In between exploring Michigan’s car culture, from the ruins of massive auto plants to the outstanding collection of vehicles at the Gilmore Car Museum and a re-creation of a partial assembly line in the Detroit Historical Museum, two of the best museums in Michigan, I also explored the state’s church culture. It came as no surprise that Detroit would offer the most beautiful ones; after all, this is one of the best cities in the United States for architecture. But there are plenty of others dotted around the Upper and Lower peninsulas that, although, by and large, their congregation numbers have fallen, they remain remarkable structures. These are my favorites.

#1 St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church (Detroit)

After a wonderful lunch at a restaurant in Greektown, a bastion of Hellenic culture in downtown Detroit, I stopped by a Greek bakery for a treat. As I snacked on some soft apple and honey cookies, I noticed a church tower peeking up over the elevated pedestrian crosswalks above Monroe Avenue. Directly across the street from the modern blue-glass Greektown Casino Hotel stood the definitely not modern St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church. St. Mary’s is the third-oldest Roman Catholic parish in Detroit, founded in 1834 to serve German-speaking immigrants. The current structure was completed in 1885 for a mere $81,210.53, designed by an architect who was also a parishioner. Listed as a Michigan Historic Site in 1979, the church remains a key element in the Detroit skyline, particularly its twin towers with striped steeples that I was now gazing up at. The limestone and red-brick church combines Pisan Romanesque and Venetian Renaissance styles in a striking mixture. I passed under the three arches below the rose window with eight quatrefoils surrounding a larger ninth one in the center and entered the church. At 176’ long and up to 116’ wide, St. Mary’s can hold a capacity of 1,200 people. Within its magnificent proportions, I admired the 10 polished granite columns separating the nave from the side aisles; the altar statues of Hungary’s patron saints, Stephen and Elizabeth (odd, for a German church now in a Greek enclave); three unusual indoor grottoes; lovely stained-glass windows and Stations of the Cross; the Communion rail with little trefoils, columns, and arches; and the massive organ. Ninety feet above me, colorful cruciform frescoes of Christian symbols run the entire length of the nave. If you’ve just hit it big in the casino across the street, this is the perfect place to give thanks.

#2 St. Josaphat’s Roman Catholic Church (Detroit)

With plenty of open space surrounding it, it was easy for me to appreciate the beauty of St. Josaphat’s Roman Catholic Church. Named after St. Josaphat Kuntsevych, a Greek Catholic priest who was archbishop of the then-Polish city of Polotsk in the 1600s, the church was constructed in 1901 for the booming Polish population with the employment of local carpenters and a local stained-glass company, which kept the cost down to an impressively low $100,000. The Victorian Romanesque and Gothic Revival church measures 132’ by 56’ and can seat 1,100 people. Two identical towers flank the taller central tower, with its wonderful three-panel stained-glass window portraying the Crucifixion and the gray-tiled 200’ steeple topped by a gold cross. Generous amounts of buff limestone trim the red- and orange-brick façade. Although it faced hard times on the heels of a fleeing population starting in the 1960s, St. Josaphat’s has rebounded with a rehabilitation program that includes a choir and music program and the addition of weekday and Holy Day Masses, including the city’s first regular celebrations of the traditional Latin Mass—initiatives that continue to serve the remaining Polish community and that are bringing worshippers back to the parish, and back inside this magnificent structure. Parishioners and visitors alike enter through one of the entryways in each of the three towers. The church contains five altars, with a painting of St. Josaphat adorning the main altar. White-oak woodwork and stained-glass windows portraying Mary, Joseph, and the Twelve Apostles embellish the interior. Ceiling murals depict the Resurrection of Christ and Our Lady, Queen of Poland. Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 and named a Michigan State Historic Site three years later, St. Josaphat’s has managed to adjust to modern times while maintaining its historical presence.

