Christ Church Detroit is an Episcopal church located at 960 E. Jefferson Avenue in Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. It is also known as Old Christ Church, Detroit. It is the oldest Protestant church in Michigan which is still located on its original site. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1970 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1971.

History

Brothers Robert (Jr.) and William Stead ran a wholesale grocery business at the present site of Christ Church until the year 1844. Christ Church Detroit was founded by a group of Episcopalians in 1845, who decided that St. Paul's Church

Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit

The Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Detroit is the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. The cathedral is located at 4800 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, adjacent to the campus of Wayne State University. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in...

 (now St. Paul's Cathedral) was too crowded. The founders built a small wooden church, designed by Lieutenant Montgomery C. Meigs

Montgomery C. Meigs

Montgomery Cunningham Meigs was a career United States Army officer, civil engineer, construction engineer for a number of facilities in Washington, D.C., and Quartermaster General of the U.S. Army during and after the American Civil War....

, as its first place of worship. Fifteen years later, plans were laid for a new building on the same site. In 1860, a chapel was constructed near the original structure for use while a larger church was constructed. The present church, designed by Gordon W. Lloyd

Gordon W. Lloyd

Gordon W. Lloyd was an architect of English origin, whose work was primarily in the American Midwest. After being taught by his uncle, Ewan Christian, at the Royal Academy, Lloyd moved to Detroit in 1858. There he established himself as a popular architect of Episcopal churches and cathedrals in...

, was completed in 1863.

Construction

The church is built in an American Gothic

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

 style, using limestone and sandstone; a massive belfry with a squared-off Germanic roof dominates the front facade. The interior boasts trancepts with galleries and hammerbeam trusses supporting the roof. All interior woodwork, save the roof, is made from local butternut. There are two Tiffany

Tiffany glass

Tiffany glass refers to the many and varied types of glass developed and produced from 1878 to 1933 at the Tiffany Studios, by Louis Comfort Tiffany....

 windows in the church, with more windows designed by other famous glass companies such as Franz Meyer and Company and J. Wippell and Co..

Current use

The Christ Church building has been continuously by an Episcopalian congregation since its construction. As of 2009, the Rector was Rev. John Talk. The congregation describes themselves as "a contemporary, well-educated, multi-racial, multi-ethnic congregation carrying out Christ’s mission in the world around us, strengthened, nurtured, and guided by the presence of the Holy Spirit." The next-door Sibley House serves as the rectory.

External links

• Christ Church Detroit