Former Church Complex in Detroit closed in 1989

St. Theresa of Avila Roman Catholic Parish Church, Detroit Michigan

Date added: June 27, 2024 Categories:

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A meeting of residents of the area near the outskirts of the city along Grand River Avenue on the northwest side in May 1915, led to a petition to the Diocese of Detroit to establish a new parish to serve that area, then served by St. Leo's and the recently established St. Agnes. Bishop John Foley purchased the triangular block which the parish occupies on the feast of St. Theresa of Avila in 1915, thus establishing the patronage of the new parish which became the fiftieth parish of the Detroit Diocese. Fr. John J. McCabe was assigned as pastor in November of that year. After meeting in the basement of St. Leo's, the new parish moved to its newly built temporary church in September, 1916 and dedicated it on October 15^th, the patronal feast; the entrance to that building appears to have been approximately at the location of the present transept facade on Quincy Avenue. Shortly thereafter, funds began to be raised for the construction of a school but World War I delayed that project; the building was finally opened in February 1919. The school contained a worship space in the basement, permitting the demolition of the first church to make way for the present church building.

The neighborhood grew with incredible rapidity; membership of 150 families in 1916 had become 800 families by the early 1920's. Although the day of the "ethnic" church had passed, St. Theresa's developed a very strongly Irish character, as did much of Detroit's northwest side. Perhaps it is enough to note that the pastor was named McCabe, and the first three assistant priests were Frs. Carroll, McMillan, and Cunningham. The surrounding housing reflects the economic security that the Irish had finally achieved, and the solid middle-class status which plentiful jobs had made possible.

Planning for the main church and attached rectory began in 1923, and the building permit was issued June 11^th, 1924 to Van Leyen, Schilling, and Keough, architects, of Detroit. The firm designed a series of Catholic buildings in Detroit from the turn of the century to the Second World War, and designed the entire St. Theresa plant. It appears that Edward Schilling was the actual designer of all the St. Theresa buildings, a credit given to him in the parish's twenty-fifth anniversary booklet. Schilling was born in New York State, and grew up in northern Michigan. He came to Detroit in 1892 as a student architect, and worked with several local architects as such concluding with Edward C. Van Leyen. After a brief time in practice himself, he formed a partnership with Van Leyen which lasted for many years, and at times also included one or two other partners. The firm seems to have specialized in school and church buildings, but also did the Belle Isle Casino, the Elks Club Building in Detroit, as well as residential design. Mr. Schilling served as a director and as president (1918-19) of the Michigan Society of Architects and as a member of the City of Detroit's City Plan Commission. He also served as local secretary of the Architectural League of America.

The church greatly resembles the nearly contemporary St. Thomas the Apostle on Detroit's east side, also by the firm. The cornerstone of the church was laid on July 4^th, 1924. Within ten years of its founding, the parish had begun construction of one of the largest and most magnificent churches of the city.

The church was dedicated by the Bishop of Detroit, Michael Gallagher, on September 5^th, 1927, and planning immediately began for enlargement of the school; an addition containing classrooms, auditorium and cafeteria was completed in 1929. That construction filled the triangular site; the convent, built in 1938, is across Pingree on a site formerly occupied by houses.

The parish's twenty-fifth anniversary in 1940 was celebrated by decoration of the church by Andrew R. Maglia, an Italian-born and trained decorative painter whose firm did literally dozens of Detroit churches; at its height, the company also did mosaic and supplied stained glass.

Nearly one thousand parishioners entered the armed forces during World War II, and the parish kept them in touch with home through the "St. Theresa of Avila Service News", distributed through the parish arm of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

After World War II, the neighborhood, fully developed, was still considered highly desirable. But the 1950 census was Detroit's high point of population, and after that time the city's decline began. With the 1960's, and especially with the civil disturbance of 1967, whose center was only a short distance away, the area around St. Theresa's underwent change as rapid as its growth had been years before. The parish responded to the "riots" by taking in and feeding those left homeless by the fires; after conditions quieted, the pastor established the Christian Family Movement to address social and spiritual issues within the parish and community. The parish came to greater understanding and unity through this process.

Today, the area is one with severe urban problems; many of the surrounding buildings are abandoned or have been demolished. The decline in population and the change in ethnic character of the area has produced a greatly reduced congregation for St. Theresa's, and although the school continues to operate as a grade school, it serves an area of several parish territories. The parish, now counting about 280 families predominately of Afro-American descent maintains a broad spectrum of programs to address the needs of its community.

The Detroit Archdiocesan Reorganization Plan, announced in January 1989, provides for the closure of St. Theresa of Avila Parish, and its merger with two adjoining parishes, with the resulting parish being located at the St. Agnes site. The school, however, is scheduled to remain open. No plans for the church building have been announced.

