Saints Peter and Paul is the oldest church building in continuous use in the City of Detroit.

Building History

Detroit Situation. Detroit was founded by the French in 1701 and after periods of both French and British rule, it passed into American control in 1796. The Diocese of Detroit was founded in 1833, even before Michigan became a state in 1837.  About that time, there were 18 priests, 30 churches, and some 24,000 Catholics in the Detroit diocese, which then covered the entire State of Michigan; there were only 3 Catholic churches within what were then the Detroit city limits (Ste. Anne, Holy Trinity and St. Mary’s).  The population of Detroit in 1840 was 9,102.

Construction. Saints Peter and Paul is the oldest church building in continuous use remaining in the City of Detroit.  It was Detroit’s original, consecrated American cathedral for just shy of 30 years. The cornerstone was laid by Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere in 1844, but the building was constructed on a pay-as-you-go basis (debt-free) and was not finished until 1848. The building was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. The church was designed in late neo-classic style by Francis Letourneau; the construction was under the supervision of Vicar-General Rev. Peter Kindekens.  It measures 80 feet by 180 feet. The entire building is approximately 30,000 square feet of space. Most of the present exterior of the church, the organ case and the baptismal font date to 1848.

When first opened, there was no heat at all in the church.  The original lighting was gas and during the 1850-80s the heating system was simply wood burning stoves in each of the four corners.  The 10 pillars holding up the church roof are tree trunks from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, brought down on a barge.  There is no metal in the frame of the building.  The church was designed to have a tall spire, but this was never built.  In 1879, parishioner Ann Keveney donated the nine chimes that are in the church tower.

Organ. The original, huge,12-ton organ was made by the famous organ builder Henry Erben of New York City. At the time of its completion, it was said to be the second largest organ in the United States.  It was shipped via the Erie Canal to Buffalo, then to Detroit, arriving on the Saturday before the cathedral consecration, June 24, 1848. Mr. Erben brought a crew of men from New York and those being supplemented by a large local Detroit crew, installed it just in time for the church consecration. The Erben organ had 2,000 pipes.

After 65 years’ service the old Erben organ was retired and a new one installed from the George Kiljen and Sons Co. of St. Louis.  The original Erben organ case and most of its original large nine-foot and sixteen-foot pipes were kept. The Kiljen organ had 62 main organ pipes and 353 pipes in the echo organ.  The organ in use today was made by the D.F. Pilzecker and Co. of Toledo, Ohio and installed in1979/80.   Other modifications and replacements have been made many times over the years.  The existing organ and pipes were completely refurbished in 1997, paid for with a large donation from Mrs. Charles T. Fisher, and done under the direction of Fr. James Serrick, S.J., whose mother was also a donor.

The first church organist serving from 1848 to 1871 was Peter DeCoster. He was followed by Godfrey Freytag who served for 45 years until 1916.  Then came Carl Zittal, Fr. Charles Denys (CICM), John Dymond, Josephine Sinacori, Emily Sherwood, Carol Mahalo and today, Julie Berra.

Early Renovation. Completion of the church revealed its faulty acoustic qualities. Therefore, in 1857 the size of the columns was reduced by two-thirds, and the ceiling was arched and decorated. About that time, Angelo Paldi (a Mexican War and later Civil War officer and parishioner) was the mural artist for the church.

First Pastor. Our first Pastor in 1848 was Fr. Edgar Evelyn St. Michael Shawe, an Englishman who fought in the battle of Waterloo (1812) where he was badly wounded and almost left for dead. His mother nursed him to health. Afterwards, he became a Teutonic Knight, but decided that life was not for him.  Instead, he converted to Catholicism, entered the priesthood, and was later transferred to the outpost of Detroit.  Fr. Shawe was said to have been a spell-binding preacher.  He died in 1851 in a freak carriage accident on his way to laying the cornerstone of Assumption Grotto Church and is buried at Mt. Elliott cemetery.

