T. Simons, a Detroit architect, to design the present church, which was completed in 1942. Four years later the parish could boast a congregation of one thousand families. The Byzantine style of Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church assigns it a unique place among local houses of worship. The exterior appears modern with clean, crisp lines and a slightly mottled, pale yellow brick as the chief building material. Its smooth surface is punctuated on the main facade by wide horizontal bands of light gray limestone. A prominent dome crowns the crossing square of a basilica-type ground plan. Wide, shallow transepts and a semicircular apse complete the silhouette. Design elements characteristic of the Byzantine style include the domes, round arches, and perforated window grills. At Immaculate Conception the gently curved roof of the large central dome is repeated on a smaller scale in the sloping caps of the twin towers that hug and pierce the narthex. A tall, round-arched window that ascends nearly to the tip of the gable occupies the main facade. A latticework screen of geometric quatrefoils cut in stone

veils the window and provides a background for a massive stone crucifix. Beneath the crucifix the primary entrance to the church is through double, round-arched portals. Tapered stone columns support chalice-shaped capitals. Nothing is as Byzantine in appearance as the interior of the church: icons and mosaic-like murals cover every surface. Although construction of the building was completed in 1942, the process of decorating the interior did not commence until 1962. The paintings were entrusted to the artist Mychajlo Dmytrenko, who was born in eastern Ukraine. In the central dome over the crossing is Christ as teacher. In the half-dome over the main altar, Mary, his mother, shelters the Christ child over her heart and extends her arms in an ancient gesture of prayer. At the base of the half-dome is a painted frieze of the twelve apostles. In 1965 Dmytrenko and wood carver Danylo Berezowskij were commissioned to create an iconostasis, an elaborate screen gilded and painted with icons and symbols of faith. It sets the sanctuary apart as a holy place. The resulting iconostasis has nine sections in the screen, which rises to a height of thirteen feet and spans the entire width of the sanctuary. The walls of the transepts and nave are covered with murals depicting significant moments in the life of Mary. One exception in the nave shows Mary as the protectress of Ukraine with women and men in traditional clothing gathered at her feet. Medallion murals on the nave ceiling offer a glimpse of important events from the Old Testament. In 1962 monks of the Basilian Order were put in charge of Immaculate Conception Church and Parish. They also supervise the church’s elementary and high school, which are located in Warren, Michigan. ■

opposite: Interior looking toward altar

View toward altar, Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church

opposite: Domed ceiling

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Exterior of Immaculate Conception with large dome over crossing

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ARCHITECTS Anderson, James (1832–1903)

Coxhead, John (1863–1943)

Born in Scotland, Anderson emigrated to New York, where he was married. He was an associate draftsman of Albert and Octavius Jordan* who worked with them on the design of Fort Street Presbyterian in 1855. Anderson also collaborated with Albert Jordan on the design of Saint John’s Episcopal in 1858–61. He later went on to design the old Detroit Post Office and Detroit’s old City Hall in Kennedy Square (demolished in 1961).

Born in New Jersey, Coxhead majored in architecture at New York’s Cooper Union School of Design and attended Columbia University. He moved to Boston to work for Dewson, VanBrunt and Howe. In 1883 he moved to South Dakota to work with Wallace L. Dow. He started his own practice in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1887. In 1892 he moved his family to Buffalo, New York, from where he designed many veteran’s hospitals, private homes, stables, and churches in South Dakota, Minnesota, New York, Kentucky, Colorado, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Michigan (North Baptist Church, now People’s Community Church). Large stained glass skylights are found in many of his buildings. Coxhead spent his later years in Washington, D.C., as architect to the U.S. Army and Air Force.

Badgley, Sidney R. (1850–1917)

Born in Canada, Badgley was educated there and in Europe. After 1887 he was based in Cleveland, where he became a noted institutional and church architect. He was the architect of Detroit’s Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, dedicated in 1911, as well as Highland Park Presbyterian Church. During a long partnership with William Nicklas* at the firm of Badgley and Nicklas, Badgley established a reputation as a prominent ecclesiastical architect. The other churches he designed include several in the Cleveland area; First Presbyterian Church, Howell, Michigan; First Presbyterian Church, Wichita, Kansas; Sunnyside Presbyterian Church, South Bend, Indiana; and Reid Memorial Church, Richmond, Indiana. Badgley also designed numerous public buildings in Canada. Coquard, Leon (1860–1923)

Born in Detroit, Coquard was educated in parochial schools and later employed by the Albert French* firm. His Detroit works include Sainte Anne Catholic Church and Saints Peter and Paul Academy (now Saint Patrick Senior Center). His other notable designs include the main body of the Cathedral of the Assumption, Covington, Kentucky, 1894–1910, for which he received many accolades; Denver’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 1906–10, in the French Gothic style; and the Soldier’s Monument in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Cram, Ralph Adams (1863–1942)

Born in New Hampshire, Cram partnered with Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue (1869–1924). They had already established their architectural reputation in 1904 when they won the competition to design the chapel at West Point Military Academy. That was the beginning of the ascension of the American neoGothic Revival style as the dominant architectural fashion for churches. This style featured a return to finely crafted woodwork, complex stained glass iconography, and top-quality furnishings. Cram designed Saint Florian in Hamtramck, Cathedral Church of Saint Paul in Detroit, and Saint Mary’s of Redford. Other notable buildings include part of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and the Church of Saint Thomas, both in New York. Cram produced numerous secular works, including residences, museums, and office buildings. He served as supervising architect for Princeton University (1907–29) and consulting architect for Bryn Mawr, Wellesley, and Mount Holyoke colleges. Cram’s office also designed war memorials, outstanding examples of which

are Belleau Woods and Fere-enTardenois in France. Crane, Charles Howard (1885–1952)

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Crane began his active career in 1903 as a draftsman. He practiced with Albert Kahn,* Smith, Hinchman and Grylls,* Gustav Mueller,* and later had his own practice. Crane designed many theaters in Detroit as well as Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City. Dederichs, Peter (1856–1924)

Born in Germany, Dederichs studied in Europe and began his career as an architect in 1876. Dederichs was a member of the church when he was chosen to design Saint Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Detroit. Other Detroit designs include Saint Bonaventure Monastery, Saint Charles Borromeo, Sacred Heart, Detroit’s Custom House, and the Wayne County Building. He also designed Saint Augustine in Richmond, Macomb County, Michigan; Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Ionia, Michigan; and Saint Joseph’s Church, Saint Mary’s School, Chapel, and Chapel House in Adrian, Michigan. Dederichs specialized in Catholic churches, schools, convents, academies, chapels, and monasteries. He is buried in Detroit’s Mt. Elliott Cemetery. Diehl and Diehl (George 1892–1976; Gerald 1916–95)

This Detroit father-and-son firm oversaw completion of the towers for the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament following the plans of architect Henry A. Walsh.* Other church projects include Saint Ambrose Catholic Church, Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan; Saint Clements Catholic Church, Centerline, Michigan (reportedly the earliest use of thin-shelled concrete in the area); and St. John’s Seminary, Plymouth, Michigan. Diehl and Diehl also designed “stock” auto dealerships for General Motors, area banks, and renovations for hospitals. They are related by

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*Indicates architect with biographical entry in this section.

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marriage to the stained glass firm of Friederichs and Staffin, with whom they teamed on numerous projects for Catholic churches. Donaldson, John M. (1854–1941)

Born in Scotland, Donaldson emigrated to Detroit in 1856. He trained at the Art Academy in Munich and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Donaldson first practiced with Henry T. Brush in Detroit from 1876 until Brush’s death in 1879. In 1880 he began his association with Henry J. Meier, which lasted until Meier’s death in 1917. He then became senior partner in the firm, practicing with Meier’s son, Walter R. Meier.* The firm of Donaldson and Meier designed numerous ecclesiastical, institutional, and commercial buildings in Detroit and other cities. Notable works in Detroit include the Chancery Building of Saint Aloysius Church, the Seminary and Church of the Sacred Heart, the Church of the Holy Redeemer, the David Stott Building, the first two units of the Penobscot Building, and the original Belle Isle Zoological Gardens and Lagoon System. Elsewhere in Michigan Donaldson and Meier also designed Beaumont Tower at Michigan State University, Alumni Memorial Hall (now the Museum of Art) for the University of Michigan, Saint John’s Church in Port Huron, and the Church of Saint Vincent de Paul in Pontiac.

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who designed the First Baptist Church in Newton, Massachusetts, which was used as a model for Faxon’s First Congregational Church in Detroit. Faxon designed numerous buildings at Princeton University and Dartmouth College. Faxon wrote Byzantine Art and the New Old First Illustrated, published by the Young People’s Society Christian Endeavor, First Congregational Church (Detroit), in 1891. French, Albert E. (1848–1927)

Born in Nova Scotia, French immigrated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, about 1872. He came to Detroit, and after working for the Mortimer L. Smith Company and Malcomson and Higginbotham,* he established his own practice. French dedicated considerable time researching means to improve lighting, ventilation, and sanitation in all types of structures. He designed schools in Litchfield, Michigan, and in St. Thomas, Ontario; courthouses in Hastings, Howell, and Cheboygan, Michigan, and the reformatory in Ionia, Michigan (ca. 1880). French is also credited with designing hotels, theaters, and churches throughout Michigan. French is perhaps best known for designing Sainte Anne Church in Detroit although Leon Coquard, an architect with French’s firm, is often given credit as architect. French is buried in Detroit’s Elmwood Cemetery.

Engelbert, Henry (1826–ca. 1910)

Hess, Julius (1841–99)

German born, Engelbert established a practice in New York City around 1852 where he designed a hotel, several residences, the German Exchange Bank, a landmark 1874 cast-iron building, and several churches including Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church. Engelbert moved to Detroit around 1890 where he designed Saint Albertus, Saint Francis of Assisi, and Saint Casimir Catholic churches.

Born in Switzerland, Hess came to Detroit in 1872. Detroit buildings attributed to Hess include Saint Paul German Evangelical Church (1873), Saint Mary’s Rectory (1876), and the G.A.R. Memorial Hall (1896). Hess redesigned First Presbyterian in Ypsilanti in 1899. Hess partnered with Richard Raseman* from 1885 to 1891, and Detroit’s Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church was a product of their collaboration.

