Churches Of Detroit

With so many uncertainty Regarding almost 4 dozens of our magnificent churches, unfortunately some of them are located in a very challenging neighborhood, fewer & fewer people are willing to make the trip.
In the last few months I had the chance to visit most of the historic churches, some of them will be closed.
I thought The least I can do to bring these spectacular monuments to the surface, and make them available for people everywhere to see them for the first time in high diff, not from the outside, but from the inside as well. Which was truly very difficult at some times to arrange a visit.Attachment 11924
I would like to share these with all of you good people in Detroit, and I would like to ask anyone genuinely interested in Detroit, what else we can do to help these churches .
please visit www.churchesofdetroit.com
I would love your feed back.
God Bless.
H.Q.

Many of the churches on your website are closed or are closing because when the parishioners abandoned the City of the Detroit they also abandoned their churches.

I have been to many of Detroit's old churches, many of them are architectural jewels. But Midtownms is right, 60% of Detroit left Detroit and are now going to churches that are located where they live in the suburbs.

Some downtown area churches are turning around and are seeing a resurgence in attendance and events. I know this is true of Trinity Lutheran, Sweetest Heart of Mary and Holy Cross Hungarian church. I think also that St. Joseph's may be growing again and I'm sure there are others doing better that I am not aware of. But many are either stagnant or are still losing members. Church attendance is not particuclarly high in the US nowadays and Detroit had an enormous number of churches. Even if Detroit's population was still near 2,000,000 I doubt attendance at the churches would be high.

What to do to help the churches? Attend and bring friends and advertise - even non-religious people might enjoy seeing the beautiful structures on occasion.

Catholic churches tend to close at the decision of the diocese, Protestant churches tend to go out of business or move on the vote of the governing body or congregation, it depends on the decision making hierarchy in the particular denomination. I believe Orthodox churches and Jewish synagogues work more like Protestant churches - the congregation decides to close, move, stay, whatever.

Shortage of catholics becoming priest is probably one of the main reasons, the catholic church is the biggest non profit in the world, not sure now but it use to be the 2nd largest land owner in the US behind the government. It could easily keep these churches open, just doesn't have priest to preach at mass.

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Originally Posted by MidTownMs

Many of the churches on your website are closed or are closing because when the parishioners abandoned the City of the Detroit they also abandoned their churches.

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Depending on when people moved out, they may have still been subject to geographical parish boundaries which would determine what parish you attended. The boundary restriction has pretty much been removed after Vatican 2, but it took a while for parishes to give up enforcing who be a parish member based on the boundaries.

Great site, Churches! My dad used to do Historical Church Tours through the Historical Society years ago. I got to go into many of those churches.

Amazingly good work churchesofdetroit. Thank you for bringing us such beautiful photos of these glorious monuments. I pray that more of them can stay open and viable for the long term.

Many [[maybe all) of these old churches are looking for volunteers to help at their fundraising dinners and events. I am not Catholic but am one of the volunteers at St. Albertus. I enjoy it a great deal. If anyone is interested in helping the old churches volunteering is just one way of helping them.

Do you plan on selling these photos?

At Sweetest Heart of Mary someone took some photos of the church and SHOM is selling them with the profits going to the church.

Sweetest Heart of Mary has probably the best stained glass windows of any Detroit church. One of these pictures St. Michael slaying a dragon with a definitely human face which I'm told represents the bishop that figured in with the Father Koslasinski "scandal" of the 1890s. Does anyone know the details of this story?

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Originally Posted by expatriate

Sweetest Heart of Mary has probably the best stained glass windows of any Detroit church. One of these pictures St. Michael slaying a dragon with a definitely human face which I'm told represents the bishop that figured in with the Father Koslasinski "scandal" of the 1890s. Does anyone know the details of this story?

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Check out the book "Polish Detroit and the Kolasinski Affair by Lawrence Orton. It's available at Amazon and at several libraries in the area.

What was the church that is located on Ferry almost on the corner with John R on the south side?

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Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

What was the church that is located on Ferry almost on the corner with John R on the south side?

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There's the Third Babtist on Ferry near Beaubien but not John R

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Originally Posted by jcole

There's the Third Babtist on Ferry near Beaubien but not John R

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OMG FOREST. EAST FOREST. Sorry!

Stupid me...

