Our Lady of the Rosary history

So, the history of Our Lady of the Rosary church at the corner of Woodward and the Ford Freeway is pretty well known. A chapel was completed by the Epsicopals in 1884 and was the entirety of the church from then until 1893 when an addition was built along Woodward which was completed in 1896. The building was then sold to the Catholic church and became Our Lady of the Rosary.

What I'm a bit confused about is the physical orientation of the original church as it relates to the 1896 addition. It is always talked about that St. Joseph's Protestant Episcopal Church was originally built at the corner of "Woodward and Medbury" the latter of which is now the service drive for the freeway.

https://digitalcollections.detroitpu...eam/IMAGE/view

Which way is this photo looking? It looks like Woodward looking southeast. But was this church included in the 1896, or was it demolished and rebuilt to a similar look? It's always mentioned that the addition was built "facing Woodward." Does that mean the original chapel faced Medbury?

Interesting. Yes it looks completely different from the current structure although Romanesque style and stone look similar.

Google Street View

Yes, I'm wondering if the building pictured above still exists, or if the entire thing was torn down and rebuilt to the corner? All of the themes are still there, just super-sized.

It would help to know what direction we're looking in in the picture above.

The picture is looking northeast. If you go around the corner on the streetview link Lowell posted, and go down the Ford Service Dr. a few clicks, you will see the original church building pictured above still standing behind the much larger current church. That older building originally faced onto Medbury [[now the service drive) a few hundred feet east of Woodward.

Thanks! That was what was confusing me. It's always mentioned that the original chapel was on Woodward and Medbury, but it's obvious it was quite a ways in from Woodward and more on Medbury than anything.

BTW, looks like the original structure for Our Lady of the Rosary before they purchased St. Joseph's was immediately north at 60 Harper. That structure, though, appears to be long gone and is now a gravel lot.

https://digitalcollections.detroitpu...eam/IMAGE/view

My interest in this whole area is because this was my paternal family's parish; apparently, it was pretty ethnically and racially mixed when they attended.

Looks like this view, from the I94 service drive, in the back parking lot
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Originally Posted by jcole

Looks like this view, from the I94 service drive, in the back parking lot
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Good catch. Never noticed that in all the years I passed by.

Google Street View

By coincidence Our Lady of the Rosary was the lead article of Sunday's Free Press.

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Hurtado and nearly a dozen current and former parishioners now say their bonds with Rosary are strained, if not shattered, after the arrival three years ago of the Rev. Daniel Jones.

A by-the-book priest who grew up in Livonia, Jones eliminated elements of the church service that had been customized at Rosary in favor of a more conventional Mass, parishioners said. Jones pushed for more traditional music, including singing in Latin. An annual party that included members of a nearby home for disabled adults was canceled.

Jones' changes at the once-progressive urban church appear to be part of a back-to-basics approach spreading to many corners of the Archdiocese of Detroit. But others are calling such recent moves by local church leaders, including new restrictions on gay Catholics, a troubling sign of increased intolerance.

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Originally Posted by jcole

Looks like this view, from the I94 service drive, in the back parking lot
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No, Lowell was right. The view of the old picture I posted is looking north-northeast from Medbury a bit east of Woodward. The view you're showing is looking in the other direction [[north-northwest) from Medbury.

Lowell, I saw that! It's funny this came up because I was talking to my dad and asking him about the church and then decided to do a search on it and recognized an article had just been written on the changes for the parish. Kind of sad to hear.

Okay, this is looking NNE; same corer of the church, just standing more toward Woodward
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Originally Posted by Dexlin

No, Lowell was right. The view of the old picture I posted is looking north-northeast from Medbury a bit east of Woodward. The view you're showing is looking in the other direction [[north-northwest) from Medbury.

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Here's a 360 degree drone view, which confirms the orientation of the original chapel [[facing service drive) and the church [[facing Woodward).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UumFiHVwz0


A bit of unsolicited editorial here. The RCC is desperately short of priests worldwide, so what was the archdiocese thinking by placing a rector like this in a tiny urban parish of 150 [[extraordinarily small by RCC standards): "Gee, let's put a priest who has difficulty relating to progressive black people and the unhoused in a predominately black, progressive, low-income neighborhood" [[??).

Historically, if he has possessed some kind of secret sauce in growing congregations, he's certainly off to a rip-roaring start on this one by alienating what few members they already have.