Faxon, John Lyman (1851–1918)

Higginbotham, William E. (1858–1923)

Boston architect John Faxon was a follower of Henry H. Richardson,*

Born and educated in Detroit, Higginbotham trained in the

architects

architectural office of J. V. Smith in 1878 and worked as a draftsman for William Malcomson.* He performed additional work for C. and B. Hubbard, and Hubbard and King. In 1890 Higginbotham was appointed the junior partner in the firm of Malcomson and Higginbotham, where he practiced until his death in 1923. Higginbotham was appointed consulting architect for the Detroit City School Board in 1895. This role led to his firm’s commission by the school board to design its schools. The firm is credited with designing three-quarters of Detroit’s public schools and their plans were copied by other American cities. The firm also built Henry Ford Hospital in 1914, and designed Cass Avenue United Methodist Church (1890–91) and Saint Joseph Episcopal Church, now Our Lady of the Rosary (1893/1896). Himpler, Francis (Franz) G. (1833–1916)

Born in Trier, Germany, Himpler attended the Royal Academy of Berlin. He arrived in New York in 1867 and specialized in the design of American churches for congregations of German descent. He designed Saint Joseph Catholic Church in Detroit and churches in Buffalo, New York; Cincinnati, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Sandusky, Ohio; and Hoboken, New Jersey, where he also designed the city hall. Himpler is buried in Hoboken. Hunter, William Egerton N. (1868–1947)

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Hunter apprenticed with W. A. Edwards, an architect practicing in Hamilton. He worked in a similar capacity in Buffalo, New York. In 1891 he moved to Detroit and worked as draftsman for the Mortimer L. Smith Company until 1897. He was also employed as a draftsman in the firms of John Scott and Son, and Mason and Rice.* In 1898, Hunter established the firm of Kastler and Hunter, which designed Saint Josaphat Church (1900) and the Saint Stanislaus Parish complex

(1890–1920), both in Detroit. By 1906, the architects’ partnership had dissolved, and Hunter established his own firm. Hunter is perhaps best known for his Gothic Revival–style churches, including Detroit’s Metropolitan Methodist (1926), of which Hunter was a member; Grosse Pointe Memorial Presbyterian, Grosse Pointe, Michigan (1927); and Detroit’s Historic Trinity Lutheran (1931). Jordan, Albert (1821–72)

Jordan learned his trade in his native Scotland where he lived most of his young life. He worked with his brother Octavius* in Hartford, Connecticut, and they both later relocated to Detroit. He designed many buildings, mostly churches (many not extant) in Detroit; he worked with James Anderson on Fort Street Presbyterian and Saint John’s Episcopal. Later in life he worked in California, as shown in the 1930 U.S. census. Jordan, Octavius (1825–?)

Jordan came from his native Scotland with his brother Albert* and worked with him in Hartford, Connecticut. After a short stay in Detroit, he returned to Hartford around 1855. After 1869 there is no record of him or his family. Kahn, Albert (1869–1942)

German born, Kahn came to the United States around 1880. He apprenticed with Mason and Rice and began his own Detroit practice in 1904. Kahn is known for his design of hundreds of industrial structures and pioneering work in reinforced concrete factory design. He is perhaps best known as the architect of the General Motors (now Cadillac Place) and Fisher buildings in the New Center area of Detroit; Cranbrook House in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and seventeen other buildings, including Clements Library at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. His brother Julius was chief engineer for the firm.

Kastler, Joseph G. (1866–1939)

Born in Germany, Kastler came to Detroit in 1880. Beginning as an interior decorator and draftsman, Kastler opened his own practice in 1888. He partnered with William Egerton Hunter,* and the architectural firm of Kastler and Hunter designed Saint Josaphat Roman Catholic Church in Detroit. Kastler was a member of Saint Albertus Church and had designed the original Saint Josaphat combination church and school building. By 1906 the architects’ partnership had dissolved. Kastler was a member of the Architectural Engineering Society and retired in 1935 from active business. Keely, Patrick Charles (1816–96)

An Irish-born Catholic, Keely was the son of an architect. In 1841 he emigrated to Brooklyn, New York. He received a major commission to design the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany, New York. This would be the first of over six hundred churches and cathedrals throughout the United States and Canada. He designed Most Holy Trinity Church in the Corktown neighborhood of Detroit. Kohner, Henrik (1884–1943)

A German Hungarian, Kohner moved to New York with his parents where he completed high school and received an architectural degree in 1917. After he married, Kohner and his family came to Detroit so that he could begin his professional career. By the time he was contracted by Holy Cross Hungarian, he already had an excellent reputation in Detroit from designing numerous private homes, including his own in Highland Park, Michigan a hotel, three churches, and three theaters. The Detroit building known today as Saint Paul A.M.E. Zion Church was designed by Kohner in 1928–29 as B’nai Moshe’ for a congregation of Hungarian Hebrews. Latourneau, Francis M. (1799/1800–1860)

A native of Mt. Clemens, Michigan, Latourneau (also recorded as

Letourno and LaTourno) is cited as architect of Saints Peter and Paul. In the Detroit City Directory of 1837, he is listed as joiner and builder; not until 1845 does the title architect appear next to his name. Active during the second quarter of the nineteenth century, Latourneau served as superintendent for the building of Fort Wayne in Detroit and also designed Great Lakes lighthouses and steamboats. Lloyd, Gordon W. (1832–1904)

Born in England, Lloyd lived in Canada and returned to Britain for formal education with his uncle at England’s Royal Academy. Lloyd came to Detroit in 1858 and won commissions for Christ Church and Central United Methodist Church. He also designed homes for wellknown Detroiters and was a leading designer of Episcopal churches in Michigan (Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Grosse Ile, Marquette, Saugatuck) as well as in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Other Lloyd designs in Detroit are the David Whitney house (now a restaurant) and Detroit College (now Dowling Hall at the University of Detroit Mercy). Lloyd died in San Francisco while boarding a ship for the South Seas. Malcomson, William G. (1853–1937)

Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Malcomson came to Detroit in 1857. He trained as a draftsman in the office of Mortimer L. Smith. In 1885 he opened his own office. In 1890, he formed a partnership with William E. Higginbotham* under the name Malcomson and Higginbotham, a firm that would become nationally recognized for its school designs and would last for thirty-three years. The firm designed several Romanesque Revival structures in Detroit’s Cultural Center. These include Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church (1891); Saint Joseph Episcopal Church, now Our Lady of the Rosary (1893); Central High School, one of the first fireproof buildings and now Wayne State University’s Old Main building (1895–97); and

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Central Christian Church on Cass Park (1891, demolished). The firm designed forty-one Detroit school buildings and redesigned ten of the existing school structures. After Higginbotham’s death in 1923, Malcomson practiced independently for several years. From 1927 to 1934, he worked in partnership with Alexander L. Trout and in 1937 formed an association with Henry A. Fowler, Ralph R. Calder, and Maurice E. Hammond. Some of his later buildings included several at the University of Detroit, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and Michigan State University in East Lansing.

(1920); Third Church of Christ Scientist (1921); Highland Park Trinity Methodist (1921); Pilgrim Congregational Church (1923); the new Masonic Temple (1922–26); the Standard Savings and Loan Association Building (1927); Little Rock Baptist Church (1928); and Central Woodward Christian Church (1931). Buildings that he designed outside Detroit include the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island (1887); the Hiram Walker and Sons Office Building in Walkerville, Ontario (1892); and the Dearborn City High School, Dearborn, Michigan. Mason is also credited with designing theaters in Cleveland, Quebec, and Toronto.

Mason, George Dewitt (1856–1948)

Meier, Walter (1887–1931)

Born in Syracuse, New York, Mason moved with his parents to Detroit in 1870. He first worked for S. S. Wormer and Sons, and began his architectural training at the age of eighteen in the office of Mortimer L. Smith. In 1873, he joined the office of Henry T. Brush, where he worked without pay for nine months. Mason continued his education in architecture through his extensive travels in Europe in 1884, to which he returned in 1911 and 1924. In 1878, Mason formed a partnership in Detroit with Zachariah Rice* (a family friend from Oswego, New York) under the name Mason and Rice, where he practiced until 1898. After working independently for a number of years, Mason organized the firm of George D. Mason and Company in 1920, working in association with Albert C. McDonald, David H. Williams Jr., and Herbert C. Wenzell. Mason is credited with designing numerous ecclesiastical, institutional, and commercial buildings. His most notable Detroit structures include the First Presbyterian Church (1889); Trinity Episcopal Church (1893); old Masonic Temple (1893); City Opera House (1898); Temple Beth El (1903); the Pontchartrain Hotel (1908); the Lincoln Motor Company Plant (1917); the Detroit Yacht Club

The son of architect Henry J. Meier, Walter Meier was born in Detroit. He studied architecture at Cornell University and traveled to Europe, where he studied the medieval cathedrals of France and other countries. He succeeded his father as a partner in the firm Donaldson and Meier upon his father’s death in 1917. Notable works in Detroit on which Meier collaborated with other members of Donaldson and Meier include the Church of the Holy Redeemer, the David Stott Building, the first two units of the Penobscot Building, and the Chancery Building of Saint Aloysius Church.

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Meigs, Montgomery C. (1816–92)

Born in Augusta, Georgia, Meigs graduated from West Point in 1836. He had a career as a Union Army officer and quartermaster general during and after the Civil War and was also a civil engineer. Meigs supervised construction of Detroit’s Fort Wayne (1843–52); while stationed there he was asked to design a small wooden structure that was the first Christ Church. He later assisted with improving navigation on the Mississippi River and supervised plans for many major buildings in Washington, D.C. He was in the honor guard of Lincoln’s funeral and himself is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Meigs’s archival

materials are located in the Library of Congress. Mueller, Gustav Adolph (1864–1937)

Born in Germany, Mueller studied in Germany and practiced architecture there as well as in Italy and France. He later worked in Panama as an engineer for the French government and arrived in Detroit in 1893. He worked as an engineer and an architect and designed the altar at Saints Peter and Paul. He teamed with Herman Brede to design the Hurlbut Memorial Gate to beautify Waterworks Park on Jefferson Avenue. Mueller was president of the Michigan Cigar Box Company, and a director of the Victor Jar Company and the American Commercial Car Company. Nettleton, James (1862–1927)

Nettleton was born and educated in Medina, Ohio. Following his 1885 graduation from Cornell University with a degree in architecture, he worked as a draftsman in the Detroit firm of Donaldson and Meier, where he met Alfred E. Weaver. He was also a partner in the short-lived firm of Kahn, Nettleton, and Trowbridge. In 1907, he opened the firm Nettleton and Weaver with offices in the Penobscot Building, where he practiced throughout the remainder of his life. Nettleton is credited with designing Detroit’s Saint Joseph Episcopal Church in 1926–27 (now Saint Matthew & Saint Joseph). Nicklas, William H. (1866–1960)

Nicklas was born in New Philadelphia, Ohio, and moved to Cleveland in 1897. He joined Sidney Badgley* as a draftsman and later became a partner in the firm they formed, Badgley and Nicklas. He continued to practice following Badgley’s death in 1917. The firm specialized in the design of churches in Cleveland and other midwestern cities. Two Detroit-area church buildings designed by Badgley and Nicklas are Woodward Avenue Presbyterian and Highland Park Presbyterian Church.

