The Cathedral Church of St. Paul is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

of the

Episcopal Diocese of Michigan The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is the Episcopal diocese comprising more than 70 congregations in the southeast part of Michigan. The diocese traces its roots to the founding of St. Paul's, Detroit in 1824. It became a diocese of the Episcop ...

. In 1824 its congregation formed as the first Episcopal and first Protestant church in the Michigan Territory. Designed by architect

Ralph Adams Cram Ralph Adams Cram (December 16, 1863 – September 22, 1942) was a prolific and influential American architect of collegiate and ecclesiastical buildings, often in the Gothic Revival style. Cram & Ferguson and Cram, Goodhue & Ferguson are partner ...

and constructed in 1907, this building is located at 4800

Woodward Avenue A woodward is a Game warden, warden of a wood. Woodward may also refer to: Places ;United States * Woodward, Iowa * Woodward, Oklahoma * Woodward, Pennsylvania, a census-designated place * Woodward Avenue, a street in Tallahassee, Florida, which b ...

Midtown Detroit Midtown Detroit is a mixed-use area consisting of a business district, cultural center, a major research university, and several residential neighborhoods; it is located along the east and west side of Woodward Avenue, north of Downtown Detroit, ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, adjacent to the campus of

Wayne State University Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...

. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1982.

History

The parish of St. Paul was founded in 1824, by the Rev.

Richard Fish Cadle Richard Fish Cadle (April 17, 1796 – November 9, 1857) was an American Episcopalian priest and the first superior of Nashotah House. Biography Born in New York City, New York, Cadle received his bachelor's and master's degree from Columbia ...

, as the first Episcopal and the first

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

congregation in what was then

Michigan Territory The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit w ...

.page
from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul The original site of St. Paul's church was on

, between Congress and Larned. In 1851 the church moved to the corner of Congress at Shelby. The funeral service for

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

, the entrepreneur who catalyzed development of the automobile industry in Detroit, was held at Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Thursday, April 10, 1947.Lochbiler, Don (July 22, 1997
'I Think Mr. Ford is Leaving Us'
. Michigan History, ''The Detroit News'' Mourners passed by at a rate of 5,000 each hour at the public viewing the day before at Ford's

Greenfield Village The Henry Ford (also known as the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation and Greenfield Village, and as the Edison Institute) is a history museum complex in the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, United States. The museum collection contains ...

in Dearborn. At the funeral service, 20,000 people stood outside the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the rain with 600 inside. The funeral had attracted national attention and an estimated seven million people mourned his death.According to ''

A&E Biography ''Biography'' is an American documentary television series and media franchise created in the 1960s by David L. Wolper and owned by A&E Networks since 1987. Each episode depicts the life of a notable person with narration, on-camera interviews, ...

Architecture

The current building, designed by renowned church

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

, dates from 1907. It remains

unfinished Unfinished may refer to: *Unfinished creative work, a work which a creator either chose not to finish or was prevented from finishing. Music * Symphony No. 8 (Schubert) "Unfinished" * ''Unfinished'' (album), 2011 album by American singer Jor ...

, the bell tower never having been completed. The church is built of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

, using medieval construction techniques, with no supporting steel superstructure. The building boasts soaring, pointed arches, wide expanses of stained glass, and elaborate tracery, exemplary of Gothic architecture. It includes a large architectural installation of

Pewabic Pottery Pewabic Pottery is a ceramic studio and school in Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1903, the studio is known for its iridescent glazes, some of which grace notable buildings such as the Shedd Aquarium and Basilica of the National Shrine of the Imma ...

. In 1912 it was designated as the cathedral of the diocese.

Significance

St. Paul's Cathedral is a fine example of the Late

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, an architectural style popular in the early years of the 20th century.Cathedral Church Of St. Paul
from the National Park Service American architects of the mid-19th century imported and re-interpreted the English

style, based on the visually lush details of Medieval cathedrals.Fort Street Presbyterian Church
from the National Park Service This was the period of the

Oxford Movement The Oxford Movement was a movement of high church members of the Church of England which began in the 1830s and eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism. The movement, whose original devotees were mostly associated with the University of O ...

in England, which also influenced Episcopal clergy and congregations in the United States to commission revivals of Medieval styles. American architects copied the "Gothic" elements and combined them with simple building plans to create an American architectural style known as "

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

." The Fort Street Presbyterian Church, built in 1876 in Detroit, is a premier example of early Victorian Gothic architecture. In contrast, in the early 20th century more American architects attended new schools at

M.I.T. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

and Columbia, or traveled to France for training at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth century ...

. These architects, including Ralph A. Cram, believed that Gothic architecture should be developed from, rather than simply copy, the architecture of Medieval churches. St. Paul's Cathedral is one of Cram's major early projects, one that defines his "Late Gothic Revival" style.

Present use

The current dean is the Very Reverend S. Scott Hunter, formerly Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Michigan.
from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul The cathedral coordinates programming with the

Detroit Cultural Center The Cultural Center Historic District is a historic district located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, which includes the Art Center (or Cultural Center): the Detroit Public Library, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Horace H. Rackham Educatio ...

References

External links

Cathedral Church of St. Paul website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cathedral Church Of Saint Paul, Detroit Churches in Detroit Episcopal church buildings in Michigan Paul Detroit Woodward Avenue Churches completed in 1908 20th-century Episcopal church buildings Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Religious organizations established in 1824 1824 establishments in Michigan Territory Ralph Adams Cram church buildings Buildings with sculpture by Corrado Parducci Gothic Revival church buildings in Michigan