Jesuits Arrive.  By 1877, the population in Detroit had grown to 115,000.  Bishop Caspar Henry Borgess succeeded Bishop Lefevere in 1870 and worked to establish a school of higher education in Detroit. He invited the Society of Jesus to return to the area to establish a Catholic institution (currently the University of Detroit Mercy). To entice the Jesuits, the bishop offered to give them his cathedral parish.  The cathedral was deeded to the Jesuits and the cathedral was renamed Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church. It was last used as a cathedral on September 14, 1877.

In 1877, Bishop John Miege SJ was the first president of Detroit College (later UDM) and the rector of Ss. Peter and Paul.  For about 25 years the president of the college was also the church rector.  Our first Jesuit pastor was Fr. James Walshe (1880-85).

The marble Fleitz Memorial Altar depicting the crucifixion scene was consecrated on December 3, 1908.  On the day of the old wooden altar’s 1848 consecration, Archbishop Samuel Eccleston left a parchment that stated he had enclosed relics of Ss. Peter and Paul, and the Holy Martrys Blasius, Faustus, Donatus and Barbara therein. When the new altar was consecrated by Detroit Bishop John Foley, a relic of Jesuit St. Francis Borgia was added to those he transferred from the old altar.

The new altar was designed by a local Detroit architect, Gustave Mueller, based on the scene of the crucifixion behind the old altar.  The noted church sculptor, Joseph Sibbel of New York City, created the altar tableau and scene depicting Jesus on the cross, with Mary, his mother, Mary Magdalene and John at the foot of the cross.  It was his last masterpiece, as Mr. Sibbel died in 1907 shortly after it was finished. The Carrara marble was quarried in Italy. The finished altar was shipped in pieces to Detroit and installed by the American Marble Company of Fairhaven, Vermont. The altar is 39 feet high, 26 feet wide, and weighs 17 tons.  It took 6 months to re-construct here.  The altar and candelabras memorialize parishioner Mrs. Elizabeth Marx Fleitz, wife of John P. Fleitz, who was a prominent lumber and grain operator in Detroit.  The altar was paid for by her heirs, son George Fleitz, Mrs. Francis Dwyer and Mrs. Frances Fleitz at a cost of about $25,000.

A major renovation in 1917-18 included the marble wainscoting around the church, the two spiral staircases leading to the choir loft, the marble communion rail, a new marble pulpit (which replaced a wooden one), and new windows.  Parishioners, the Dinan brothers, paid all those expenses. John and Michael Dinan were wealthy Detroit grocery purveyors and real estate investors who lived simply and donated their wealth to many Catholic charities.  They were made members of the Knights of St. Gregory the Great by the Pope, the highest honor for Catholic laymen, for their charity to the Church.

The building is still owned and operated by the Jesuit order, now based in Chicago.

St. Catherine Chapel, Offices, Loveley Room, Pope Francis Center.  St. Catherine Chapel (built in 1918), located adjacent to the main church at the corner of Larned and St. Antoine streets, was also donated by the Dinan brothers to provide a worship space for students of the parish school located across Larned Street. (That school closed in 1964 after 75 years of service. It and the sisters’ convent were later demolished. The former school and convent land now belongs to the university and is parking for students, church staff and parishioners).  The St. Catherine Chapel was used for mixed-religion marriages and 90% of weddings before Vatican II occurred in this space.  Later the lower space was used for Parish offices and a meeting room.  Until 1998, the upper floor had been the Jesuit residence after the former rectory next door was converted to Law School usage.  The upper floor was occupied by the UDM Urban Law Clinic after that for about 5 years.  In 2013, the upper space was renovated and the parish offices moved there.  The former chapel space is now used as a large meeting room and social gathering place for church functions and houses the Pope Francis Center during the weekdays. In 2002 the main room was dedicated the Fr. Arthur Loveley Room in honored memory of our former pastor who also served many years as chaplain at the Wayne County jail.  The area was remodeled to provide greatly improved facilities for the Pope Francis Center through a grant from UAW-Ford in 2013-14.  New restrooms and shower facilities and updated plumbing systems were installed. In addition, the parish social hall and large meeting space, the Fr. Loveley Room, used primarily for Pope Francis Center operations, was refurbished to its original terrazzo floors and marble wainscoting. It includes a new coffee station and a built-in serving buffet. The kitchen facilities were updated and new laundry and storage rooms added.