Otis, Calvin N. (1815–83)

From Buffalo, New York, Otis designed an 1849 building at the University of Buffalo. He also designed Mariners’ Church in Detroit (1849), Saint John’s Episcopal Church in Savannah, Georgia (1850), and the original Saint Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral (1852) in Detroit. This building was moved and altered in 1901 when it became the Church of the Messiah. He also designed Saint Paul’s Episcopal Church in Jackson, Michigan (1853). In 1869 Otis wrote Sacred and Constructive Art: Its Origin and Progress, A Series of Essays. Raseman, Richard E. (1855–1944)

Born in Detroit, Raseman was an architect by 1883. He partnered with Julius Hess* from 1885 to 1891. Later he was president of the Michigan Council of Architects from 1904 to 1905. Raseman was widely known for his design of industrial buildings, such as many of Detroit’s breweries and the original Edison Illuminating Company, which is now replicated at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Rice, Zachariah (1855–1929)

Born in Oswego, New York, Rice came to Detroit in 1861. He worked for the firm of Brush and Smith, later renamed the Henry T. Brush Company. In 1878 he established the firm Mason and Rice with George Dewitt Mason.* For the next twenty years Mason and Rice designed a series of outstanding buildings in Detroit. Richardson, Henry H. (1838–86)

Born in Louisiana, Richardson studied at Harvard University and was trained in the Beaux-Arts tradition in Paris. He developed a “new” architectural form adapted from eleventh- and twelfth-century European architecture. Defining characteristics included massive semicircular arches, rusticated finishes, soaring towers, varied roofline profiles, and massing of building segments. Important works by Richardson were Trinity Church

in Boston, the Glessner House in Chicago, the Allegheny County Courthouse in Pittsburgh, Sever Hall at Harvard University, and a series of small public libraries mainly in Massachusetts. Richardson died at the age of forty-eight, but the “Richardsonian Romanesque” style became so popular it was often imitated by other architects. The style died out early in the twentieth century. The John Bagley Memorial Fountain now located in Cadillac Square is Richardson’s only Detroit design. Rill, Harry J. (1854–1923)

German born, Rill emigrated to the United States in 1881. He was first listed in 1885 in the Detroit City Directory as a draftsman for Peter Dederichs.* From 1886 to 1889, Rill worked as a draftsman for E. E. Myers and Son. In 1889, the Detroit City Directory listed him as an architect. Rill designed churches in a broad range of styles in Detroit and the surrounding communities. He designed Saint Paul Roman Catholic Church in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan (1895–99), and the first building for Detroit’s Holy Redeemer Church (1897). In addition, he designed Holy Cross Church in Marine City, Michigan (1903); Saint Leo’s Church, Detroit (ca. 1908); Saint Hedwig Church, Detroit (1915); and the second building for Saint John Cantius Church, Detroit (1923–25). He is buried in Mt. Elliott Cemetery.

educated, he went on to be a designer affiliated with well-known Detroit architects and firms throughout his extensive career. He worked under George Mason,* Albert Kahn,* Malcomson and Higginbotham,* and Smith, Hinchman and Grylls* (now known as the SmithGroup). Some of Rowland’s designs include buildings at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, the Buhl, Guardian, and Penobscot buildings in downtown Detroit, Kirk in the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and the General Motors Building (now Cadillac Place) and Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit. Schilling, Edward A. (1871–1952)

Born in Auburn, New York, Schilling lived his childhood in Ishpeming, Michigan. He came to Detroit in 1892 to be a draftsman in an architectural office. He developed his own firm in 1896, a partnership with Edward Van Leyen,* eventually including Keough and Reynolds. The firm’s designs include the Belle Isle Casino, Detroit, and Flint City Hall. The firm was also well-known for Detroit Catholic churches through the 1940s, which included Nativity of Our Lord, Holy Family Roman Catholic Church, and the now closed Saint Theresa of Avila Catholic Church. Schilling was an original member of the Detroit City Planning Commission. Simons, Howard T. (1888–1961)

Rohns, William C. (1856–1951)

German born and trained, Rohns is best known for his partnership with Frederick H. Spier.* The firm Spier and Rohns existed from 1884 to 1913 and designed at least thirty churches, several buildings at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and all the principal train stations for the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk railroads. Rowland, Wirt C. (1887–1946)

Born in Clinton, Michigan, Rowland first worked as an office boy in a small architectural office. Harvard

Born in Philadelphia, Simons was educated in New York City where he worked until 1917. He came to Detroit and worked at Smith, Hinchman and Grylls* where he was a fellow associate with his future architectural partner, Aloysius F. Herman (1985–72). After starting their partnership in 1919, Simons and Herman were involved with numerous churches, banks, and schools in southeastern Michigan, as well as a significant amount of housing built by the U.S. government during World War II in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and West

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Virginia. Simons is listed as the architect of record for Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hamtramck, Michigan. Other Detroit churches by this firm include Queen of Angels Church, Saint David Church, and Saint Gregory Church. Smith, Hinchman and Grylls

With origins dating to 1853, this preeminent Detroit firm is the oldest continually operating architectural and engineering firm in the United States. The former Field, Hinchman, and Smith firm became Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. The firm produced an extensive list of prominent buildings, many located in Detroit, including Central United Methodist Church and Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian. Still headquartered in Detroit, the firm is now SmithGroup JJR (with offices in several states) and is located in the Guardian Building, which was designed by Smith, Hinchman and Grylls.

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Spier, Frederick H. (1855–1931)

Vinton, Guy J. (1859–1910)

German born, Spier came to the United States in 1873 and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey. He moved to Detroit after 1880 and worked for Gordon Lloyd* and Elijah Myers. He later became a partner in Spier and Rohns, a firm that existed from 1884 to 1913, and later went into partnership with Hans Gehrke. They designed at least thirty churches, several buildings at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and all the principal train stations for the Michigan Central and Grand Trunk railroads.

Born in Detroit, Vinton was in business with his father. The Vinton Company (1858–95) constructed many of the buildings designed by Albert Kahn*. Vinton was the architect and designer of the North Baptist/First Baptist Church, now People’s Community Church. He also designed and built Dunbar Hospital, now the Detroit Society Medical Headquarters.

Van Leyen, Edward C. (1867–1931)

Detroit born, Van Leyen partnered with Edward A. Schilling*. Their works included Detroit’s Belle Isle Casino, Flint City Hall, many Roman Catholic churches in Detroit, and numerous high schools throughout Michigan and Ohio. The firm was also known for its pioneering use of reinforced concrete.

Walsh, Henry A. (1866–1940)

Born in Brantford, Ontario, Walsh moved with his family to Detroit. He graduated from the University of Detroit and went on to study architecture in Italy. He is listed as an architect in Cleveland city directories from 1907 to 1935 and was known for designing Roman Catholic churches including Detroit’s Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament.

ARTISTS, ARTISANS, and CRAFTSPEOPLE Austin Organ Company

organs. John T. Austin (1869–1948) founded the Austin Organ Company with his two brothers in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1899. He had been with Farrand and Votey Company and then the Clough and Warren Organ Company (which became Austin Organ Company), both in Detroit. Clough and Warren organs from the 1890s are still in use today, and there are approximately one hundred Austin Company organs in Michigan including Opus 2 at Sweetest Heart of Mary built by C Clough and Warren, which also built Opus 1–22 (1893–98). When the Austin factory burned, business operations moved to Boston (Opus 23 to 28 were built there). Relocated to Hartford in 1899, Austin built Opus 29-1855 through 1935. The factory closed in 1935 due to economic conditions but reopened in 1937. Opus 2000 to 2782 were built beginning in 1937 and continue to be up to the present.

iconostasis for the Immaculate Conception Church in Hamtramck. Bernasconi, Peter (ca. 1894–?)

sculptor. Bernasconi was a stone carver at Historic Trinity Lutheran along with Corrado Parducci. According to the 1930–31 Detroit City Directory, he worked for BatchelderWassmund Company and Woodmere Monumental Works. Carpenter, William N. (1816–85)

muralist/painter. Carpenter painted the angel choir mural at Christ Church Detroit. Casavant Freres Company (1840– )

organs. Located in Quebec, Casavant Freres is the oldest organ company in North America. Joseph Casavant (1807–74) began building organs in 1840, and his sons formed the Casavant Freres (Brothers) Company in 1879. Their instruments had many innovations and can be found around the world, including many colleges and universities.

Barlow, Myron (1873–1937)

artist/painter. Born in Ionia, Michigan, Barlow studied at the Detroit Museum Art School and the Art Institute of Chicago. After studying at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, he spent most of his time in northern France, where he was a well-known genre painter. He returned to Detroit frequently, where he received the support of city art patrons. He painted murals in Italy and shipped them to Detroit for the former Temple Beth El, where his sister was a member (8801 Woodward Avenue). He was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1932 by the French government. He died in France. Berezowskij, Danylo (1912–91)

wood carver. Born in Bilobereztsi, Ukraine, Berezowskij studied in Kolomyja and later in the Lviv Polytechnic. In 1949 he arrived in America and had a small carpentry shop on the corner of Carpenter and Joseph Campau in Detroit. He was commissioned by the artist Mychajlo Dmytrenko to carve the

wood, which are found at Michigan hospitals, synagogues, cemeteries, churches, and private homes. Chesney studied under Ferenc Varga, the noted Hungarian sculptor. Cicchelli, Daniel (1948– )

stained glass. Cicchelli is the owner of Anchor Glass in Inkster, Michigan, which designed stained glass windows for Detroit-area churches during the 1980s and 1990s, including Little Rock Baptist Church. Clayton and Bell

stained glass. This prolific English stained glass firm operated from 1855 to 1993. Both Clayton and Bell interned under another English stained glass firm, Heaton, Butler and Bayne. The firm’s windows are found around the world and are often very colorful. The Cathedral of Saint Paul and Christ Church Detroit, as well as some out-of-state churches, display work by Clayton and Bell. Connick, Charles J. (1875–1945)

Cashwan, Samuel (1900–1988)

sculptor. Born in Russia, Cashwan came to Michigan in 1916 where he studied art. He also studied at the Architectural League in New York and the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Cashwan taught sculpture for many years at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and was the supervisor for the State of Michigan WPA Art Program from 1936 to 1942, after which he worked as a designer for the General Motors Corporation. Cashwan’s stylized, abstract sculptures decorate many of the buildings at Michigan State University and several local banks; his reliefs can be found at Saint Aloysius Church, where he worked with Corrado Parducci. Chesney, Edward (1922–2008)

sculptor. Born in Detroit to Polish immigrants, Chesney studied at Detroit’s Meinzinger Art School, as well as in Italy. He had a studio in Eastpointe, Michigan, and is known for sculptures in bronze, marble, and

stained glass. The Connick Studio, a Boston-based firm in operation from 1912 to 1986, “rescued” the art of stained glass from the “abysmal depth of opalescent glass” popularized by Tiffany, LaFarge, and their followers, a view also held by William Willet. By 1900 both Connick and Willet had traveled independently to Europe to study the stained glass of the great cathedrals. Influenced by the English Arts and Crafts Movement, these two men led the way back to the use of painted transparent colored glass, the stronghold of the Middle Ages. Even though opalescent glass was very popular, the sheer size of the Connick and Willet studios and their subsequent efforts influenced many American studios to follow suit in this revival. After Connick’s death, the firm was managed by Orin Skinner until 1986. Connick stained glass is found throughout the United States and in at least fifteen Michigan churches, including the Cathedral of Saint Paul.

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Conrad Schmitt Studios, Inc. (1889–present)

stained glass. This New Berlin, Wisconsin, church decorating firm specializes in stained glass, decorative painting, conservation, and restoration. It is now owned by the third generation of the Gruenke family. Daprato-Rigali Studios (1881–current)

stained glass. Born in Italy, John Rigali arrived in Chicago in 1881 and became a partner in and eventually president of Daprato Studio, a church decorating company with offices also in New York and Italy, where the Carrera marble used in religious statuary was quarried. A fourth generation of the Rigali family is still involved in church design and restoration.

paint interior murals and iconography at Hamtramck’s Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church. Other examples of his work can be found in Ukrainian churches in South Bend, Indiana; Chicago; Youngstown and Bedford, Ohio; Minneapolis; New York; and Toronto. Duchene, Jeffrey (1955–?) and Matthew (1950–98)

painters/muralists. These brothers owned a decorative painting firm in Port Huron. They worked in many Detroit churches, including Saint Charles Borromeo, Nativity of Our Lord, Saint Ambrose, Church of Precious Blood, Annunciation Church, and Saint Michael the Archangel (Monroe, Michigan), as well as the auditorium and surrounding areas at the Detroit Institute of Art.

