Fort Street Presbyterian Church

About this property

The Fort Street Presbyterian Church is located at 631 West Fort Street in Detroit, Michigan. It was constructed in 1855, and completely rebuilt in 1877. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1971. Its steeple stands 265 ft (81 m), making it one of the tallest churches in the United States. 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 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. In 1852, Albert Jordan and his brother Octavius arrived in Detroit from Hartford, Connecticut, 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, James F. Joy (Henry B. Joy's father), Theodore S. Buhl, Henry D. Shelden, and Zachariah Chandler. 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 plans 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 265 ft (81 m) ranked as the tallest building in the city and state from 1877 to 1909, and is among the tallest churches in the United States. The Fort Street Presbyterian Church is an ornately detailed Gothic Revival structure built of limestone ashlar from Malden, Ontario. The facade features a 265 feet (81 m) tall square tower with spire on one side with a shorter octagonal turret (modeled after King's College Chapel 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.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Wayne County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Wayne County.

More historic places in Michigan

Browse all historic places in Michigan.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Michigan history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.