Detroit was a remote French trading and farming village throughout
the Eighteenth century. For the first three decades of US history, it remained
a small French-speaking village on the distant frontier despite the establishment
of a US
fort and the presence of the military who controlled Michigan's Indians.
After completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Detroit's population increased,
albeit with a major setback due to the cholera epidemic of 1832 and 1833.
Shortly thereafter, the population grew rapidly and an English Protestant
elite came to the fore.
In 1849, the Reverend Robert Kellogg, with
26 charter members, organized the Second Presbyterian Church. Albert Jordan
and his brother Octavius
were leading
architects in Detroit in the mid-1850s, having arrived from Hartford in 1852.
The Second Presbyterian congregation selected the Jordan brothers to design
this impressive church. This is a Gothic Revival limestone ashlar structure
with, as you can observe, ornate detail. There are seven bays along the side
of the church with a 230-foot square tower balanced by a shorter octagonal
turret modeled after King's College Chapel in Cambridge. Note the flying buttresses,
the crocketed finials, the lacy stonework and the tall windows, all designed
to give the impression of lightness. To the best of my knowledge, lacy stonework
was an accomplishment of the 19th century, but not the 20th or 21st. You will
also observe the Jordan's "lacy" treatment of limestone in St.
John's Episcopal Church. The interior of this church offers testimony to the
creativity
of the Jordans, as well as the aspirations and prosperity of this congregation.
The three-aisle nave and horseshoe balcony seat almost 1,000. In 1850, the
census counted only 21,000 Detroit residents. The baptismal font is made
of Caen stone—a fine-grained white and yellow limestone imported from
France—supported
by columns of onyx imported from Mexico—all this completed a decade
before General Lee's surrender at Appamatox.
This church illustrates an interesting development in American architecture.
Thomas Jefferson advocated that this nation's architects should borrow from
the classical ideals of Greece and Rome. Think about what you see when you
visit the nation's magnificent governmental buildings in Washington—modern
day representations of what the Greek and Roman architects built. By the
third decade of the 19th century, American architects grew tired of imitating
their
Greek and Roman predecessors and turned to England for inspiration. Some
found it in the medieval cathedrals built there. The Jordans were of this
school
and so the created this marvelous Victorian Gothic Revival church.
The original building was completed in 1855. However, it was destroyed by fire in 1876 and rebuilt according to the original architectural plans in 1877. There was a major fire again in 1914, but the following year, this impressively attractive church was rebuilt according to the way it had been designed by the Jordan brothers in the mid-1850s.
Architects: Octavius and Albert Jordan
Their other extremely attractive Detroit church is St. John's Episcopal at
Woodward and Montcalm
Date of completion: 1855, but rebuilt in 1877 and then again in 1915
Use in 2002: Identical to the use in 1855 when it was completed
State historical register: P25116, Listed: March 3, 1971
State historical marker: Erected: October 3, 1975
National Register of Historical Places: Listed: September 3, 1971
Photo: R. Farley; August, 2002