Parish Demographics and Outreach

Congregation. Our parishioners for the first 70 years or so were 95% Irish, with the remainder French Canadian.  Many of these were prominent Detroit families who lived along Jefferson, and for whom Detroit streets were later named (such as Beaufait, Dwyer, Moran, Mt. Elliott and Willis). The area was heavily residential until the turn of the 20th century.

Social Responsibility and Outreach.

The Immigrant Society and St. Elizabeth Benevolent Society were established during the church’s early years and the parish helped support the first orphanage in the city too.

In 1886 our second Jesuit pastor, Fr. John Friedan, moderated the first St. Vincent DePaul conference in the Detroit diocese and parishioner Michael O’Brien, a prominent banker, was its first president and advocate for many years thereafter. Mr. O’Brien also started Camp Ozanam, the St. Vincent DePaul summer camp.

In the early 1900s, the neighborhood was changing, with Italian, Lebanese/Syrian immigrants moving in.  African-Americans had always been present on/near Congress and Hastings St.  By 1920, the neighborhood was known as “Little Sicily”.  Immigrants from Sicily and southern Italy settled in the area between Congress and the Detroit River.

Almost Closed. By the 1960s the downtown area had become mainly commercial.  With urban renewal and freeway construction, the parish lost its neighborhood and much of its congregation. It was largely sustained by former parishioners from those prominent families that had moved away, the Friends of Ss. Peter and Paul.  In 1971, a decision was made by the Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus to close the parish and convert the church into a Law Library.  At the “Last Mass” celebration on February 13, 1972,  Pastor Clement Singer SJ announced a last-minute reprieve had been granted – the parish would stay open on a week-to-week basis.  Lay members of the parish had taken the Jesuit Province to court and won an out of court settlement that kept the parish open, but it was still struggling.

Filipino Community. In the late 1970s, Fr. Joseph Tobin SJ did an outreach project with Filipinos who worked at nearby hospital and nursing facilities and, as a result, the parish gained a sizeable number of Filipino families who attended until the 1990s.

Fr. Weinman died in 1906 but his work was carried on by female parishioners who began a group called the Weinman Club which operated a permanent settlement house at 425 E. Larned. It served Italian, Syrian and Lebanese immigrants and later the African-American community. Called the Weinman Settlement House, it was operated until 1946 by the League of Catholic Women (now Matrix Human Services), which was also founded by a Ss. Peter and Paul parishioner, Mrs. Charles W. (Annie) Casgrain. The need for an Italian speaking priest became evident and in 1907 Fr. Giovanni Boschi, SJ arrived from Italy to establish an Italian parish. In 1909, the Church of the Holy Family, or Santa Famiglia, was opened with the help and some funding from Ss. Peter and Paul. It is currently located just north of here on the I-375 service drive.

Of importance during this time was the work of Josephine Van Dyke Brownson, a parishioner who founded the Weinman Club in 1906 and also started the Catholic Instruction League in the parish school basement. This provided catechism instruction for children attending public schools. It later expanded under her supervision and became the church-wide Confraternity of Christian Doctrine program. Ms. Brownson received the Pro Ecclesia medal from Pope Pius XI in 1933, the Laetare Medal from Notre Dame in 1939 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Detroit in 1939 because of this important work she did for the church.

Ss. Peter and Paul served the Maronite (Lebanese) community for many years. Baptisms and weddings were celebrated here in St. Catherine’s Chapel until 1916, when St. Maron Maronite Church was built in Detroit on Kercheval. Also, for a brief while, French-speaking Catholics held services in St. Catherine’s chapel until their own parish, St. Joachim, was established.

The fortunes of the church and the Jesuit mission have always been closely entwined. Until the 1930s, Ss. Peter and Paul was the focal point of Jesuit activities in Detroit — retreats, lectures, religious devotions, the University of Detroit, and University of Detroit High School were based here. The church was the site of the first Red Mass for the legal profession in the United States in 1877, a tradition that continues to this day.