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Originally Posted by expatriate

Sweetest Heart of Mary has probably the best stained glass windows of any Detroit church.

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SHOM "...includes several impressive stained glasswindows created by Detroit Stained Glass Works,^[3][7] the successor to the well known firm of Friederichs and Staffin.^[8] The major transept window illustrates the Holy Family in Saint Joseph's workshop. Eight windows lining the nave portray Christ, Mary and several saints; this set of windows won a major prize at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.^{[3] "}
[[source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweete...atholic_Church)

SHOM also houses Austin Organs Opus 2, an historic pipe organ that is
the second built by that venerable American company, and still working!
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Organ

Cheers from the beach!! :cool:

My wife and I have been attending Mother of Divine Mercy parish since 2005 or so. This parish is made up of the churches of Sweetest Heart of Mary, St. Josaphat, and St. Joseph. We are truly blessed to have three architecturally significant works of art. Each of them are incredible and so different from the typical suburban parish that I grew up in. The ethnicity of each parish really stands out also paying tribute to the original parishioners that constructed them. St. Joseph is German while Sweetest Heart of Mary and St. Josaphat are Polish.

The buildings were what originally attracted us and the reverence for the faith is what has kept us. If you have not been in one of these three churches you are absolutely missing out.

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Originally Posted by dtowncitylover

OMG FOREST. EAST FOREST. Sorry!

Stupid me...

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Took a bit to remember.
Designed by Harry G. Muelman. Church of the New Jerusalem 92 East Forest built in 1915 Sugar Hill/John R Music & Art Historic District Detroit, MI.

Attachment 29733 this is a picture I took this weekend
https://www.google.com/search?q=st+f...&client=safari

I got married at Sweetest Heart of Mary. After looking at several options out in our neck of the woods [[Clinton Twp), once we saw SHoM, we knew we had to get married there. It was one of the most beautiful churches I'd ever seen. Everything in the burbs is bland crap compared to downtown's magnificent churches. It's truly a shame that they are closing, but like it's been said, patronage is down significantly due to the population loss, and people aren't going to drive a half hour to go to their old church.

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Originally Posted by Detroitdave

Attachment 29733 this is a picture I took this weekend
https://www.google.com/search?q=st+f...&client=safari

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Beautiful building it is. Thanks for posting. Also, when you click the picture on the link you provide, an interesting story of the parish unfolds. I really like the mix of orange brick with the beige-yellow limestone masonry. The interior is very impressive.

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Originally Posted by Detroitdave

Attachment 29733 this is a picture I took this weekend
https://www.google.com/search?q=st+f...&client=safari

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Don't Forget.....

This church reminded me of churches I've seen in Europe. I believe back in Detroit's heyday they were trying to build as beautiful churches as the ones in Europe. They did a pretty good job.
I doubt there are many american cities that can rival Detroit when it comes to beautiful churches.
saddlery we lost so many.

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Originally Posted by Detroitdave

This church reminded me of churches I've seen in Europe. I believe back in Detroit's heyday they were trying to build as beautiful churches as the ones in Europe. They did a pretty good job.
I doubt there are many american cities that can rival Detroit when it comes to beautiful churches.
saddlery we lost so many.

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The only one I remember is Scott Colburn.

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Originally Posted by Detroitdave

Attachment 29733 this is a picture I took this weekend
https://www.google.com/search?q=st+f...&client=safari

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I work with the charter school that rents space from this church. The architecture of the school is beautiful also and the school has really maintained the craftsmanship and love that this church / school was built with. The polish immigrants who built this place did not have a lot of resources but what they had they poured into this magnificent work of art. Many of them were craftsmen and the details on both interior and exterior are without equal.

This is the second oldest polish catholic church in the Archdiocese of Detroit. Sweetest Heart of Mary is the oldest and inherited that title when St. Albertus [[down the street from SHofM) closed. The members of St. Francis D'Assisi would protest however as the entire congregation of Sweetest Heart of Mary was excommunicated for a time due to feuds with the bishop. If you count the time that Sweetest Heart of Mary was excommunicated that would make St. Francis D'Assisi the oldest continuously operating [[within the dioceses good graces) polish catholic church. Interesting history and beautiful structures [[both church & school).

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Originally Posted by Honky Tonk

The only one I remember is Scott Colburn.

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Slovenly, things don't seem so saddled anymore.