Ste. Anne Roman Catholic Church, Detroit Michigan

Date added: December 16, 2024

Front of Ste. Anne looking south across Howard (1975)

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The parish of Ste. Anne is the second oldest Catholic parish with a continuous record in the United States. (Only the parish of St. Augustine, Florida is older.) The church was founded by M. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701 simultaneously with the beginning of construction of Fort Ponchartrain on the site of present day Detroit. Cadillac started construction on a chapel on July 26^th, only two days after his arrival at the site.

The church of Ste. Anne has been closely associated with the growth and development of the City of Detroit. It is the only institution in existence which dates from the beginning of the city and its records, starting in 1704, are an invaluable source of information on the early history of the city and especially on the French population of Detroit.

One of the most important figures in the history of the parish, Father Gabriel Richard, was also one of the most important citizens of Detroit in the first half of the 19^th century. Born in France in 1767, Father Richard became a Suplican priest in 1791. During the Revolution he fled France and sought asylum in the United States under the auspices of Bishop Carroll of Baltimore. In 1798 he was assigned to Ste. Anne's as assistant pastor and he became pastor of the parish in 1802. His primary concern, after his religious duties, was the development of educational programs for his frontier community. He was among the first to advocate public education and to insist upon the responsibility of government for the education of the poor. He pioneered in vocational education and started a school for girls. He was one of the founders of the University of Michigan and the first person to urge the creation of a free public library in Detroit. He was renowned for his educational work with the Indians in Michigan and he published one of Detroit's earliest newspapers on a printing press which he brought to the city in 1809.

Conscious of the need for growth and development in the Michigan Territory, Father Richard served as a delegate to Congress from 1823 to 1825 and was instrumental in securing road-building projects for Michigan, including a road from Detroit to Chicago. He was the first priest to serve in Congress. Almost 150 years passed before another priest was elected to serve in Washington.

Father Richard died of cholera in 1832. He contracted the disease while administering aid to hundreds of cholera sufferers during the epidemic that swept the city that year. Father Richard was buried beneath the new church building that had been completed in 1828. When the present church was erected in 1887, Father Richards remains were moved to a special crypt in the new building.

Several of the early buildings of Ste. Anne's parish were destroyed by fire. On at least two occasions the congregation outgrew its accommodations and was forced to erect a new building. This was the situation in 1887 when the present church was erected. The parish had grown so large that not only was a new church built, but another French parish, St. Joachim's, was created on the city's east side. Half of the cornerstone of the 1828 church went to each of the new churches.

The present Ste. Anne's has been in use longer than any of its predecessors. It was designed by Leon Coquard, a native of the parish and an architect with a national reputation for church design. His better-known buildings include the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception in Denver and St. Mary's Cathedral in Covington, Kentucky. His design for Ste. Anne's is distinctive for its harmonious incorporation of artifacts from the previous building into the fabric of the new structure.

Ste. Anne's remains today as a visible symbol of the French heritage of Detroit. Although there is no longer a distinct French population in the city, Ste. Anne's continues to play a vital religious role. The parish is now the center of a large Latin American population and Masses are frequently given in Spanish. In addition to the parish staff, priests and nuns who work in other areas of the city reside in the parish house and convent.

Site Description

The Ste. Anne Church is situated in a block surrounded by Howard, Ste. Anne, Lafayette and Eighteenth Streets on Detroit's near west side. The site consists of five buildings: the church, rectory, school, convent and parish hall.

The church was completed in 1887 according to a basic cruciform plan designed by Leon Coquard, a native of the parish. It is an excellent example of the Gothic Revival style deemed appropriate for churches in the mid-nineteenth century. Twin spires flank the nave on the north side of the building following the design of the churches of northern France. The lower portion of the building was constructed from locally quarried limestone. Each of the three entrances on the front of the building are surrounded by pointed limestone arches. Above the belt course, the building is constructed of red brick.

The north end of the nave is dominated by a large, round, stained glass window. Tall stained glass windows line both sides of the nave below a clerestory which contains windows from the 1828 Ste, Anne Church. The high vaulted roof is supported by graceful, fluted iron columns. Leaded glass partitions separate the narthex from the nave, the latter having a seating capacity of 1,300. All furnishings are made from oak.

The thirty-five-foot altar is a purely Gothic design with spires, pinnacles, turrets and flying buttresses. The base altar table and shelves are Italian marble and the columns are of Mexican onyx. Carved wooden relief panels decorate the lower portion of the altar and the niches in the upper portion are occupied by statues imported from France. The two side altars complement the main altar. A small shrine to Ste. Anne stands on the east side of the church. Behind the main altar is a small chapel which is used for daily Mass. In this chapel stands the original hand-carved alter from the 1828 church.

A crypt containing the tomb of Father Gabriel Richard lies below the steps of the main altar. Access to this crypt is through a passageway from Ste. Anne Street. The crypt was refurbished in tile in 1951.

The school building was erected simultaneously with the church in 1887. It is a three-story, red brick building topped by a decorative cupola. The windows on the first floor have a slightly pointed arch, on the second floor the arch is almost flat and the third-floor windows are capped by round arches. This third story was added in 1938 and gives a neo-classical touch to an otherwise plain building. Each story is delineated by a belt course of decorative brickwork.

The rectory is a three-story brick building with a mansard roof and a wrap-around porch. The porch is topped with an ornamental wrought iron balustrade. A portion of the porch was enclosed in the 1950s when the interior of the rectory was extensively remodeled.

The convent and parish hall were built in the early 1900s and have a vaguely neo-classic feel to them. The convent is a plain three-story brick building with a recessed, arched entrance with an arched balcony above. The parish hall is a one-and-a-half-story brick structure with a small portico decorated with a triple arch and Doric columns above the main entrance.