Daubner, Andras

painter/muralist. Daubner painted significant murals at Holy Cross Hungarian Church. Detroit Stained Glass Works

See Friederichs and Staffin. Di Lorenzo, Thomas (ca. 1892–?)

painter/muralist. Born in Italy, di Lorenzo is listed in the 1930 census as an architectural decorator. He worked with many architects and painted iconography on the ceiling at Central United Methodist Church and Most Holy Redeemer Church, as well as the north lobby of the current Hatcher Library and Angel Hall at the University of Michigan; the lobby of Wilson Theater, now Detroit’s Music Hall; and the lobbies of several Detroit theaters and the Guardian Building. Dmytrenko, Mychajlo (1908–97)

painter and sculptor. Born in Ukraine, Dmytrenko studied at Kiev Art Institute, where he eventually taught. After living in settlement camps during World War II, he immigrated to Toronto in 1951 and was president of the Ukrainian Association of Creative Artists. Dmytrenko settled in Detroit in 1960 and was commissioned to

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Durgan, Lyle (1850–1904)

portrait painter. Boston born, Durgan and her older sister studied art in England and Paris for several years. They returned to the United States in 1886 to open a joint studio. After receiving a commission for Detroit’s First Congregational Church, Durgan studied in Italy to become learned in the Venetian style. She completed four monumental canvas paintings in Paris of the four evangelists, which were shipped to First Congregational and installed in 1891. Farrand and Votey Company

organs. The family of William Farrand (1854–1930) bought out Whitney Organ Company in the mid-1880s and were then joined by Edwin Votey to form the shortlived Farrand and Votey Company. Farrand and Votey jointly bought out Granville Wood and Son in 1890, but, more important, they acquired the Roosevelt patents which involved the sophistication of inner workings and the eventual electrification of organs. The company built a large organ specifically for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair as well as organs for the Aeolian Company.

artists, artisans, and craftspeople

Friederichs and Staffin

stained glass. One of the longestrunning stained glass studios in the United States owned by the same family, Friederichs and Staffin stayed in business from 1861 to 1970. The company later known as Detroit Stained Glass Works is responsible for the windows in many of Michigan’s late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century churches and exhibited at the 1893 Columbian World’s Exposition in Chicago. The company’s archives are housed at the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library and the Michigan Stained Glass Census at Michigan State University Museum, East Lansing, Michigan. Giovann, Mary (1914–86)

stained glass. A Detroit artist, Giovann studied at Cass Technical High School and Wayne State University. She became interested in stained glass while traveling in Europe and set up a studio in East Detroit, Michigan (now Eastpointe). Giovann worked for a time at Detroit Stained Glass Works; her individual work can be found in at least eighteen churches in Michigan and Illinois, including Saint Veronica’s Church and Convent, Eastpointe; Saint Paul’s Methodist Church, Bloomfield Township; Ascension Catholic Church, Warren; Saint Owen’s Catholic Church, Birmingham; Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph, Detroit; and Sisters of Mercy, Farmington. Gorham Manufacturing Company (1831–current)

stained glass. Originally located in Providence, Rhode Island, Gorham was the leading American company for silverware, bronze statuary, and other ecclesiastical products for churches and mausoleums. In 1904 Gorham initiated its own stained glass firm in New York City; their last stained glass catalogue was published in 1925. Gorham has operated under at least fourteen business names and mergers and was acquired by Dansk International in

1988. Gorham’s archives are housed at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

for 1933–36 under “mosaics and church decoration.” Hicks, Welcome Gideon (1837–?)

Granville Wood and Son(s) Pipe Organ Company, Northville, Michigan

organs. Established in Detroit in 1876, Granville Wood and Son moved to Northville in 1884. The company was acquired by Farrand and Votey in 1890. Harcus (Sinclair, 1848–1933) and Lange Company

carpenter. Born in the Orkney Islands, Harcus came to Detroit at age thirty. He owned a contracting business on Russell Street and built the main altar of Saint Josaphat Roman Catholic Church. His firm eventually became known as Harcus and Son. Heaton, Butler and Bayne (1855–1953)

stained glass. In 1855 Englishman Clement Heaton (1824–82) joined with James Butler (1830–1913) and employed artists Clayton and Bell for several years in their new stained glass business outside London. In 1862 Robert Bayne (1837–1915) joined the firm; New York–based Gorham Studio was their American agent. The sons of the founders took over the firm and kept it going until 1953. Their stained glass is found around the world and in at least a dozen Michigan churches, including the Cathedral of Saint Paul and Christ Church. A documentary film was made about the firm in 2000.

cabinetmaker. Born in Pinckney, Michigan, Hicks moved to Detroit in the 1890s. He created the wood railing for the balcony of Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church. Hintz, J. George

wood carver. A Ukrainian immigrant, Hintz assisted in the design and fabrication of the icons at Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church. Jardine, George and Son (1801–82)

organs. This family-owned business began in England, but by 1848 Jardine was in New York with his family. The company’s first instruments were more like organ grinders than pipe organs. Jardine organs are found all over the United States but are concentrated in the Northeast. The largest Jardine organ is in Most Holy Trinity Church, Augusta, Georgia. Jermowicz Brothers Company (Joseph, ca. 1865–1951)

furniture manufacturer/building contractor. Joseph A. Jermowicz came to Michigan from Poland in 1890. His company specialized in church interiors, according to his obituary. Jermowicz constructed the side altars and white oak pews of Saint Josaphat Roman Catholic Church. Johnson and Sons

Herbert, A. (Alexander) Kay (d. ca. 1940)

stained glass. Scottish born, Herbert apparently worked for the William Morris stained glass firm in London. He came to the United States sometime during 1910–12 and by 1920 was working in Detroit. Herbert designed stained glass for Central Woodward Christian Church (now Little Rock Baptist Church), Most Holy Redeemer Church, Cranbrook schools, and several Detroit schools and private homes. He is listed in the Detroit City Directory

organs. This Westerfield, Massachusetts, family tracker-organ company was in business from 1860 to 1898. The company moved to the Midwest in 1898 and supplied pipes for other companies until 1907. The firm produced a total of 860 organs. J. M. Kase Glass Company (1888–1975)

stained glass. This family business based in Reading (Berks County), Pennsylvania, was involved in residential and theater work, as well as liturgical work based on the popular Munich-style pictorial windows.

Most of the firm’s church work was in Pennsylvania, but they also are responsible for the big south rose window in Hamtramck’s Saint Florian Roman Catholic Church. Kirchmayer, John (Johannes) (1860–1930)

wood carver. Born in Bavaria, by the age of twenty Kirchmayer was employed as an artist and wood carver at the W. F. Ross Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Frequently referred to as “of Oberammergau fame,” Kirchmayer was called “one of the most remarkable sculptors of wood” in his Boston Globe obituary. He received the Craftsmanship Medal in Wood Carving by the AIA. Selected works of his can be found in Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, and Pennsylvania. His extended family includes wood carver Alois Lang, who also emigrated from Oberammergau. Lamb, Ella Condie (1862–1936)

stained glass. Ella Condie Lamb was the wife of Charles Lamb, the first owner of the J&R Lamb Studios. She studied in New York, England, and Paris, and received recognition for painting, mosaic design, sculpture, illustrations, and stained glass (for her husband’s firm). J&R Lamb Studios

stained glass. J&R Lamb is the oldest continually operating stained glass studio in the United States (1857– present). Formerly based in New York, the firm now has its offices in Wyckoff, New Jersey. J&R Lamb won medals at various world expositions and has windows in many churches across the United States. The firm’s Detroit work includes Mariners’ Church, the Cathedral of Saint Paul, and others. The company’s archives are housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Lang, Alois (1872–1954)

wood carver. Born in Oberammergau, Germany, Lang immigrated to Boston at the age of nineteen, and later to

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Wisconsin and then Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he worked for the American Seating Company. His Detroit-area work includes Shrine of the Little Flower, Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph, Central United Methodist Church, Sacred Heart Seminary, Saint John’s Grosse Point Memorial Church, and Christ Church Cranbrook. His extended family included the German wood carver John Kirchmayer. Lang died in Ann Arbor, Michigan and is buried in Whie Chapel Cemetery, Troy, Michigan. Lanzini, Angelo (1909–98)

muralist/painter. Originally from Venice, Lanzini immigrated to the United States in 1927. He had been educated at the Royal Academie of Arts in Europe, served in the Army Air Corps in World War II as a topographical mapmaker, and designed and decorated hundreds of churches over the course of his career, many in greater Detroit. In 1961 Lanzini was commissioned by the Vatican to paint the official portrait of Pope John XXIII, which hangs in the Vatican museum. Lanzini’s Detroit-area work includes Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. He died in California. McDonald, Donald (1841–1916)

stained glass. Born in Scotland, McDonald worked in stained glass with the Boston-based William J. McPherson firm as well as his own firm. His work can be found at Harvard’s Memorial Chapel, in Newport, Rhode Island, and in New York City. McDonald was one of many Boston artisans involved in Detroit’s First Congregational Church. Maglia, Andrew (1905–74)

stained glass, mosaics, and murals. Maglia apprenticed in and emigrated from Sicily (in 1923). He worked in New York, Massachusetts, and then Michigan where he began a business, Omnibus, on John R. in Detroit. Records show that he was somewhat outspoken in regard to the early planning of Cobo Hall. Many Detroit churches have his work—Saint John’s Seminary,

