The Fort Street Presbyterian Church is located at 631 West Fort Street in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

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 ...

. It was constructed in 1855, and completely rebuilt in 1877. The church 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 ...

and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1971. Its steeple stands , making it one of the tallest churches in the United States.

Early history

The lot for the church was purchased from Mr. Shadrack and Mary (Stead) Gillett, whose home was located there prior to the construction of the church. The population of Detroit grew rapidly in the 1830s and 1840s, in particular bringing an influx of

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Protestants to the city. In 1849, Reverend Robert Kellogg organized the Second Presbyterian Church, with 26 charter members. The congregation met for worship in the old Capitol building until it constructed a church on the corner of Lafayette and Wayne Street the next year.

Construction and reconstruction

In 1852, Albert Jordan and his brother Octavius arrived in Detroit from

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, and soon established a place among the leading architects of the city. In the mid-1850s, despite a membership of only 167 people, the Second Presbyterian congregation hired the Jordans to design a new, larger church. The location the congregation picked was on Fort Street just west of downtown; at that time, the area was a popular residential district and home to many prominent citizens who were also members of the congregation, such as

Russell A. Alger Russell Alexander Alger (February 27, 1836 – January 24, 1907) was an American politician and businessman. He served as the 20th Governor of Michigan, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Secretary of War. He was supposedly a distant relation of author H ...

, James F. Joy (

Henry B. Joy Henry Bourne Joy (November 23, 1864 – November 6, 1936) was an American businessman and President of the Packard Motor Car Company. He was a major developer of automotive activities as well as being a social activist. In 1913, Joy and Ca ...

's father), Theodore S. Buhl, Henry D. Shelden, and

Zachariah Chandler Zachariah Chandler (December 10, 1813 – November 1, 1879) was an American businessman, politician, one of the founders of the Republican Party, whose radical wing he dominated as a lifelong abolitionist. He was mayor of Detroit, a four-term sen ...

. After the move, the congregation changed its name to the ''Fort Street Presbyterian Church''. The original church was completed in 1855 at a cost of $70,000. The construction cost prevented the congregation from fully finishing the interior until 15 years later, when it installed the gallery and pews conforming to the original design. However, the building was destroyed by fire in 1876, completely demolishing the interior, destroying the roof, and sending the spire crashing onto Fort Street. The church was rebuilt according to the original

architectural plan In architecture and building engineering, a floor plan is a technical drawing to scale, showing a view from above, of the relationships between rooms, spaces, traffic patterns, and other physical features at one level of a structure. Dimensio ...

s the following year being completed on June 10, 1877. Another major fire in 1914 again destroyed the roof, but the church was again rebuilt, and it remains as it had been designed by the Jordan brothers in the mid-1850s. Upon completion, the current church with its steeple at ranked as the

tallest building This list of tallest buildings includes skyscrapers with continuously occupiable floors and a height of at least . Nonbuilding structure, Non-building structures, such as towers, are not included in this list (for these, see ''List of tallest ...

in the city and state from 1877 to 1909, and is among the tallest churches in the United States.

Architecture

The Fort Street Presbyterian Church is an ornately detailed

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 ...

structure built of limestone ashlar from Malden, Ontario. The facade features a tall square tower with spire on one side with a shorter octagonal turret (modeled after

King's College Chapel King's College Chapel is the chapel of King's College in the University of Cambridge. It is considered one of the finest examples of late Perpendicular Gothic English architecture and features the world's largest fan vault. The Chapel was bui ...

in Cambridge) on the other. A central stained glass window illuminates the sanctuary. There are seven bays along the side of the church with flying buttresses, crocketed finials, lacy stonework and tall windows, designed to give the impression of lightness. The interior of the sanctuary features a three-aisle nave and a horseshoe balcony capable of seating almost 1,000 people. The pews are of hand-carved black walnut and the baptismal font is constructed of

Caen stone Caen stone (french: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about ...

, supported by

onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The c ...

columns imported from Mexico. Tiles dotting the stone floor are early works of

Mary Chase Perry Stratton Mary Chase Perry Stratton (March 15, 1867 – April 15, 1961) was an American ceramic artist. She was a co-founder, along with Horace Caulkins, Horace James Caulkins, of Pewabic Pottery, a form of ceramic art used to make architectural tiles. ...

, founder 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 ...

. The solid brass lectern, in the shape of an eagle, was exhibited at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

The church organ was built in 1914 by Wangerian-Weickhardt, and contains 3,253 pipes ranging in length from 1/4 inch to 16 feet. It incorporates a small portion of the original 1855 organ.

Significance

The Fort Street Presbyterian Church exemplifies an important step in the rise of "revivalist" architecture in 19th-century America. American architects of the mid-19th century imported and re-interpreted the English

style, based on the visually lush details of Medieval cathedrals. The 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 Jordan brothers subscribed to this ethic, and their Fort Street Presbyterian Church, as well as being one of Michigan's oldest churches, is a premier example of Victorian Gothic architecture. The church has remained essentially unchanged despite fires there in 1877 and 1914.

Later history

In the early 20th century, the church began focusing more on social service programs, as people of more modest incomes moved into the surrounding, formerly aristocratic, area.War and Turmoil
from Fort Street Presbyterian Church In 1908, James Joy donated property adjoining the church, and Mrs. Oren Scotten gave $50,000 to pay for the construction of the Church House. This enabled the church to minister to the newer congregants, and the church used the gymnasium in the Church House as a kind of "health club," enrolling men, women, and children in gym classes. The church also sponsored one of the first

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

troops west of the Alleghenies.Tribulations
from Fort Street Presbyterian Church Membership grew steadily up through the middle of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

; however, membership, revenue, and attendance fell off afterward. In the early 1940s, plans were afoot to close the expensive church and perhaps pool with other congregations to open a combined church elsewhere in the city. However,

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

intervened. During the war, the church converted the gymnasium of the Church House into a dormitory for servicemen who were arriving at

Fort Street Union Depot The Fort Street Union Depot was a passenger train station located at the southwest corner of West Fort Street and Third Street in downtown Detroit, Michigan. It served the city from 1893 to 1971, then demolished in 1974. Today, the downtown campus ...

located across Third Street. By the war's end, the church had provided transient accommodations for 60,000 men.

References

External links

*
Fort Street Presbyterian Church
home page
“Miracle on Fort Street”
Detroit Public Television, The Walter J. Brown Media Archives & Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia,

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digitall ...

{{Religious landmarks in metropolitan Detroit Churches completed in 1877 Towers completed in 1877 Churches in Detroit Bell towers in the United States English-American history Towers in Michigan Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan 19th-century Presbyterian church buildings in the United States Religious organizations established in 1849 Presbyterian organizations established in the 19th century Presbyterian churches in Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites 1849 establishments in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit