National Register of Historic Places

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church

Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Listed
August 2, 1982
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
82002908

About this property

The Our Lady of the Rosary Church is a Roman Catholic church located at 5930 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was originally built as St. Joseph's Episcopal Church – from 1893 to 1896 – and is a historic Romanesque Revival church complex. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 3, 1982. The original building in this complex, St. Joseph's Memorial Chapel, was a gift of Mrs. L.R. Medbury, and was built on the corner or Woodward and Medbury (now the Edsel Ford service drive). The chapel, consecrated in 1884, soon proved too small, and a larger church, completed in 1896, was erected facing Woodward. In 1906, St. Joseph's congregation merged with that of the congregation of the nearby St. Paul's Cathedral. The St. Joseph's building was sold to Father Francis J. VanAntwerp in 1907, and Our Lady of the Rosary Roman Catholic Church was established. The new congregation altered some of the church's structure, extending the nave and adding an oversized, gilded statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary atop the south tower's hipped roof. In 2021, the church became the location of Detroit Catholic Campus Ministry which serves the campuses of Wayne State University, University of Michigan-Dearborn, the College for Creative Studies, and Henry Ford College, along with other surrounding campuses. The church, built from 1893 to 1896, is a massive rock-faced, cross-gable-roofed, sandstone Romanesque Revival structure. The gabled façade is flanked by two towers: a tall, square, pyramid-roofed tower to the south and a round, conical-roofed tower on the north. The entrance between the towers is into a one-story vestibule; it is surmounted by a large rose window. St. Joseph's Episcopal Church, 1926 (Detroit, Michigan) Hill, Eric J., and John Gallagher (2002). AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3120-3.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Location

5930 Woodward Ave.
Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
42.36466, -83.06897

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

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.

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Nearby Historic Sites

New Amsterdam Historic District
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0.2 mi
Sprague, Thomas S., House
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Lancaster and Waumbek Apartments
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Freer, Charles Lang, House
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Hecker, Col. Frank J., House
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0.2 mi

Nearby Battles

Pontiac's War – Battle of Bloody Run July 31 1763
1763Colonial
1.5 mi
Battle of Bloody Run (Pontiac's War, 1763)
1763Colonial
1.5 mi
Battle of Bloody Run (Pontiac's War)
1763Colonial
1.7 mi
Pontiac's War — Battle of Bloody Run
1763Colonial
2.2 mi

Questions about this property

When was St. Joseph's Episcopal Church listed on the National Register?

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 2, 1982.

What type of historic resource is St. Joseph's Episcopal Church?

St. Joseph's Episcopal Church is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for St. Joseph's Episcopal Church?

The period of significance for St. Joseph's Episcopal Church is recorded as the industrial era.

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