Billy Sunday's Tabernacle - Where was it?

[historicdetroit.org]

Billy Sunday was a baseball player-turned evangelist popular around the turn of the 20th century. He toured the country with what were known as "Billy Sunday's Tabernacles."

There's a common postcard [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...it_1916%29.jpg) of his Detroit Tabernacle, but I can't find where it was. Has anyone stumbled across this before? The building appears to be some sort of ramshackle, perhaps temporary, structure.

[p69rrh51]

Billy Sunday was a baseball player-turned evangelist popular around the turn of the 20th century. He toured the country with what were known as "Billy Sunday's Tabernacles."

There's a common postcard [[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...it_1916%29.jpg) of his Detroit Tabernacle, but I can't find where it was. Has anyone stumbled across this before? The building appears to be some sort of ramshackle, perhaps temporary, structure.

This may help.

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=200

[historicdetroit.org]

This may help.

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/history/index.php?id=200

I tried that link, but I couldn't get it to load. : /

[jcole]

I tried that link, but I couldn't get it to load. : /

It loaded earlier today, but now it doesn't. Interesting.
Anyway, according to that link, when it worked, his Tabernacle was in an empty field between Woodward and Cass on Forest.

[p69rrh51]

The link did work this morning. I found this, maybe the site will be up a little longer.

http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Great...lly_sunday.htm

[p69rrh51]

Kresge must have been out of his mind to give up this home to Sunday.

[Honky Tonk]

Kresge must have been out of his mind to give up this home to Sunday.

Went to some GREAT Halloween parties there, back in the day.

[historicdetroit.org]

Thanks, guys!

[EastsideAl]

Interestingly, the Billy Sunday story has links to such Detroit institutions as the DAC, the Auto Show, and Vernors.

First, here is a direct link to that Detroit News story on Billy Sunday in Detroit:
http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Great...lly_sunday.htm

From the Wayne Sate Virtual Motor City site, here a are a couple more pictures of the Billy Sunday tabernacle:

Under construction


An interior shot



You'll note the baseball diamond in the foreground of the construction picture above, that's because the tabernacle was built on the Grindley Athletic Field, which was in the middle of the block bounded by Woodward, Forest, Cass, and Canfield. This block had been the original site of the Detroit Athletic Club [[their clubhouse faced Woodward), until they moved downtown to their present building the year before the revival, in 1915.

After Billy Sunday had moved on, the tabernacle building was reused in 1917, and apparently for a few years thereafter, to host the Detroit Auto Show, which was growing larger each year and had been progressively outgrowing the available venues. Eventually, it was decided to build a permanent home for the Auto Show and other trade shows and conventions, and Convention Hall rose on the site of the old Grindley Atheltic Field, opening in time for the 1924 Auto Show.

In the early 1950s the Vernors Company was evicted from its longtime site at Woodward and Woodbridge for the Civic Center redevelopment project that eventually brought us Hart Plaza and Cobo Hall. In 1954 they opened their new plant on the site of the Woodward side of Convention Hall [[the Cass side of the hall remained standing until the late '70s), with a giant gnome sign that loomed over Woodward for many years to come. Today, the Studio One Apartments, WSU's University Tower dorm complex, and a WSU parking garage stand on the site.

Some history on the Auto Show, including the information on the Grindley Field site:
http://www.motorcities.org/Story/Mak...o+Show-35.html

A previous DY thread on Convention Hall:
http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...onvention-Hall

[old guy]

Great thread.

[Honky Tonk]

Great thread.

Isn't it, though?

[EastsideAl]

Kresge must have been out of his mind to give up this home to Sunday.

The Kresge family were Methodists and strong prohibitionists, so it's no wonder they were attracted to Billy Sunday.

Sebastian Kresge donated land and money for the construction of Metropolitan Methodist on Woodward. When my mother went there as a kid the Kresges were very prominent members of the congregation. Later I knew a Kresge heir who gave most of his fortune and real estate to the Methodist church, Methodist-affiliated Albion College, and anti-alcohol organizations, and lived in his minister's basement outside of Pontiac when he wasn't at the family estate up north. K-Mart would not sell alcoholic beverages for many years, and it was only over the objection of the remaining family members on the board that they began to do so.