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Saint Theresa, Gesu, Saint Clare de Montefalco, Saint Gabriel, Precious Blood, and Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph. Ohio churches displaying his work include Holy Trinity Greek Church in Toledo and Saint Columba Cathedral in Youngstown. Mayer of Munich (Franz Mayer and Company)

stained glass. Mayer of Munich comprises the fourth and fifth generations of the family-owned firm in Munich, Germany, that began with fine art, architecture, sculpture, and painting in 1848. A stained glass branch was added around 1860, with offices in London and New York. One of the employees, F. X. Zettler, married a Mayer daughter and took over the stained glass division of the company. He formed his own company and competed against the Mayer firm until the firms rejoined in 1939. Together the firms popularized the Munich Style of religious pictorial stained glass found in European ethnic churches. Mayer of Munich stained glass windows are found around the world. Meiere, Hildreth (1892–1961)

mosaics. Ms. Meiere was an Art Deco mosaicist and painter from New York City and the leading muralist in North America from 1920 to 1960. Her work appears in fifteen states, many out of commission steamships, churches, municipal buildings, and several state capitals. Melchers, Julius (1830–1908)

sculptor. Melchers emigrated from Prussia to Detroit in 1855. He was a graduate of the École des Beaux Arts in Paris and known as a craftsman and sculptor, as well as a modeler in the 1851 Crystal Palace in London. Melchers’s early work in Detroit included wood store signs and cigar store Indians; he also worked for Hiram Walker in Windsor, Ontario. Melchers’s wood and stone decorations are found in many church interiors in Detroit. He carved four figures for Detroit City Hall (now demolished but the

artists, artisans, and craftspeople

figures were relocated), and he was a drawing instructor for son Geri Melchers (who painted the murals at the Detroit Public Library), Julius Rolshoven, and Albert Kahn. M. P. Moller Organ Company (1880–1992)

organs. Founded in Hagerstown, Maryland, by a Danish immigrant, the company’s early instruments were tracker organs. Moller organs can be found in churches, synagogues, schools, concert halls, and many now closed movie theaters. Osebold, Anthony (1856–1927)

wood carver and furniture manufacturer, including caskets. A Detroit native who carved over three thousand wooden altars in churches throughout the United States, Osebold also carved wooden rails, pulpits, pews, confessionals, candlesticks, and statuary including cigar store Indians in his small workshop behind his house on Leland Street in Detroit. He designed and created much of the carved woodwork in Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church as well as that in Saint Albertus and Saint Bonaventure. Parducci, Corrado (1900–1981)

sculptor. Parducci was born in Italy but came to New York City as a youngster in 1904 with his father. He was sent to art school and then apprenticed to a New York sculptor where his work came to the attention of numerous Detroit architects. In 1924 he moved to Detroit. Prior to World War II his emphasis was on public buildings (Penobscot, Buhl, and Guardian buildings), but after World War II he focused on church and mausoleum work. His work can be found on and in over six hundred Detroit-area buildings including Historic Trinity Lutheran Church, Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Nativity of Our Lord, Shrine of the Little Flower, Kirk in the Hills, and St. John’s Seminary (Plymouth). A 1975 oral interview with Parducci can be found in the

online edition of the Smithsonian Archives of American Art.

Detroit; their joint funeral was held at Christ Church Detroit.

Payne (George) Stained Glass Studio

Schott (Scott), Ignatius (Ignace) (d. 1883)

stained glass. Born in Scotland, Payne became the head painter for Clayton and Bell. He came to Orange, New Jersey, in 1890, and began a stained glass studio. His sons and grandsons gradually took over the firm in the 1920s and relocated to Patterson, New York. The firm became PayneSpiers in 1935 and opened a New York office. The company was active until 1943 when it was sold to Rohlf’s Stained Glass, New York.

See Stratton, Mary Chase.

stained glass. Of French heritage, Schott fled France for Detroit in 1871 via Canada under mysterious circumstances and changed his surname from Dabo. He specialized in architectural decoration and stained glass and was employed by the Friederichs and Staffin Stained Glass Company. Most Holy Trinity Church has stained glass signed by him. Schott’s son, Leon Scott Dabo, became a well-known artist and also designed stained glass for J&R Lamb Studios.

Rambusch, Viggo F. E. (1900–1996)

Schweikart, Walter (1863–?)

painter/decorator. Rambusch’s frescoes from the 1930s can be found in the chancel of Historic Trinity Lutheran Church. Rambusch was a partner in the Rambusch Decorating Company of New York/New Jersey, which was formed in 1898 and is still in existence. The fourth generation of the Rambusch family now has stained glass and lighting departments.

stone mason. The sculptor of gargoyles at Saint John’s Episcopal Church, Schweikart was also involved in producing the stone gateways in both Mt. Elliott and Elmwood cemeteries. He owned a stone yard and monument shop on Jefferson, according to the Charles F. Clark Annual Directory of 1866.

Pewabic Pottery

employed by Crowley’s Department Store downtown (which went out of business 1999) as portrait painters. Skinner Organ Company

organs. Begun in Boston in 1900, this company became the AeolianSkinner Organ Company in 1932. The Skinner Organ went out of style after World War II; many churches and other buildings with Skinner Organs have completely rebuilt their instruments, including the following: Woolsley Hall, Yale University; the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, New York; the National Cathedral, Washington, D.C.; and Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago. Steinfeld, Ellen (1945– )

Rogers, Byron

painter. Rogers painted the ceiling and chancel at Saint Joseph and Saint Matthew Episcopal Church. Rolshoven, Julius (1858–1930)

painter. Rolshoven, whose father was a Detroit jeweler, was born in Detroit and baptized at Christ Church. He studied art locally under Julius Melchers, at Cooper Union School in New York City, and then in Germany and Paris for eight years. He stayed in Europe and became well-known as painter of portraits, landscapes, and local genre. When Rolshoven was forced to leave Italy during World War I, he settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for two years where he specialized in American Indian scenes. After the war he divided his time between Italy and New Mexico. Rolshoven died in New York just four hours before his mother died in

Shadetree Studio

stained glass. Owned by Penny Kristo, this firm has been located in Petoskey, Michigan, since the mid1970s. They specialize in new work and restoration work throughout the state, including the memorial windows in Christ Church Detroit. Sinkovich, Dawn (1956– )

stained glass. Sinkovich is a Michigan artist and designer who has been employed by various studios, including Anchor Glass for the stained glass windows installed at Little Rock Baptist Church in the 1990s. Skinner, Elliott (1911–90), and David Skinner (1911–82)

muralists/painters. These Detroitborn twin brothers painted murals at Second Baptist Church and Central United Methodist Church. They graduated from Wayne State University and trained at the Society of Arts and Crafts. They were also

artist/designer. Originally from Buffalo, New York, Steinfeld studied at Carnegie Mellon University and works in many media. She was selected to be designer for new (2004) clerestory stained glass at Christ Church Detroit. Stratton, Mary Chase (Perry) (1867–1961)

ceramist. Born in Hancock, Michigan, Stratton studied sculpture in Cincinnati. She was one of America’s pioneer ceramists and the founder, along with partner Horace Caulkins, of the renowned Pewabic Pottery, which is noted for its rich glazes and handcrafted tiles. Pewabic tiles are found in many Detroit-area churches, municipal buildings, and private homes, as well as in public buildings in other states. Chase married architect William Buck Stratton, who designed the pottery building, still extant, on East Jefferson Avenue. She also helped found the Detroit Society of Women Painters and Sculptors and the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, and established the ceramics department at the University of Michigan. The Studios of Potente, Inc. (1920–present)

stained glass. This Kenosha, Wisconsin, liturgical interior decoration firm (including stained glass) began

artists, artisans, and craftspeople

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work in 1920 after separate branches of the family had worked in Europe. Currently the third generation of the family operates the business. Swad, June (1938– )

muralist/painter. Detroit born and reared, Swad was interested in art as a child, even painting a mural at her elementary school. She attended Cass Technical High School, the Center for Creative Studies, and Wayne State University; she had numerous art shows in the 1960s and 1970s; and her paintings can be seen at Second Baptist Church and Zion Hope Baptist Church. She was the artist in residence at Franklin Wright Settlement from 1958 to 1964. Thompson Art Glass Company (1929– present)

stained glass. This firm was founded in 1929 in Detroit by a Dutch immigrant who had learned the stained glass craft in Holland. The company expanded and relocated several times in the metro Detroit area, and its original work and restorations can be seen in many Detroit churches. The fourth generation of the family operates the business in Brighton, Michigan. Tiffany Studios

stained glass. This New York firm owned by Louis C. Tiffany (1848– 1933) popularized the use of opalescent glass, which revolutionized stained glass in the United States. The studio developed many types of decorative and textured glasses, which eliminated the use of paint except for flesh areas. Wealthy clients commissioned memorial stained glass windows for churches from the firm. A recent book about the company highlights the previously unknown role of women in both the design and fabrication of stained glass lamps and windows. Tiffany Studios is also known for ceramics, jewelry, metal work, and mosaics; many of these artifacts can be found at the Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, Florida, and the Neustadt Collection of Tiffany Glass

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in Long Island, New York. Tiffany Studios work can also be seen at Christ Church Detroit, Cass United Methodist Church, Saint Matthew and Saint Joseph, First Presbyterian, Beecher House, the Whitney Restaurant, and many other locations outside the state of Michigan. Timlin, Hugh (1945– )

artist/sculpture/instructor. Timlin provided major alterations for Our Lady of the Rosary while an instructor at the Center for Creative Studies; he also taught at Wayne State University, Mercy College, and Central Michigan University. Tiroler Glasmalerei (TGA)

stained glass. This Innsbruck, Austria, firm was originally the Tyrolese Art Glass Company, founded in 1861. By 1875 the company had a U.S. representative and exhibited in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition. Stained glass manufactured by Tiroler can be found predominantly in Catholic churches.

von Gerichten Studio

stained glass. The von Gerichten brothers emigrated from Germany to Alabama in 1891 and began a stained glass studio, moving to Columbus, Ohio, in 1898. They also had an auxiliary studio in Munich to compete with European studios. Their work is found in over 1,500 American churches, mostly in the eastern United States, as well as in Detroit (Holy Cross Hungarian Church) and in Howell, Michigan (First Presbyterian Church). The studio closed in 1939. Wangerin-Weickhardt Company

organs. The company was in business from approximately 1910 to the 1930s in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Wells (Brothers) Glass Company

stained glass. This Chicago stained glass firm began business prior to the October 1871 Great Fire. The company made religious windows for Gothic Revival churches and had a display in the 1893 Columbian World’s Exhibition.

Van Depoele, Charles (1846–92)

wood carver. Born in Belgium, Van Depoele became interested in wood carving at age sixteen and trained as a cabinetmaker. He arrived in the United States in 1868. In his spare time he was an inventor and held many patents, including ones for electric railways, arc lighting, and the carbon brush. He had a company that was sold to General Electric. His 1870 carvings can be seen at Saint Joseph’s Catholic Church. He died in Lynn, Massachusetts.

stained glass. This prolific Philadelphia stained glass firm was established in 1898 and still exists today. The studio’s stained glass windows are in at least fifty Michigan churches, mausoleums, and hospitals, as well as in churches throughout the United States. The firm provided grisaille in-fill work for the medieval chapel at the Detroit Institute of Art.