Site Description

The parish plant of St. Theresa of Avila occupies the nearly triangular block bounded by Pingree, Quincy, Blaine, and Radford Avenues, just north of Grand River Avenue, one of Detroit's great diagonal thoroughfares. All the buildings are on this block except for the convent, which stands on the opposite side of Pingree south of the school; the school lies along Radford at the north end of the site, and the rectory lies between the school and church facing Quincy. The church faces generally south, toward the point of the triangle and toward Grand River. There is a boiler house, virtually invisible from the street, enclosed in the center of the church, school, and rectory.

All the buildings are of dark red tapestry brick trimmed with Indiana limestone, and all share the generally Neo-Romanesque character of the dominant structure, the magnificent Basilican church. The twin-towered facade of the church is the great landmark of the area, rising above the surrounding buildings and visible to passing traffic on Grand River facing down Quincy from its location on the point of the block, one of Detroit's great urban glimpses.

All of the buildings were designed by Edward Schilling of Van Leyen, Schilling, and Keough of Detroit; Schilling was on his own when he designed the convent in 1938. Thus, they form a unified ensemble, sharing materials and design characteristics.

The oldest building now in the complex is the school, the original portion of which, built in 1919, lies at the corner of Blaine and Radford. The flat-roofed building is in the shape of a capital "I" with serifs, the main facade facing Blaine being the base of the letter. An entrance pavilion and stairwell is brought forward in the center of that facade, rising the full two story on high basement height of the building. The rectangular double doors are framed in heavy brick piers at the first floor level; above double windows are framed in stone at the second and third-floor level, those on the second rectangular and those above round-arched; a stone course runs around the building at the level of the window tops, intersecting the arches of these windows at their springing. A parapet gable above is decorated with a modest cornice, which continues around the building. The facades flanking the stairwell element have three double windows on each level. All the windows were double-hung originally, but have been replaced with unfortunate modern fenestration. Secondary entrances, or niches set in matching stone frames, exist on the outer walls of the "serifs"; that on the "serif" facing the rectory is now obscured by the addition of a single garage designed in keeping with a parapet gable over the door. A later three-car garage was built against the main facade of the school next to the south of the entrance pavilion. The side facades, recessed between the wider ends of the "I", have double windows at each level; the basement supports a stone course on which rest subtle two-story brick piers within which the windows are framed. The later addition lies to the east, at the corner of Radford and Pingree, and is indistinguishable in design from the older portion, although its functions dictate less regular fenestration.

The church occupies the sharply pointed southern end of the block, and is generally oriented with its liturgical west facing south. This leaves a triangular space open in front of the church so that the residential width of Quincy opens up like a funnel to the facade of the church, obviously designed for the position. The building is 180 feet long, 102 feet across the transepts, and sixty-eight feet to the nave gable; the towers are 112 feet tall. The materials are dark tapestry brick, Indiana limestone, and orange tile roofing; decorative tiles appear to be Pewabic.

The exterior of the building strongly derives from the Italian Romanesque, with hints of the Byzantine and Art Deco. The flanking towers, set back slightly, are topped with octagonal lanterns with double-arched openings instead of more usual spires or domical structures. The railings around the lanterns terminate at the corners in miniature lanterns much like those they flank; these serve much the same function as pinnacles placed at the corners of a Gothic tower at the transition from square to octagon. Below, the treatment of the towers seems classical in proportion if not in detail. A modillion cornice terminates the main tower above a triple-arch-within-single-arch opening rather classical in feeling; there is a stone string course at the springing of those arches. At the first floor level, the towers display double-arch windows under a single-blind arch. The cornerstone is in the southwest corner of the southwest tower.

Below, at the top of a broad flight of sixteen steps, is the porch, a shallow hip-roofed structure with five arched openings supported on piers at the sides and columns in antis with cushion capitals shallowly carved with animals and birds; the spandrels have roundels. Within, double paneled doors under round arches with tympanums are visible in the center three arches; the porch has a coffered ceiling. Above, a round window with a cross inscribed in stone mullions seems very Art Deco in manner, and is flanked by tall, narrow arched niches with attenuated columns in antis. Above, the treatment of the gable with a flat band of decoration in stone and colored tiles emphasizes the Art Deco influence on the facade; a cross surmounts the gable. The side elevations are simply detailed in brick with stone and occasional tile decorative work.

The interior of the church is not so Romanesque in character as the exterior; in fact, the general impression, in form, proportion and detail, is much more in the manner of Renaissance classicism with an occasional trumpeting of baroque.

The classically proportioned faux-marble columns of the nave arcade are topped with capitals generally in the Corinthian manner; these support the broad round arches of the arcade, which have roundels in the spandrels. The arcade supports an entablature, on which rests the semicircular barrel vault. The entablature is interrupted by bas-relief panels each of which support a rib across the vault, dividing the vault into bays. At the sides of the bays, the arched windows are set in smaller barrel vaults at right angles which intersect the main vault much like a dormer; light fixtures are hung from these "dormer" vaults. The window openings are in the Byzantine manner with two lights set under the main arch with solid infill above the two arches of the lights. At the crossing taller engaged columns with their capitals aligned with the entablature of the nave arcade support a groin vault formed of the intersection of the barrel vaults of the nave and transepts.

