St. Jude Church/School Nostalgia

**zitro** · July-12-10, 01:35 PM

Originally Posted by kellyroad

Just saw the photos of the Parish Block Party. Included, were shots of the basement church. In that regard the question arises:

Has anyone attended Mass in a basement church other than St. Jude?
Does anyone know of a another church that has/had a basement used for Mass?

I believe at one time St. Aloysius downtown had a basement for mass

**Eastburn** · July-12-10, 01:59 PM

Originally Posted by zitro

I believe at one time St. Aloysius downtown had a basement for mass

Didn't you sort of look up at the altar from the basement of St. Al's? Sort of a 2 level church but one mass. At least that's how I remember it.

**Campfire Girl** · July-12-10, 02:16 PM

I used to work across the street at the Book Bldg and would go to St. Al's for Holyday Masses - don't remember a downstairs....but then again, that was a long time ago!

**Campfire Girl** · July-12-10, 02:18 PM

Ps - still seems strange to me to have food tables in the "Altar" area when we have meals in the lower church....doesn't seem quite right. I wonder if it had to be "de"commissioned when it was no longer a "Mass" area.

**jcole** · July-12-10, 02:30 PM

Originally Posted by Campfire Girl

Ps - still seems strange to me to have food tables in the "Altar" area when we have meals in the lower church....doesn't seem quite right. I wonder if it had to be "de"commissioned when it was no longer a "Mass" area.

I think when they remove the altar with the altar stone in it, it sort of decommissions the mass area.

**Campfire Girl** · July-12-10, 02:40 PM

Duh - what is an Altar Stone?

**zitro** · July-12-10, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by Campfire Girl

Duh - what is an Altar Stone?

Sounds like a Friday night down at the foot of Altar

**Campfire Girl** · July-12-10, 02:54 PM

Hey, did anyone else go fishing there? Dad would take us on Saturdays to get us out of mom's way!

**12468_laing** · July-12-10, 03:28 PM

fished down there alot. used to take a 12 pack of strohs and remember the first fish i cought out of there was as long as the 12 pack with both top and bottom opened. threw back that carp, but it was fun to catch them.

**kellyroad** · July-12-10, 03:36 PM

Originally Posted by zitro

I believe at one time St. Aloysius downtown had a basement for mass

Good point Z. I always thought of St. Al's basement as a seating area that looked up to the altar of the street level but it does have it's own altar. However, unlike St. Jude, there aren't/weren't two Masses occurring at the same time.

check out this contribution regarding St. Aloysius

Elite '10
27
53

Eric P.
Ferndale, MI

4/1/2009
St. Aloysius is an interesting church. Having attended old churches in Detroit for three years, and worked downtown for a year and a half, I thought that I had become familiar with most of the major institutions. And, while they are all unique, both inside and out, they all seem to be large, long, rectangular cathedral style buildings. St. Aloysius is very different.

There is a hint from the outside that it is different from most downtown churches. Rather than having its own lot, and sitting apart from other buildings, it is part of a row of buildings on Washington, just down from the Book Cadillac Building - much more subdued from the outside than your typical urban church.

The inside is different from any church i have ever been in. It is quite small, and more square or circular - not long and rectangular, like most others. In some ways, it feels more like a chapel than a church.

The more interesting aspect of the interior is that the church consists of three levels. The first level, the basement, has its own nave and altar - I had never seen a church with an altar in the basement before. The second level, which is street level, and where the main nave and altar are, has a large opening in the middle of the floor - between the altar and the first row of pews - where you can see down into the first level. The third level consists of a balcony, which basically wraps around the outside above the second level. So, the opening of space in the middle increases up through the levels.

This creates contrasting feelings of space. During the liturgy, readings, and homily, when the Priest is on the pew side of the opening in the middle of the floor, it seemed to be much more intimate, and up close than I have experienced before. Then, when the Priest stands behind the altar for the Eucharist, everything seems much farther away, since he is on the other side of the opening in the middle of the floor.

Worth checking out - but not if you are the type of person that likes to sneak in and out and sit in the back. There's no hiding here! Also, since I'm a pretty big guy, the pews - like at every other old Catholic church - were much too small.

**zitro** · July-12-10, 03:45 PM

The choir sang the annual Policman's Mass down there 3 times I think which included limousines and a police escort to whisk us back to St. Jude for 10:30 Mass. That was always pretty cool stuff

**Campfire Girl** · July-12-10, 03:54 PM

Makes me want to go check it out. I remember it being small and chapel like - which is why I opted for St. Al's instead of a later Mass after work.

**kellyroad** · July-12-10, 03:58 PM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/snweb/2...in/set-463068/
Although the basement area of St. Aloysius cannot be seen in the photo, it is just left of the railing.

**zitro** · July-12-10, 04:04 PM

Kind of reminds me of the courtroom in To Kill a Mockingbird

**Campfire Girl** · July-12-10, 04:11 PM

It sure does! It looks a lot brighter inside than the last time I was there!

**12468_laing** · July-12-10, 04:11 PM

speaking about the basement - who else remembers the movies about traffic accidents they used to show down there? i remember it being pretty gory. that felt wierd watching that when the altar was still there. CFG, what ever happened to all those red seated chairs they had down there?

**kellyroad** · July-12-10, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by Campfire Girl

Hey, did anyone else go fishing there? Dad would take us on Saturdays to get us out of mom's way!