Varga, Ferenc (1906–89)

J. Wippell and Company, Ltd.

sculptor. After becoming a wellknown sculptor and art teacher, Varga emigrated from Hungary in 1943 to Windsor, Canada, and then to Detroit in the early 1950s. He received commissions for large sculpture for civic areas and churches and for small pieces for galleries and private collections. Varga moved to Florida in the 1970s. Frank Varga, his son, worked with him on many Detroit church sculptures.

stained glass. This English firm of church furnishers was established in 1789. They began manufacturing stained glass in 1896 and continue to do so today. The firm is currently in association with the A. R. Mowbray firm and has a U.S. office in New Jersey. Wippell stained glass windows are found across the United States.

artists, artisans, and craftspeople

Willet Studios (now Willet Hauser Architectural Glass)

GLOSSARY aisle. Passageway for walking from

back to front of a church, either in the middle or near the walls. altar. Table-like object of wood, stone, or metal located in the chancel; holds communion ware, candlesticks, and/or flowers. ambulatory. The outside aisle in the rounded portion of a church, behind the sanctuary. apse. Semicircular portion of a church chancel containing the main altar. arabesque. Decorative ornamentation, generally with foliage and figural elements. arcade. Series of arches, either an interior or exterior passageway, sometimes with lowered roof, separated by columns. arch. Curved and sometimes pointed structural member used to span an opening; usually classified by historical criteria, as in Gothic or Romanesque. art nouveau. Style of decoration from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, characterized by foliate motifs with flowing lines. Arts and Cras. Late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century movement in interior decoration and architecture. ashlar. Pattern of various sizes of rectangular cut stones or bricks that fit together in a repeated pattern. baldachin/baldachino. An ornate canopy over the altar. baptistery. Part of the church set aside to be used for baptisms. Baroque. Style of architecture and design developed in Europe in the seventeenth century characterized by curved surfaces and lavish use of decoration, sculpture, and painting. basilica. Rectangular building ending in an apse. bay. Unit of architecture referring to subdivisions of piers, columns, windows, or buttresses. Beaux Arts. Rich, elaborate architectural style; originated in Paris in the mid-nineteenth century and popularized in the United States

during the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. belfry. Room or area at top of tower where bells are located. buttress. Vertical masonry-supported pier built against a wall to resist the counterthrust of the roof. buttress, flying. Found high up on an exterior wall; half or semi-arch built to resist the counterthrust of the roof. came, lead. The H-channel that holds individual pieces of glass together in a stained glass window; usually made of lead but also can be copper, brass, or zinc. capital. Top of a column that may be decorative. chancel. The part of the church that contains the main altar, pulpit, and lectern, set apart by a railing and usually several steps higher than the nave. clerestory. The upper/highest section of a church, generally pierced by windows. coffered. A design in indented panels found in ceilings. columbarium. Repository for human ashes in a cemetery or a church. column. Pillar consisting of three parts: base, shaft, and capital; several definitive styles (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian). corbel. Bracket of stone or brick that projects out from a wall to support something above. cornice. A projecting part that sits on top of a frieze to crown the top of a building. crenellation. Parapet on top of a wall with alternating indentations; originally for defense but later used as decoration. crocket. Decorative leaf motif, carved in wood or stone, that juts out from a roof, gable, or spire. crossing. The space where the transepts meet the nave and the chancel, generally under a tower. cruciform. Cross-shaped, a plan for the arrangement of many churches. See Greek cross, Latin cross. cusp. Projecting points at the end of an arch, often seen in tracery of stained glass windows.

egg and dart. Decorative mold-

ing with a series of rounded elements separated by an arrowhead. English bond. Brick pattern with rows of the long part (stretcher) alternating with the short part (header) with the joint centered on the one below. entablature. The part of a building immediately above the columns. facade. The front of a building given prominence by special architectural treatment. finial. An ornament at the top of a peak or an arch. flèche. Tall slender tower with French influences. foliate. Decoration that resembles leaves; found in stained glass, capitals, and moldings. fresco. A painting done on fresh plaster with moist paints; found on walls and ceilings. frieze. The area of a building immediately above the entablature. gallery. Balcony or elevated area of the auditorium or sanctuary. gargoyle. Grotesque carving of an animal or human especially with an open mouth that serves as a spout to guide rainwater away from a building. German hall church (hallen-kirchen). Rectangular church where the ceiling and the aisles are the same height. glass, antique. Refers to the process, not the age; made by the medieval method of blowing a large cylinder of glass, cooling and cutting it, and then, in a kiln, allowing it to flatten into a sheet. glass, dalle de verre. Thick pieces of cast glass that are epoxied together into a design; also called faceted or slab glass. glass, Norman slab. Glass blown into a rectangular mold and then cut apart at the corners; square or rectangular pieces are thin in the middle and thick on the edges. glass, opalescent. Glass for stained glass windows; translucent or semi-opaque, often with two or three different colors mixed together; popularized by the

glossary

Italicized words are found within the glossary.

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LaFarge Studio and Tiffany Studios. glass, painted. Brown or black oxide of finely ground glass when mixed with a liquid is applied to glass surface with a brush to add details, features, and shading; permanently fused to glass surface after firing in a kiln between 1,200°F and 1,250°F. Gothic. Type of western European architecture recognized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and larger and more numerous window openings; prevalent from twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. Gothic (Perpendicular). Architecture with an emphasis on strong vertical lines; prevalent from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. Gothic Revival. A movement in Europe and North America around 1850 to revive and imitate the artistic/architectural details of the Gothic style (also called neoGothic, Victorian Gothic). Greek cross. The ground plan of a building with four equal arms. See cruciform. grisaille. A window of clear or lightly colored glass, painted with foliate designs or various shades of gray; permanently fused after firing in a kiln. groin vault. Intersection of two barrel vaults. grotto. Natural or artificial cave; a series of underground rooms. hammer beam. Short horizontal beam attached to the end of a rafter to help support a pitched roof; the ends are frequently decorated. iconography. A comprehensive plan for the stories told in stained glass windows. Ionic (column). One of the three organizational orders of classical Greek architecture; has fluted columns and decorative capital. Jesuits. A worldwide order of Catholic priests and brothers, founded around 1540; best known for involvement in field of education. lancet. Narrow window with a pointed arch. Latin cross. A building plan with one

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glossary

long and three short arms. See cruciform. lintel. A horizontal structural member spanning an opening. lunette. A semicircular area or opening. medallions (stained glass). Repeated geometric pictorial scheme often with biblical themes. medieval. Of the Middle Ages, ca. 1100–1300. narthex. The vestibule of a church where people enter the building. nave. Central and principal volume of a traditional church. oculus. A small round or oval window opening. parapet. A low wall or railing often surrounding the edge of a roof or balcony. pediment. A triangular section often above doors and windows. pier. A square or rectangular upright designed as a supporting element. pilaster. A rectangular column or pier attached to a wall. pinnacle. A vertical crowning piece, often decorative. polychrome. Multicolored; decorated with one or more colors. portal. An entrance or opening, often grand or monumental. pulpit. A speaker’s stand at the front of the church where the clergy present the sermon. rank. A row of organ pipes organized in the same type of sound but at different pitches; size ranges from eighteen to eighty or more ranks. Redemptorist Order. A Roman Catholic missionary order. Renaissance Revival. A nineteenthcentury architectural style inspired by the Italian Renaissance. reredos. A large ornamental screen behind the altar generally composed of intricately carved wood or stone. “ribbon” or “strip farm.” Refers to the original tracts of land in present-day Detroit granted by Antoine Cadillac. A typical parcel was 200 feet of riverfront land that stretched up to three miles inland.

Romanesque. An architectural style

that has round arches and rounded vaults as the main characteristics. rose window. A large round stained glass window, usually divided by stone mullions radiating from the center as in a flower petal; first seen in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in France. sacristy. A depository for the valuables of a church. sanctuary. The most sacred space of a religious building, often referring to the area containing the main altar. scagliola. Plasterwork fashioned to imitate ornamental marble. spandrels. The triangular space formed between two adjacent arches. spire. A slender pointed structure that diminishes in size; generally set on top of a tower, such as a steeple. Stations of the Cross. A series of fourteen visual images or wood carvings that depict the Passion of Christ. tracery. Decorative carved stonework or woodwork within a window opening. tracker organ. Refers to the mechanical action or linkage between keys or pedals and the valve that allows air to flow into the pipe of the corresponding note. transept. The outreaching portions of a cross-shaped building, generally left and right. trefoil. Type of Gothic tracery divided into three parts or lobes. Tudor arch. A shallow, low-pitched arch. turret. A tower, often located at the corner of a building. tympanum. The recessed triangular space on the face of a pediment. vault. A curved roof or ceiling (e.g., barrel vault, cross vault, ribbed vault). wainscot. A decorative placement of wood panels applied to lower portion of an interior wall; sometimes called wainscoting.

BIBLIOGRAPHY American Church Building of Today. New York: Architectural Book Publishing Company, 1929. Andrews, Wayne. American Gothic: Its Origins, Its Trials, Its Triumphs. New York: Random House, 1975. ———. Architecture in Michigan: A Representative Photographic Survey. Rev. ed. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1982. Badgley, Sidney Rose. Some Modern Churches Designed by Architect Sidney R. Badgley, Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland: W. M. Bayne, 1899. Biographical Index of Historical American Stained Glass Makers. Compiled by Robert Jones in conjunction with the SGAA Stained Glass School, 2002. Bluestone, Daniel M. “Detroit’s City Beautiful and the Problem of Commerce.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 47, no. 3 (September 1988): 245–62. Cowan, Painton. The Rose Window: Splendor & Symbol. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2005. Eckert, Kathryn B. Buildings of Michigan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. Ferry, W. Hawkins. The Buildings of Detroit: A History. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1968. Fox, Jean. The Windows of Old Mariners’. 2nd ed. Detroit: Mariners’ Church, 1986. Frueh, Erne R., and Florence Frueh. Chicago Stained Glass. Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1983. Gavrilolvich, Peter, and Bill McGraw. The Detroit Almanac: 300 Years of Life in the Motor City. Detroit: Detroit Free Press, 2000. Gibson, Arthur Hopkin, ed. Artists of Early Michigan: Biographical Directory of Artists Native to or Active in Michigan, 1701–1900. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1975. Gibson, Katherine. The Goldsmith of Florence: A Book of Great Craftsmen. New York: MacMillan, 1929. A Guide to Cleveland Sacred Landmarks. Kent: Kent State University Press, 1992.

Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. New York: Harper and Row, 1979. Hill, Eric J., and John Gallagher. AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2003. History and Directory of the Churches of the United States. Detroit: Crumb and Noble, 1877. Holleman, Thomas J., and James P. Gallagher. Smith, Hinchman & Grylls: 125 Years of Architecture and Engineering, 1853–1978. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978. Huseby-Darvas, Eva V. Hungarians in Michigan. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2003. Katz, Irving I. The Beth El Story. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1955. Keefe, William Ford. Created for the Ages: A History of Mariners’ Church. Detroit: Mariners’ Church of Detroit, 2001. Kidder, G. E. Smith. Sourcebook of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996. Leach, Nathaniel. The Second Baptist Connection Reaching Out to Freedom: History of Second Baptist Church of Detroit. Detroit, 1988. Little, Joyce, with Angela Goedicke and Margaret Washbourn. Stained Glass Marks and Monograms. London: National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies, 2002. Marquis, Albert Nelson, ed. The Book of Detroiters: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Detroit. Chicago: A. H. Marquis, 1908; 2nd ed., 1914. Meyer, Katherine M. Detroit Architecture AIA Guide. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1980. McAlester, Lee, and Virginia McAlester. Field Guide to American Architecture. New York: Knopf, 1990.