Narrow barrel-vaulted side aisles serve as passageways only, the pews ending at the line of the columns. Each side aisle bay has a large window arch again treated in the Byzantine manner with two round-arched lights below solid infill; these contain stained glass. Between the windows and directly behind the columns of the nave arcade are bas reliefs of the Stations of the Cross, with half-bowls containing lights beneath them, and beneath each window is a radiator recess with a grilled opening.

The chancel is semicircular, and topped with a coffered semi-dome, clearly a classical feature, resting on an entablature at the same level as that of the nave. Centered at the rear of the chancel is the main altar with its engaged baldachin; paired twisted columns against the wall support a bulbously half-domed canopy whose entablature accords with that of the chancel; the altar stands below. A semicircular niche between the paired columns contains a mural painting of the Ascension done by Maglia in the 1940 decoration of the church, which contrasts with the extensive use of cream, beige, gold, and peach marbles.

The sanctuary space formerly defined by the marble communion railing occupies not only the chancel area, but the geographical northern sides of the transept arms. Against the north, or liturgical east, walls of the transepts and flanking the chancel arch are two blind arches with tympanums which form the setting for the side altars with murals by Maglia above. Against the end walls of the transepts are one-story high wood constructions consisting of confessionals at the outer ends flanking a half-domes niches in the center, which contain statues of St. Theresa of Avila and St. Therese of Liseaux. Above, the transepts have large triple-light stained glass windows.

The chancel arrangements have been altered to respond to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council; the communion rail has been removed in the center, and the higher floor level of the chancel brought out into the crossing, where a freestanding altar is placed. At the rear, in an area cleared of pews, the baptismal font has been placed near the central entrance door, and the surplus communion rail used around it.

At the rear, the choir gallery forms a second story over the narthex; the view of the church to the rear is somewhat barren, as the large Casavant Freres organ, original to the Church, is in chambers within the flanking towers, leaving the gallery empty of large features. The choir division and the console of the organ were moved to the west transept in the Vatican II renovations. The round window is centered on the otherwise plain rear wall.

The maker of the stained glass is unidentified at present; the aisle windows and the transept windows all contain one figure of a saint in each light, the figure elongated and frontal; this can be seen in medieval terms, but when combined with the distinctively 20th-century character of the borders and other decorative features, the glass must be characterized as Art Deco. The clerestory windows are stained, but non-figural.

Most of the wall area of the church is covered with Celotex in a stone block pattern, painted in stone colors. For this reason, the church is acoustically dead, though the large space and barrel vaults would lead one to expect considerable reverberation. This is an early example of the 20th-century fascination with acoustical materials and the concomitant creation of large but acoustically dead spaces.

The interior, taken as a whole, is a magnificent and original composition which uses eclectic sources to create a room distinctly of the 1920s. If it is difficult to characterize in stylistic terms, that may be simply because art history has not yet dealt sufficiently with architecture of this type and period.

The rectory, built with the church, is a typical five-bay center entrance house which, except for its Neo-Romanesque detailing, might be called "colonial". The entrance has an open porch leading to an entrance pavilion having a stone arch supported by columns in antis set in a brick-gabled wall with a frieze of ceramic tile; above is a pair of arched windows separated by a stone column and contained under a single larger arch expressed in the brickwork with a stucco tympanum. The rectangular six-over-one double-hung windows of the house would be at home in a Neo-Georgian building, those on the first floor having blind arches in the brickwork above containing stone roundels, a motif almost Federal in character. A cornice is formed of a series of small blind arches resting on corbels, each sheltering a circular glazed and impressed tile. The parapets of the side walls rise above the tile roof. A three story wing angles from the rear of the house to the rear of the Church, where the two buildings are connected.

The convent was built in 1938 on two residential lots south across Pingree from the school and the rear of the church. It betrays its later date and depression period construction in small details, but still is in keeping with the earlier structures. Built of the same dark tapestry brick, the three-story building has a facade divided into three vertical elements by a central pavilion brought forward, which contains the entrance. A compound arched round portal flanked by two small windows shelters a rectangular door with a tiled tympanum above and rests on a limestone foundation capped with a water table. Above, the entrance pavilion rises to a parapet gable containing a rectangular ventilator in openwork brick. Between the first-floor entrance and the gable, the central facade displays three two-story recessed arches, the center one wider, which contain the second and third-floor windows. To either side of the entrance pavilion, the facade is plain, with three bays of windows on both sides and a simple cornice worked in brick, one course of which is laid diagonally to create a sawtooth; the foundation and water table in these bays are brick. All the windows are steel framed casements; those on the first floor have blind arches' in the brickwork above with tile diamonds centered in them. The roof is red-orange mission tile.