A buddy [[who lived in the Troester/Gratiot area) and I rode our bikes from his house to the foot of Alter Rd. [[felt like Huck Finn and Tom Sayer with our poles over our shoulders or laying over the handlebars). We took Chalmers to Outer Drive and zigzagged over to Alter Rd then over to Angel Park. There was a bait shop there that had our essentials [[Faygos in the cooler). Anyway, didn't catch a thing, In fact, my friend let me cast his slick rod and reel. Lo and behold for some reason the pole was not tightened down. Guess what sailed in the Detroit River. It was my second time fishing. [[the first at a Belle Isle fishing derby). Needless to say, it was an adventure in the D for a couple of young teens to ride along Fox Creek and discover all the neat mini islands and bridges around the Ashland Street area. At least we got some exercise on the bikes.

Angel Park was probably the closest watering hole for those in St. Jude Parish

**kellyroad** · July-12-10, 04:48 PM

Originally Posted by 12468_laing

speaking about the basement - who else remembers the movies about traffic accidents they used to show down there? i remember it being pretty gory. that felt wierd watching that when the altar was still there. CFG, what ever happened to all those red seated chairs they had down there?

I do. There was a gory documentary I think from the state of Ohio Highway Dept, that showed some pretty graphic examples of Semis rear ending cars at 70 mph...nothing left but pancaked metal.....No bodies shown [[like modern day internet news) but you got the picture. The interesting thing was that the message was drive defensively and refreshed.. a far cry from today's messages about impaired or texting issues. I do recall that Frank Toomey, Heilmann's community director at that time in the early 70s, spoke in the basement Church about the issues of speeding along Crusade...There were few stop signs and a ton of kids darting in and out especially at night time during all the ball games. Toomey wanted speed bumps. Funny thing is that Crusade became so pot holed and poorly maintained in the years following that speed bumps became a moot point.

I believe as long as the Eucharist is not present in the tabernacle that the church may be used for other purposes.

BTW, an east side friend and got together and did a side trip quick tour through the old neighborhood last week. Interestingly, Crusade is in the best shape that I can recall.

**Mkap** · July-13-10, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by zitro

Thanks for posting his name Mkap, I've been wracking my brain for a while now trying to remember his name, I could picture this guy that used to hang with you and Schmitty and Chevy and just didn't know how to frame him to ask about it, but he's the one I've been thinking of. He used to bowl too right? Dave is his first name?

Was gone for a time, but I'm baaaaack! Visiting the Big Apple during the major heat wave. That city, during the summer, leaves a bad after taste! WoW!

Yeah! That's him. Yes he bowled w/ me on the Fireman's league a couple years.

I don't know if you remember, but he absconded with a pair of black mittens you had way back probably in the seventh grade. He said he 'found them' in the gym. Knowing they were yours, I re-absconded them from him and returned them to the rightful owner. He found out, and proceded to chase me around the hood till he tired. Whew!

Small world. Our sons were in the same class at St. Isaac's, and I ended up coaching them both, in baseball, as sophmores in High School. I haven't talked to him in a number of years though.

**Mkap** · July-13-10, 06:04 AM

Originally Posted by jcole

My Dad was from downriver, but when he joined the DPD, he was posted in eastside precincts. They first lived down off the Blvd, and then a little further east in the Warren/St. Jean/Mack area. He too was bound by residency requirements and judging by the number of police and firemen that moved to our hood, that upper NE corner was the place to be as far from the action as possible.
Regarding the brick/copper construction during and after WWII, I think that's why most of the houses right around SJ on the north side of 7 were asbestos sided and are now aluminum sided. They were largely built during and just post war.

And back to asbestos again. Scrapping is big business these days.

**Mkap** · July-13-10, 06:11 AM

Duh - what is an Altar Stone?

Originally Posted by zitro

Sounds like a Friday night down at the foot of Altar

Been there. Then over to Ashland to see if we could fly [[speaking of Dave, the rear windows of his Opal GT didn't stay put on impact).

**Campfire Girl** · July-13-10, 07:34 AM

I forgot about the Fishing Derby at Belle Isle! What a great time - we probably also took in the zoo while we were there -

On another note - the red padded chairs are still around - Some stacked on the "stage" in the lower church - some in the Parish center - others in the choir room. they've seen lots of use, so some are a little "iffy" for the over 100 lb. crowd, but still used.

**Eastburn** · July-13-10, 08:43 AM

Originally Posted by Campfire Girl

Duh - what is an Altar Stone?

As I recall, each altar is supposed to have a "stone" containing a 1st class relic [[part of the body) of a saint set into it.

Always got me wondering whose job it was to cut up the bodies of dead saints to supply the altar business and when it was done. Finger & toenails and hair would count as 1st class relics, of course. Bones are highly prized as such.

This could become an interesting topic of discussion.

Laing - you're the closest thing to clergy we've got around here. Perhaps this could be a research project for you.

**12468_laing** · July-13-10, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by Eastburn

As I recall, each altar is supposed to have a "stone" containing a 1st class relic [[part of the body) of a saint set into it.

Always got me wondering whose job it was to cut up the bodies of dead saints to supply the altar business and when it was done. Finger & toenails and hair would count as 1st class relics, of course. Bones are highly prized as such.

This could become an interesting topic of discussion.

Laing - you're the closest thing to clergy we've got around here. Perhaps this could be a research project for you.

As I recall altar stones, it was to have a relic of the saint the church was named for, but I could never believe that. I remember seeing the ones on both altars at St. Jude. By the way, thanks sfor the promotion! We built a new church down here 2 yrs ago, and there is no altar stone - guess they don't do that anymore. It is interesting, though, I will do some checking.