Cathedral Church of St. Paul Complex | |
 | |
| Location | 4800 Woodward Avenue Detroit,Michigan |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 42°21′22.43″N83°3′49.66″W / 42.3562306°N 83.0637944°W /42.3562306; -83.0637944 |
| Built | 1907–8 |
| Architect | Ralph A. Cram |
| Architectural style | LateGothic Revival |
| MPS | Religious Structures of Woodward Ave. TR |
| NRHP reference No. | 82002893[1] |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | August 3, 1982 |
| Designated MSHS | August 3, 1982 |
TheCathedral Church of St. Paul is thecathedralchurch of theEpiscopal Diocese of Michigan. In 1824 its congregation formed as the first Episcopal and first Protestant church in the Michigan Territory.
Designed by architectRalph Adams Cram and constructed in 1907, this building is located at 4800Woodward Avenue inMidtown Detroit,Michigan, adjacent to the campus ofWayne State University. It was listed on theNational Register of Historic Places in 1982.[1]
The parish of St. Paul was founded in 1824, by the Rev.Richard Fish Cadle, as the first Episcopal and the firstProtestant congregation in what was thenMichigan Territory.[2] The original site of St. Paul's church was onWoodward Avenue, between Congress and Larned. In 1851 the church moved to the corner of Congress at Shelby.
The funeral service forHenry Ford, the entrepreneur who catalyzed development of the automobile industry in Detroit, was held at Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Thursday, April 10, 1947.[3] Mourners passed by at a rate of 5,000 each hour at the public viewing the day before at Ford'sGreenfield Village inDearborn. At the funeral service, 20,000 people stood outside the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the rain with 600 inside.[3] The funeral had attracted national attention and an estimated seven million people mourned his death.[4]
The current building, designed by renowned churcharchitectRalph Adams Cram, dates from 1907. It remainsunfinished, the bell tower never having been completed. The church is built oflimestone, using medieval construction techniques, with no supporting steel superstructure.[2] The building boasts soaring, pointed arches, wide expanses of stained glass, and elaborate tracery, exemplary of Gothic architecture. It includes a large architectural installation ofPewabic Pottery. In 1912 it was designated as the cathedral of the diocese.
St. Paul's Cathedral is a fine example of the LateGothic Revival, an architectural style popular in the early years of the 20th century.[5] American architects of the mid-19th century imported and re-interpreted the EnglishGothic Revival style, based on the visually lush details of Medieval cathedrals.[6] This was the period of theOxford Movement in England, which also influenced Episcopal clergy and congregations in the United States to commission revivals of Medieval styles. American architects copied the "Gothic" elements and combined them with simple building plans to create an American architectural style known as "Victorian Gothic." TheFort Street Presbyterian Church, built in 1876 in Detroit, is a premier example of early Victorian Gothic architecture.[6]
In contrast, in the early 20th century more American architects attended new schools atM.I.T. andColumbia, or traveled to France for training at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts.[5] These architects, includingRalph A. Cram, believed that Gothic architecture should be developed from, rather than simply copy, the architecture of Medieval churches. St. Paul's Cathedral is one of Cram's major early projects, one that defines his "Late Gothic Revival" style.
The current dean is the Very Reverend S. Scott Hunter, formerly Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Michigan.[7] The cathedral coordinates programming with theDetroit Cultural Center.
