St. Mary Roman Catholic Church, formally the ''Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary,'' is in the third oldest

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

parish in

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

.Collum, Marla O.; Krueger, Barbara E.; & Kostuch, Dorothy (2012)
''Detroit's Historic Places of Worship''
p. 64. Wayne State University Press. Designed by German-born Peter Dederichs and built for the formerly ethnic German parish of the 19th century, it is located at 646 Monroe Street in what is now considered the heart of the

Greektown Historic District Greektown is a commercial and entertainment district in Detroit, Michigan, located just northeast of the heart of downtown, along Monroe Avenue between Brush and St. Antoine streets. It has a station by that name on the city's elevated downto ...

downtown Detroit Downtown Detroit is the central business district and a Neighborhoods in Detroit, residential area of the city of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Locally, "downtown" tends to refer to the 1.4 square mile region bordered by M-10 (Michigan high ...

. It is often called "Old St. Mary's Church" to avoid confusion with other St. Mary's parishes: in the Redford neighborhood of Detroit, or in nearby

Royal Oak The Royal Oak was the English oak tree within which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of Worcester in 1651. The tree was in Boscobel Wood, which was part of the park of Boscobel House ...

Monroe Monroe or Monroes may refer to: People and fictional characters * Monroe (surname) * Monroe (given name) * James Monroe, 5th President of the United States * Marilyn Monroe, actress and model Places United States * Monroe, Arkansas, an unincorp ...

, or Wayne. The former church was built in 1841. The school, built in 1868, was the first of the new buildings of the current complex. The rectory (1876); new church (1884–1885), and convent, completed in 1922, comprised the remainder. The convent was demolished in the early 2000s and replaced with a community center designed to resemble the 1841 church building. St. Mary Parish has been staffed by the ''Spiritans'' or

Holy Ghost Fathers The Congregation of the Holy Spirit (officially the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary; ) is a religious congregation for men in the Catholic Church. Members are often known as Holy ...

since 1893. It was previously administered by the

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

Fathers (1872–1893) and the

Redemptorist The Redemptorists, officially named the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (), abbreviated CSsR, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men (priests and brothers). It was founded by Alphonsus Liguori at Scal ...

Fathers (1847–1872).

History

GreektownCasinohotelandStMaryRCChurchDetroit

The parish was founded in 1834 by Father Martin Kundig to serve the German-speaking Catholic immigrants who settled in this part of the city. The first church was constructed in 1841 at this site on land sold to Bishop Peter Paul LeFevere for one dollar by Antoine and Monica Beaubien, two of the area's early ethnic French settlers. The materials for the church cost an additional $239. The Beaubiens also donated four bells for the new church. The cornerstone for the current structure was laid in 1884 and it was completed in 1885. Its German born and trained architect, Peter Dederichs, was a parishioner of the Church; he also designed nearby Sacred Heart Church. In the early twentieth century, Father Joseph Wuest, Pastor of Old St. Mary's, had three grottos constructed at the rear of the church. One is the

Baptistry In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptist ...

on the

Epistle side In the liturgical traditions of Western Christianity, the Epistle side is the term used to designate the side of a church on which the Epistle is read during a church service. It is the right-hand side of the chancel as viewed by the congregation ...

of the building. It depicts the scene described in the

Canonical Gospels Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the second century AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message was reported. In this sen ...

of the

Baptism of Jesus The baptism of Jesus, the ritual purification of Jesus with water by John the Baptist, was a major event described in the three synoptic Gospels of the New Testament ( Matthew, Mark and Luke). It is considered to have taken place at Al-Maghta ...

. Next to the Baptistry is a replica of the Shrine of Lourdes. Within this grotto is an altar where weekly mass is celebrated. Older members of the church say that Father Wuest collected the rocks he used in the construction during a trip to

Lourdes Lourdes (, also , ; ) is a market town situated in the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Occitanie region in southwestern France. Prior to the mid-19th century, the town was best known for its Château fort, a ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. On the opposite side of the church is the third grotto, which depicts the

scene Scene (from Greek ') may refer to: General * Scene (performing arts), a part of the story held in a single location * Scene (perception), a set of information that can flow from a physical environment into a perceptual system via sensory tran ...

in the

Garden of Gethsemane Gethsemane ( ) is a garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, where, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament, Jesus Christ underwent the Agony in the Garden and was arrested before his crucifixion. The garden is ...

the night before the

crucifixion of Jesus The crucifixion of Jesus was the death of Jesus by being crucifixion, nailed to a cross.The instrument of Jesus' crucifixion, instrument of crucifixion is taken to be an upright wooden beam to which was added a transverse wooden beam, thus f ...

. Rev. John A. Lemke, born in Detroit on February 10, 1866, to Polish immigrants from Prussian Poland, was baptized at St. Mary's on February 18, 1866. After graduating from

Detroit College The University of Detroit Mercy is a private Catholic university in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is sponsored by both the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) and the Sisters of Mercy. The university was founded in 1877 and is the largest Catho ...

and studying at St. Mary's Seminary in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

, in 1889 he returned to Detroit and was the first native-born Roman Catholic priest of Polish descent to be ordained in the United States. He died of illness in 1890. St. Mary's school opened in 1844 with lay teachers. The Christian Brothers began teaching male upperclassmen in 1852, and the

School Sisters of Notre Dame School Sisters of Notre Dame is a worldwide religious institute of Roman Catholic sisters founded in Bavaria in 1833 and devoted to primary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Their life in mission centers on prayer, community life and min ...

assuming responsibility for teaching the girls and younger boys. The building was replaced in 1855 and the current building, designed by Pius Daubner, was erected in 1868. The school operated until 1966. The church, school and rectory were listed as Michigan Historic Sites in 1979 and markers were erected at all three.

Architecture

The church is constructed of red brick in the Romanesque style, with Venetian accents. The west façade is dominated by twin towers which frame a large

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

. The Romanesque-Venetian style was also used for the rectory and former convent. The church is long. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

is wide and reaches a height of . A striking feature of the church interior are the ten polished granite columns that divide the main and side aisles. The columns are each cut from a single piece of granite. They were originally intended for the

Michigan State Capitol The Michigan State Capitol is the building that houses the legislative branch of the government of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is in the portion of the List of U.S. state capitals, state capital of Lansing, Michigan, Lansing which lies in In ...

building then under construction in

Lansing Lansing () is the capital city of the U.S. state of Michigan. The most populous city in Ingham County, parts of the city extend into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. It is the sixth-most populous city in Michigan with a popul ...

. For unknown reasons, the columns were not used in the Capitol. The church purchased all ten for only $4,625, bringing the total construction cost to $81,210.

References

External links

Old St. Marys Church

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Mary Roman Catholic Church, Detroit, Michigan German-American culture in Detroit Greektown, Detroit Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Roman Catholic churches in Detroit Churches in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit Historic district contributing properties in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit 1834 establishments in Michigan Territory Pisan Romanesque style

History

Architecture

See also

References

Further reading

External links