Big Old Church on 14th and Marquette

[ordinary]

Does anybody know what the original name of this church? I have a picture to post but it's not with me at this time. It says King Solomon on it now. Sorry if this has been discussed.

[jcole]

This is from a photo of the church on Flickr, so I am not positive of the authenticity of the statement, but it's the best I can find.

From 1921 to 1952 this building and the one across the street was Temple Baptist Church when J. Frank Norris was pastor. Temple moved to 10100 Grand River Ave in 1952, selling this building to King Solomon at that time.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitliger/2623522634/

[jcole]

A bit about Rev. Norris
http://www.jfranknorris.org/
and some book titles about him and the church
http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=su%...qt=hot_subject

[jcole]

And here is a whole thread about it on the old site here:
http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl...d=0CJMBEK0DMBM

[ordinary]

Thanks jcole. I saw that building but I'm thinking about the one across 14th from that one. I'm going to try and put a picture on my next post. It might take a while for me to figure it out. I haven't done it for a while.

[ordinary]

Well I went ahead and looked at the tutorial and I'm not sure if this worked but we'll see. This picture was taken from the back of the church from Marquette Street. The front looks kind of the same. Is this part of the Temple Baptist Church that you mentioned?

[jcole]

In my first entry, the guy says that this is the Temple as well as the building across the street.

From 1921 to 1952 this building and the one across the street was Temple Baptist Church when J. Frank Norris was pastor.

I can only link the photo; it's copyrighted. http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitliger/2623522634/

Also check out the thread I posted from this site. It's up about two posts

[jcole]

This is a picture Hornwrecker posted on the old thread linked above:

[ordinary]

Thanks jcole. I did read the post, sometimes I tend to miss things. Now I know.

[jcole]

Okay; hope I helped

[HM Angowynet]

This is from a photo of the church on Flickr, so I am not positive of the authenticity of the statement, but it's the best I can find.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitliger/2623522634/

The Information on Temple Baptist is correct to a point. Temple Baptist was still in operation as of 1954. I have news articles from that time. My father attended the church during that time period. They were building the new church on Grand River during 1954.

[Parkguy]

Temple Baptist moved again from the Grand River location to West Chicago just east of Telegraph, in the late '60s, I think. They stayed there until the '90s, when they built on North Territorial just off of M-14 in Salem. About 10 years ago they changed their name to Northridge Church and dropped all reference any denomination.

[rb336]

Northridge is, perhaps, the most hideous religious edifice in SEM

There are two king solomon missionary baptist churches at that intersection?

[Detroitish]

The Detroit Times, June 16, 1917

[p69rrh51]

Designed by J. Will Wilson. Temple Baptist Church, 6125 Fourteenth Street built 1915-1917 King Solomon Baptist Church Historic District, Detroit, MI. Includes an image of the church from the Burton Historical Collection, circa 1925. and a rendering from a 1917 edition of the Detroit Free Press.

Dedicated June 17, 1917
Extensive alterations

[archfan]

Designed by J. Will Wilson. Temple Baptist Church, 6125 Fourteenth Street built 1915-1917 King Solomon Baptist Church Historic District, Detroit, MI. Includes an image of the church from the Burton Historical Collection, circa 1925. and a rendering from a 1917 edition of the Detroit Free Press.

Dedicated June 17, 1917
Extensive alterations

Wow, you aren't kidding about extensive alterations.

As far as I can tell from their website, the King Solomon congregation is still active, but only use the historic auditorium. The church looks abandoned.

[renf]

Isn't this the site where Malcolm X gave his most famous oration in November, 1963?

[archfan]

Yes, quite a list of speakers, in fact. Malcolm X's "Message to the grass roots" was given there, and the second version of "The Ballot or the Bullet". From the history section of their website:

Thanks in part to its 5,000-seat auditorium, King Solomon Baptist went on to play a major role in the civil rights movement, as speakers could address large audiences. In 1954 Thurgood Marshall, then lead council for the NAACP, spoke at the church immediately following their victory in the Brown V. Board of Education ruling, which overturned segregated schooling. In 1956 US Representative Charles Diggs gave a national radio address about the murder of Emmett Till.


Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made two appearances at King Solomon; the first at the 78th annual National Baptist Convention of America meeting in 1958, and the second at the National Baptist Congress meeting in September of 1963, having just given his "I have a dream" speech in Washington DC a week earlier. Over 10,000 attend the conference, where King was the keynote speaker and delivered a speech commemorating the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation.


At the other end of the civil rights movement ideology, King Solomon Baptist also hosted speakers like Malcolm X. A few weeks after King's speech, the church held the Northern Grass Roots Leadership Congress. The keynote address "Message to the grass roots," given on November 10th by Malcolm X to a crowd of 3,000, was later described as one of the most influential speeches of his life. It is heavily critical of the non-violent MLK-led civil rights movement and the August march on Washington, favoring a violent revolution. In April of 1964 Malcolm X made another appearance at King Solomon, repeating his "The Ballot or the Bullet" speech he'd given a week earlier. In it he encourage blacks of all faiths and backgrounds to unite and resist oppression by violence if necessary, and join the political process. His presence isn't universally accepted – The church attempted to block his appearance - but having already paid a deposit and advertised it heavily, Malcolm X took the matter to court and prevailed.

[renf]

This is an historic church. While I strongly disagree with many of the ideas Malcolm Little expressed in his The Ballot or the Bullet oration, it
was a significant and clear statement of his disagreement with the
civil rights establishment. Historically important so there should be
an historic marker on this building.

[beachboy]

As far as I can tell from their website, the King Solomon congregation is still active, but only use the historic auditorium. The church looks abandoned.

Here are some pix of the auditorium interior, and a historical narrative: https://abandonedonline.net/king-sol...aptist-church/

Anyone have pix of the abandoned church interior?

[archfan]

Here are some pix of the auditorium interior, and a historical narrative: https://abandonedonline.net/king-sol...aptist-church/

Anyone have pix of the abandoned church interior?

You can always count on DetroitUrbex to have some photos of abandoned buildings. There's also more history of the buildings and the two congregations.

Once the auditorium was built, the sanctuary of the church was divided into two stories of classrooms, so there probably isn't much of the original interior available.