#3 St. Florian Roman Catholic Church (Hamtramck)

Just outside of Detroit, St. Florian Roman Catholic Church stands proudly in the city of Hamtramck, which grew from 3,500 people in 1910 to 48,000 in 1920 thanks to Dodge’s opening of an auto factory there. Completed in 1928 at a cost of $500,000 scraped together by the blue-collar workers in this overwhelmingly Polish enclave, this tremendous eight-story brick structure won an award from American Architect magazine in 1929. Still the tallest building in the city, the front features a broad Gothic arch flanked by twin spires, a large rose window, and statues in niches way up top. A verdigris green steeple rising 200’ was designed to rise in pronounced contrast to the smokestacks of the city’s industrial environment. Inside, the main and side altars are decorated with gold leaf. The nave windows illustrate the life and teachings of Christ, while the altar windows depict five Polish saints—Casimir, Hedwig, Hyacinth, Stanislaus, and Florian himself, a Roman solider born in 280 who converted to Catholicism, prevented the destruction of Krakow, Poland, by fire, and was ultimately martyred by being thrown into a river in Austria. Today, he’s the patron saint of firefighters. Another figure, included in one of the windows, surprised me. On the one in hand, it made sense to have Nicolaus Copernicus represented—he was Polish; on the other, he wasn’t the Church’s favorite son—he was the astronomer who, in the early 1500s, riled the Church by challenging its view that the earth was the center of the universe. Another Pole was more universally accepted: In 1969, the bishop of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, celebrated mass here, 11 years before he became Pope John Paul II, the first Slavic pope and the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. Although the neighborhood has diversified, plenty of Poles who speak Polish still live here. I happened to visit at an opportune time during the spring, when I got to mingle with them in the church’s basement when it hosts the annual Strawberry Festival. There’s nothing quite like watching a band of priests on guitars and drums rockin’ to Polish-language songs, or viewing Polish-American youths dancing in traditional garb. I stayed here for a late, heart-stopping Polish lunch—stuffed cabbage, meatballs, city chicken (on a stick), mashed potatoes, cheese and potato pierogi, and a strawberry pastry with sugar dusted on top that tasted very much like a super-fresh Pop-Tart.

#4 First Presbyterian Church (Detroit)

On the side steps of the hulking First Presbyterian Church, under one of the three arches, hung a sign that read, “Keep Off. No Sleeping.” Under the sign lied a homeless man, asleep. Irony? Or just a reflection of Detroit today? Either way, I was a little saddened by the scene, but also by the now familiar story of how Detroit’s churches have suffered. Opened in 1891, this massive, rough-cut red sandstone church housed the oldest Protestant congregation in Michigan. Taking its cues from H.H. Richardson’s Trinity Church in Boston, First Presbyterian features a broad tower with a slate roof and turrets at each corner; lots of gable roofs; and the trio of recessed masonry arches, repositioned to the side of the church in 1936 when the abutting street was widened, and guarded by two lion statues a little worse for wear thanks to rough Michigan weather. The Greek cross floorplan keeps the interior airy and open, with easy viewing of the Tiffany stained-glass windows, including one called “Flames of Fire.” The church prospered for years, until Detroit’s population began to drain. Although added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, by the early 1990s the church was unsustainable and was leased in 1992. Eventually, it evolved into the Ecumenical Theological Seminary, and the building still graces Woodward Avenue as one of Detroit’s finest.

#5 Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church (Detroit)

Thanks to its location across the street from empty, virtually treeless Forest Park, the Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church is wide open for unobstructed views. One of the largest Gothic Revival churches in the Midwest (and the largest Roman Catholic church in Detroit), Sweetest Heart rose from an unpleasant and violent division between sects of the city’s Polish population that included lawsuits, factionalization, rioting, a fiery reverend, interference from Rome, and excommunication. Eventually, after spending about $125,000 on its construction, the church opened in 1893 to serve the city’s burgeoning Polish population—10,000 of whom showed up for the dedication ceremony. The façade at the main entrance sports a rusticated stone base with a triple portal topped by pointed arches. Twin red-brick bell towers top the base, capped by identical spires. An ornamental fence surrounds the entire church. Inside, you’ll find the oldest electro-pneumatic organ in Michigan, and stained-glass windows—including the major transept window that depicts the Holy Family in St. Joseph’s workshop and the eight nave windows portraying Christ, Mary, and saints—that won a major prize at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Inevitably, membership in the flourishing parish waned, beginning in the 1930s and continuing through the 1970s. Facing a bleak future, the church began restoring the building and implementing plans to revive itself. It secured designation as a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. This impressive church deserves a visit not only for its wonderful architecture, but also for its Annual Pierogi Festival, which it has been hosting since 1981.

Five Runners-Up

• Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church (1896, Detroit)
• Fort Street Presbyterian Church (1877, Detroit)
• First Congregational Church (1891, Detroit)
• Cathedral Church of St. Paul (1907, Detroit)
• Lansing Central United Methodist Church (1890, Lansing)

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