Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church
Cass Community United Methodist Church
3901 Cass Avenue at Selden in Detroit's Cass Corridor
Detroit, capitalizing on its strategic location near the Great Lakes and its closeness to pine forests, became a national industrial metropolis in the last three decades of the 19th Century. A large number of entrepreneurs became prosperous and employed many individuals who became financially secure. Many of them built large homes along Cass and Woodward or on the intersecting streets. For the most part, Anglo-Saxon Protestants comprised and dominated Detroit's elite. This Methodist congregation was formed in 1880 as the city boomed. And, as congregations typically do when their resources allow, they built an impressive structure that would reflect their spiritual aspirations, but also proclaimed that the congregation was a prosperous one. The original church on this site was built in 1883 by the Detroit firm of Mason and Rice. Very shortly thereafter the congregation selected the Detroit architects, Higginbotham and Malcomson to construct the massive church now on this site. It incorporated the previous building. This is a Richardson Romanesque Revival style church in the Greek Cross formation completed in 1891. It includes one of the largest organs—a Johnson Tracker organ—installed in Michigan in the 19th century. The church's stained glass windows were handwork of Louis Comfort Tiffany—another sign of the prosperity of this congregation.
This building continues to serve a Methodist congregation and is also home to a variety of services for the inhabitants of the Cass Corridor.
Architects: George D. Mason and Zachariah Rice
William Higginbotham and William Malcomson
Style: Romanesque revival with influences from
Henry Hobson RichardsonDate of completion: 1891
State Historical Register: Number: P4520, Listed March
28,1985
State of Michigan Historical Marker: This is on the
Cass Avenue side of the church.
National Register: Listed December 10, 1982