Chapel of St. Theresa–the Little Flower
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The Chapel of St. Theresa–the Little Flower was a church located at 58 Parsons Street in Midtown
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 later known as St. Patrick Church. The building 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 1997, and demolished in September 2023.


History

St. Patrick Parish began in 1862 in response to the influx of Irish Catholics into Detroit. The parish built a chapel on Adelaide near John R. Street, which was eventually expanded into a church. St. Patrick's became one of Detroit's largest and wealthiest parishes, although the church was never one of Detroit's largest or most impressive. In 1890, the church was named the cathedral of the diocese and was renamed in honor of ''Sts. Peter and Paul'' as the prior
cathedral church A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral ...
on East Jefferson had been. Bishop
Caspar Borgess Caspar Henry Borgess (August 1, 1826 – May 3, 1890) was a German-born American prelate of the Catholic Church. He was the second Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, Bishop of Detroit, serving from 1871 to 1887. Biography Early life Borgess wa ...
gave the old Sts. Peter and Paul to the
Jesuits The Society of Jesus ( la, Societas Iesu; abbreviation: SJ), also known as the Jesuits (; la, Iesuitæ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
in 1877 after he moved to the new cathedral. In 1892, to serve the children of the community, the Sts. Peter and Paul Academy was built on Parsons west of Woodward, which was some distance away from the main church."Chapel of St. Theresa, the Little Flower"
''City of Detroit''. .
By the 1920s the streets in the area had become so busy that the trek from church to school was considered unsafe for children going to school Masses. As a remedy, the parish constructed the Chapel of St. Theresa, the Little Flower in 1926, naming the chapel after Thérèse de Lisieux. In 1938, the cathedral function was transferred to Blessed Sacrament parish and St. Patrick's reverted to its original name. As the years passed, the area around the original St. Patrick church steadily declined, and more activities were held in the chapel and school. All activities were moved to Parsons Street in the 1980s and the old church was given to a community group. Essentially abandoned for a number of years, it was then vandalized and eventually burned in 1992. Due to declining membership, Archbishop Allen Vigneron announced May 8, 2015, that the parish would dissolve May 25. The archdiocese said it would retain the structure in the hope that the parish could be reactivated at a future date due to revitalization of the area, however this did not happen. Demolition of the Chapel on Parsons Street began on September 22, 2023.


Architecture

The chapel was in the Romanesque Revival style with a
basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...
floorplan. It was constructed of red brick with limestone accents and a red tile roof. The entrance was recessed in twin arches framed by square bays. The bays were each topped by a limestone portico consisting of a barrel vault supported by four Corinthian columns. The gabled roofs of the porticoes were covered with red tile matching the other portions of the roof. Above the entry doors on the
clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
level were small arched windows and above the clerestory was a small rose window. Above the porticos were two small campanario each holding a bell.


See also

* Archdiocese of Detroit


References


Further reading

* * * * *


External links


Closed Parish List, Archdiocese of Detroit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapel of St. Theresa-the Little Flower Roman Catholic churches in Detroit Irish-American culture in Michigan Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Roman Catholic churches completed in 1926 Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit Romanesque Revival church buildings in Michigan Religious organizations established in 1862 1862 establishments in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Roman Catholic chapels in the United States 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Detroit Buildings and structures demolished in 2023