Moody, Rona H. Journal of Stained Glass (Scottish issue). Vol. 30. London: British Society of Master Glass Painters, 2006. Nawrocki, Dennis. Art in Detroit Public Places. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999. “La Nuova Chiesa Italiana Della Santa Famiglia.” La Tribuna Italiana, December 4, 1909, November 26, 1910. O’Conner, Francis V., ed. Art for the Millions: Essays from the 1930s by Artists and Administrators of the WPA Federal Art Project. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1973. Our Churches. Detroit: J. F. Eby and Company, n.d. Paré, George. The Catholic Church in Detroit, 1701–1888. Detroit: Gabriel Richard Press, 1951. Pettys, Chris. Dictionary of Women Artists: International Dictionary of Women Artists Born before 1900. Boston: C. K. Hall Company, 1985. Prouty, F. Shirley. Master Carver Johannes Kirchmayer, 1860–1930. Portsmouth, NH: Peter F. Randolph, 2007. Raguin, Virginia Chieffo, and Helen J. Zakin. Corpus Vitrearum: Stained Glass before 1700 in the Collections of the Midwest States. London: Harvey Miller, 2001. Skendzel, Eduard Adam. The Detroit St. Josaphat’s Story. Grand Rapids, MI: Littleshield Press, 1989. Society of Architectural Historians. Who’s Who in Detroit 1935/36. Detroit: Walter Roming, 1935. Stearns, Ezra S. A Genealogical and Family History of the State of New Hampshire. Chicago: Lewis Publishing, 1908. Sweeney, J. Gray, ed. Artists of Michigan from the Nineteenth Century: A Sesquicentennial Exhibition Commemorating Michigan Statehood, 1837–1987. Muskegon Museum of Art and the Detroit Historical Museum, 1987. Tutag, Nola Huse. Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987.

bibliography

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Van Leyen, Schilling, and Keough. Brochure of Catholic Buildings. 1915. Webber, F. R. Church Symbolism. Rev. ed. Cleveland: J. H. Jansen, 1938. Willard, Frances E., and Mary Ashton Rice Livermore. American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies. New York: Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897. Withey, Henry F., A.I.A., and Elsie Rathburn Withey. Biographical Dictionary of American Architects (Deceased). Los Angeles: Hennessey and Ingalls, 1970.

252

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OTHER SOURCES

Building Permit Index. City of Detroit Buildings and Safety Engineering Department. Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. City of Detroit Historic Designation Advisory Board. Numerous study reports on proposed Detroit historic districts. Corning Museum of Glass. Rakow Research Library, Corning, NY. Dau Archives. Historic Trinity Lutheran Church, Detroit. Michigan Stained Glass Census Archives. Michigan State University

Museum, East Lansing. National Register of Historic Places. Numerous nomination forms. National Park Service, Washington, DC. Ukrainian American Archives and Museum of Detroit. Hamtramck, MI. University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library. Ann Arbor.

INDEX African American ethnicity, 16, 67, 195 Akron plan, 132, 150 Albom, Mitch, 76 Allen, Rev. Richard, 202 Ambassador Bridge, 70 American Architect, 206 American Red Cross, 41 American Seaman’s Friend Society, 8 Anchor Glass Company, 202 Anderson, Colonel John, 8 Anderson, James, 20, 32, 35, 237 Anderson, Marion, 195 Anderson, Mrs. Julia Taylor, 8, 13 Archdiocese of Cincinnati, 64 Archdiocese of Detroit, 2, 63, 152, 158, 163, 166, 206, 214, 218, 221 Armenian Apostolic Church, 35 Art Deco style, 224 Arts and Crafts, 40, 187, 192, 195, 224, 226 Association of Theological Schools, 86 Auditorium plan, 150 Austin Organ Co., 113, 148, 208, 243 Babcock, Reverend Allen J., 152 Badgley and Nicklas, 150 Badgley, Sidney, 150 Baldwin, Henry P., 35 Ballou’s Pictorial, 20 Baptismal pool, 136, 202 Barlow, Myron, 131, 243 Basilian Order, 230 Basilica plan, 3, 142, 166, 214 Beaubien family, 64 Beaubien, Mrs. Antoine, 73 Beaux Arts, 129, 158 Belgian ethnicity, 158, 214 Bentley Historical Library, 155 Berezowskyj, Danylo, 230, 243 Bernasconi, Peter, 243 Beth El Society, 129 Birkerts, Gunnar, 155 Bloomfield Hills, MI, 131 Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, 17 Bob-Lo boat, 13 Bonkowski, Father John, 206 Bonstelle Playhouse/Theater, 127, 130 Booth, George, 76 Borgess, Bishop Caspar H., 3, 58, 110, 218 Boschi, Father Giovanni, 138 Boy Scouts, 25

Boyd, Dr. Martha Foster, 86 Brown, John, 17 Browning Family, 13 Buffalo, New York, 136 Bunch, Ralph, 17 Burton Historical Collection, ix, 8, 13, 44, 84, 113, 130 Byzantine style, 88, 230 Cadillac Square, 29 Cadillac Tower, 28 Cadillac, Antoine de la Mothe, 2, 70 Canada, 8, 16, 17, 94, 144 Carpenter, William N., 243 Cartwright, Leo, 146 Casavant Freres Organ Co., 13, 86, 91, 148, 243 Cashwan, Samuel, 218, 243 Cass Avenue United ethodist Church, 96–103 Cass, Governor Lewis, 83, 96, 144 Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Episcopal, 36, 144–49, 192, 206 Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Roman Catholic, 152–57 Central United Methodist Church, 44–51 Central Woodward Christian Church. See Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church Chancery Building, 218 Chesney, Edward, 29, 243 Christ Church, Episcopal, 36–43, 101, 224 Chrysler Freeway, 124, 138 Cicchelli, Daniel, 202, 243 Civil War, 16, 64 Clayton and Bell, 40, 243 Clustered churches/parishes, 52, 56, 113 College for Creative Studies, ix, 118 Columbia University, ix Comerica Park, 35, 44 Community Church of Christ, 131 Connick Studios, 144, 148, 166, 243 Connolly, Father John, 152 Conrad Schmitt Studios, 67, 208, 214, 244 Coquard, Leon, 70, 237 Corktown, 29 Covington, Pastor Henry, 76 Coxhead, John, 132, 136, 237 Cozens, Sarah and Isaac, 129 Cram, Goodhue and Ferguson, 144, 206 Cram, Ralph Adams, 144, 146, 206,

209, 237 Crane, Charles Howard, 130, 237 Cruciform style, 10, 70, 104, 124, 158 Cultural Center, 94, 118, 144 Daprato Studios/Statuary Company, 163, 171, 177, 244 Dau Church History Library, 226 Daubner, Andres (Andrew), 177, 244 Daubner, Pius, 64 Dederichs, Peter, 64, 158, 237 Delray, 172, 177 Detroit City Council, 8 Detroit City of, 8, 70 Detroit Free Press, 58, 63 Detroit Historical Society, 13, 67 Detroit Institute of Arts, 148 Detroit News, 104, 200 Detroit Public Library, 113 Detroit River, 8, 16, 25, 36, 70, 144, 177 Detroit Stained Glass Works, 63, 67, 101, 110, 113, 124, 166, 177, 224, 244. See also Friederichs and Staffin di Lorenzo, Thomas, 49, 171, 244 Dederichs, Peter, 64 Diehl, George, 152, 237 Diehl, Gerald, 152, 237 Discovering Stained Glass in Detroit, 35, 101 Dmytrenko, Michajlo, 230, 244 Dodge Memorial Parish House, 183, 188 Dominican Sisters, 172 Donaldson and Meier, 166, 218 Donaldson, John M., 238 Douglas, Frederick, 17 Downtown Detroit Church Association, 226 Duchene, Jeffery, 158, 244 Duchene, Matthew, 158, 244 Duffield, Rev. George, 86 Dulles, Rev. Allen M, 76 Durgin, Miss Lyle, 88, 91, 244 E’cole des Beaux Arts, 116 Eastern Michigan University, ix, 94 Ecumenical Theological Seminary. See First Presbyterian Church Edmund Fitzgerald, 13 Edsel Ford Freeway, 116 Engelbert, Henry, 58, 238 English regency style, 3 Epiphany Reformed Episcopal Church, 104

index

253

Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, 13, 144, 148 Evangelists, 86, 88, 91, 200, 202, 209 Farmer, Silas, 96 Farrand and Votey Organs, 86, 244 Faxon, John L., 88, 238 Felician Sisters, 63, 124 Ferry, W. Hawkins, 64 Fires, 20, 23, 29, 67, 70 First Baptist Church, 16, 132 First Congregational Church, 88–95 First Evangelical Society, 84 First German Reformed Church, 14 First Presbyterian Church (now Ecumenical Theological Seminary), 82–87, 94, 101, 183 First Protestant Society, 28, 84 Fleitz family, 3 Flemish ethnicity, 158 Ford Field, 35, 44 Ford Motor Company, 224 Fort Detroit, 36, 144 Fort Pontchartrain, 70 Fort Street Presbyterian Church, 20–25, 75, 183 Fort Wayne, 177 Fox Theater, 35 Francis, Edward, 41 Franciscan Fathers/Friars, 64, 221 Franklin, Rabbi Leo M. Archives, 131 Franklin, Rev. Clarence L., 202 French ethnicity, 70 French, Albert E., 70, 237 French Methodist Church, 129 Friederichs and Staffin, 35, 40, 56, 63, 67, 73, 101, 113, 244. See also Detroit Stained Glass Works Friedland, Rev. Johann Ferdinand, 56 Gallagher, John, vii Gargoyles, 35, 70, 104, 109 Gausee, Charles and Margaret, 224, 226 German ethnicity, 16, 52, 56, 64, 110, 129, 214, 224 German hall churches, 52, 58, 67 German Reformed Presbyterian Society, 16 Gillette and Johnson foundry, 183 Giovann, Mary, 195, 244 Good Neighbor Restoration Project, 17 Gorham Manufacturing Studios, 35, 244

254

index

Gothic styles: Carpenter, 76; English, 183; Modern, 192; Perpendicular, 8, 224; Revival, 16, 20, 29, 35, 36, 44, 52, 58, 63, 104, 110, 123, 130, 132, 155, 177, 200, 206, 224; Venetian, 75; Victorian, 70, 116 Grace Church (Old), 146 Grand Circus Park, 44, 84, 96 Granville Wood and Son Pipe Organ Company, 73, 76, 244, 245 Gratiot Avenue, 224 Greek Cross plan, 86, 88, 99 Greektown, 14, 16, 17, 64 Gunn Levine, 41 Hamilton, Lucy, ix Hammer beams, 35, 36, 40, 76, 224 Hamtramck, 206, 230 Handel’s Messiah. 25 Harcus and Lange, 245 Hart Plaza, 8 Heaton, Butler and Bayne, 40, 148, 245 Heinigke and Smith, 131 Herbert, Alexander Kay, 166, 202, 203, 245 Herlong Cathedral School, 148 Herman and Simons, 230 Hess, Julian, 64, 76, 238 Hess and Raseman, 74, 76 Hicks, Welcome Gideon, 245 Higginbotham, William E., 238 Himpler, Francis, 52, 238 Hinchman, Theodore, 76 Hintz, J. George, 245 Historic Trinity Lutheran Church, 224–29 Holley, Rev. Dr. James, 200, 202 Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, 3 Holy Cross Hungarian, Roman Catholic, 172–79 Holy Family, Roman Catholic, 138–43 Holy Ghost Fathers, 64, 67 Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, 3 Hood, Rev. Dr. Lotti J., 94 Hudson, J. L. See J. L. Hudson store Hungarian ethnicity, 172 Hunter, William E. N., 120, 224, 238 I-75 Freeway, 177, 195 Iconostasis, 230 Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church, 230–36 Indian Village, 183 Ingalls, Rev. Richard W., 13 Ingalls, Rev., Richard Jr., 13 Inland Architect, 88

Irish ethnicity, 28 Italian Baroque, 138 Italian ethnicity, 138 Jackson, Rev. Jesse, 202 Jardine, George and Son Organs, 109, 245 Jefferson Avenue, 2, 8, 36, 40, 180, 183 Jefferson Avenue Presbyterian Church, 180–89 Jermowicz Brothers, 245 Jesuits, 3, 5 Jewish ethnicity, 129 J. L. Hudson store, 84 J. M. Kase Stained Glass Company, 208, 245 Johnson and Sons Organs, 96, 245 Jones, Rev. Dr. Edgar D., 202 Jordon, Albert A, 20, 32, 35, 239 Jordon, Octavius, 20, 239 Joy, James, 23 J&R Lamb Studios, 13, 35, 40, 148, 245 Kahn, Albert, 94, 126, 129, 239 Kase, J. M. See J. M. Stained Glass Company Kastler, Joseph G., 120, 239 Keely, Patrick Charles, 29, 239 Keely, Rev. Mark, 25 Kelly, Rev. Steven J., 35 Kelley Island limestone, 3, 8 Kern, Father Clement, 29 Kindekens, Rev. Peter, 3 Kinder, Rev. William, 195 King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, 224 King, Rev. Martin Luther, 202 Kirchmayer, John, 144, 146, 224, 226, 245 Klenner, Father Hubert, 172 Kohner, Henrik (Henry), 172, 239 Kolasinski, Father Dominic, 58, 110 Kolbe, Saint Maximillian Mary, 209 Kostuch, Dr. Dorothy, ix Kovacs, Father Louis, 172 Kundig, Rev. Martin, 28, 64 Lake Erie, 8 Lamb, Ella Condie, 35, 245 Lang, Alois, 35, 49, 192, 245 Lanzini, Angelo, 142, 171, 246 Latin cross plan, 35, 67, 155, 192 Latino community, 29, 73, 166, 171 Latourneau, Francis H., 2, 239 Leach, Nathaniel, 17

Leesville, 214 Lefevere, Bishop Peter Paul, 2, 3, 5, 29 Lightfoot, Gordon, 13 Lighthouse Cathedral, 127, 131 Lincoln, Abraham, 202, 203 Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church (formerly Central Woodward Christian Church), 198–205 Lloyd, Gordon, 36, 44, 239 Lodge Freeway, 29 Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 224 Lyster, Rev. William, 40 Maglia, Andrew, 195, 246 Malcomson & Higginbotham, 96, 116 Malcomson, William, 239 Maltese ethnicity, 29 Marcus, Samuel, 129 Mariners’ Church, 8–13, 224 Mason and Kahn, 127 Mason and Rice, 82, 84, 96, 104 Mason, George D., 84, 104, 144, 198, 200, 240 Mayer of Munich, 40, 56, 63, 109, 148, 208, 246 Mayfair Motion Picture Theater, 130 McDonald, Donald, 91, 246 McGregor, Katherine, 150 McNichols, Mary, ix Medbury, Mrs. Lucetta, 116 Medieval stained glass, 148 Meeting hall style, 20 Meier, Walter R., 218, 240 Meiere, Hildreth, 218, 246 Meigs, Lt. Montgomery, 36, 240 Melchers, Julius, 70, 246 Michigan Central Railroad, 20 Michigan Court of Appeals, 13 Michigan State University, 148 Michigan, State of, 8 Monteith, Rev. John, 83, 86 Mooney, Archbishop Edward, 152 Mosaics, 34, 40, 41, 166, 218 Most Holy Redeemer, Roman Catholic, 166–71 Most Holy Trinity Church, 26–29, 64 M. P. Moller Organ Company, 29, 49, 51, 136, 214, 246 Mueller, Gustav, A., 3, 240 Mumbrow, Robert, 51 Murillo, 113 National Register of Historic Places, 56

Nativity of Our Lord, Roman Catholic, 212–17 Neo-Renaissance, 214 Neo-Classical, 3, 5, 129 Nettleton and Weaver, 190, 192 Nettleton, James B., 190, 192, 240 Newton, Massachusetts, 88 Nicklas, William H., 240 Nobel Peace Prize, 17 North Baptist Church, 132 Oakland County, 88, 209 Odell Organs, 52 Orchard Lake, MI, 63, 209 Osebold, Anthony, 52, 246 Otis, Calvin N., 8, 241 Otte, Rev. H.C.F., 224 Otte, Rev. Dr. Gilbert T., 224 Our Lady of the Rosary, Roman Catholic, 116–19, 192 Page, Carlotta Splane, 192, 195 Pantheon, 130 Parducci, Corrado, 218, 246 Payne (George) Stained Glass Studio, 40, 247 Pence, Rev. Edward, 23 People Mover, 17 People’s Community Church, 132–37, 150 Perpendicular, English, 8 Pewabic Pottery, 23, 146, 148, 166, 192, 218, 226, 247 Piety Hill, 35, 44, 84, 132, 150 Pilgrim Church. See Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church Pilgrims, 88 Poletown, 63 Polish American Historical Site Association, 63 Polish ethnicity, 58, 110, 123, 206 Pope John Paul II, 209 Powell & Whitefriars, 148 Prall, Dr. William, 35 Presbytery of Detroit, 86 Princeton Theological Seminary, 83 Pugin, A.W., 29 Rambusch Studio, 226, 247 Rambusch, Vigo, 226, 247 Raphael, 148 Raseman, Richard, 241 Redemptorist Fathers, 64, 67, 166 Renaissance Center, 9, 13, 17, 36, 37 Renaissance Pipe Organ Company, 51 Reredos, 192, 208 Rese, Father Frederic, 28, 29

Ribbon/strip farms, 96 Rice, Zachariah, 241 Richard, Father Gabriel, 73, 83, Richardson, Henry H., 241 Rill, Henry J., 241 River Rouge, 51 Rogers, Byron, 192, 247 Rohns, William, 241 Rolshoven, Julius, 247 Romanesque Revival, 84, 88, 96, 116, 123, 150, 166, 218 Rowland, Wirt C., 35, 180, 241 Ruskin, John, 75 Saint Albertus, Roman Catholic, 58–63, 110, 123 Saint Aloysius, Roman Catholic, 218–23 Saint Anthony’s, 67 Saint Augustine (Florida), 70 Saint Boniface, 67 Saint Charles Borromeo, Roman Catholic, 158–63 Saint Florian, Roman Catholic, 206–11 Saint John’s Episcopal Church, 32–35, 44, 101 Saint Joseph Episcopal Church, 101, 116, 192 Saint Joseph’s, Roman Catholic, 52–57, 67, 110, 113 Saint Josephat, Roman Catholic, 56, 113, 120–25 Saint Mary’s College/Seminary, 209 Saint Mary’s, Roman Catholic, 52, 64–69, 158 Saint Matthew and St. Joseph Protestant Episcopal, 116, 190–97 Saint Matthew Episcopal Church, 192, 195 Saint Peter Claver, 67 Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic parish, 202 Saint Vincent de Paul Society, 67, 113 Sainte Anne, Roman Catholic, 64, 70–73, 83 Saints Peter and Paul Church, Roman Catholic, 2–7, 20, 29, 138 Schaller, Rev. Gottlieb Schilling, Edward A., 212, 214, 241 Schott, Ignatius, 29, 247 Schulmerich Carillon, 25 Schweikart, Walter, 35, 247 Scotten, Mrs. Mary, 23 Scripps, George, 76, 109 Scripps, James E., 76, 104, 109 Second Baptist Church, 14–19, 64

index

255

Second Vatican Council, 118 Shadetree Stained Glass Studio, 41, 247 Sicilian ethnicity, 138 Simons, Howard T., 230, 241 Sinkovich, Dawn, 202, 247 Skinner Organ Company, 44, 51, 183, 226, 247 Skinner, David and Elliot, 18, 49, 247 Smith, Hinchman and Gryllis, 51, 76, 180, 242 Smulders, Fr. Aegidius, 166 Spier and Rohns, 110 Spier, Frederick, 242 Spirit of Hope Church. See Trinity Episcopal Church Springwells Township, 166 Stark, George W., 13 Steinfeld, Ellen, 41, 247 Stratton, Mary Chase, 146, 247 Strip/ribbon farms, 58 Stroh Brewery, 224 Studios of Potente, 13, 247 Swad, June, 16, 247 Swaste, Rev. Joseph, 58 Sweetest Heart of Mary, Roman Catholic, 56, 110–15, 123 Tapestries, 148, 149 Tate, Rev. Robert E Taylor, Donna Swanson, 148 Temple Beth El (1st and 2nd) 126–31 Thompson Art Glass, 63, 248 Tiffany Studios, 35, 40, 42, 43, 86, 96–97, 101, 109, 192, 194, 195, 248 Timlin, Hugh, 118, 248 Tiroler Glasmaleri Company, 56, 248 Trinity Church, Boston, MA, 84

256

index

Trinity Episcopal Church (now Spirit of Hope Church), 76, 101, 104–9 Trowbridge, Charles, 36 Trumbull Avenue Presbyterian Church (now Pilgrim Church), 74–79, 109 Truth, Sojouner, 17 Tutag, Nola, ix Ukrainian ethnicity, 230 Underground Railroad, 16–19, 94 University of Detroit High School, 209 University of Detroit Mercy, 3 University of Michigan, 83, 73, 148, 155 Uriel, 88, 94 Van Aelst, Peter, 148 Van Antwerp, Father Francis J., 116 Van Depoele, Charles, 52, 248 Van Leyen and Schilling, 138, 163 Van Leyen, Schilling and Keogh, 212 Varga, Ferenc, 70, 248 Vatican Council, second, 29 Vatican, the, 148 Victoria and Albert Museum, 148 Victorian style, 64 Vinton, Guy, 136 Visiting Nurses Society, 101 Von Gerichten Studios, 177, 248 Walsh, Henry A., 152, 241 Wangerin-Weickhardt Organs, 23, 248 Washington, George, 202 Wayne County Circuit Court, 13 Wayne State University, 94, 126, 130, 148

Webber, Rev. F. R., 224 Wells Glass Company, Chicago, 110, 113, 248 Werner, Bruce, 44 West Point Military Academy, 8 Westminster Presbyterian Church, 86, 218 White Organ Company, 209 Whitney, David, 150 Wieczorek, Rev. Simon, 58 Willet Stained Glass Studio, 40, 49, 109, 155, 183, 226, 248 Willet, Henry Lee, 148 Willet, William, 148 Williams, Governor G. Mennen, 146 Wilson, Rev. W. Warne, 109 Wippell and Company, 35, 40, 195, 248 Wojtyla, Cardinal Karal. See Pope John Paul II Woodcarving, 35, 49, 70, 83, 91, 136, 144, 183, 192, 193, 200, 210, 211, 224, 229 Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, 150–51 Woodward Avenue, 8, 32, 35, 44, 82, 83, 84, 86, 88, 96, 116, 126, 127, 130, 131, 132, 144, 150, 152, 190, 192, 198, 200 Woodward, Judge August B., 44 World War I, 25, 51, 166, 169, 177 World War II, 8, 40, 152 World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 113 Wright, Charles H. Museum of African American History, 195 Wurlitzer Organs, 163 Yamasaki, Minoru, 131 Young People’s Christian Union, 75