The first Jewish person to live in the village of Detroit was, apparently, Mr. Richmond, a merchant or trader from Montreal who arrived about 1780. The Jewish community grew slowly. In the mid-1830s, there was a small influx of German immigrants to Detroit. Most of them were Catholics, so St.Mary's Church was established to serve their needs.
In 1850, the first religious meeting of Jews took place in the home of Isaac and Sarah Cozens, which was located near the intersection of East Congress and St. Antoine. This was near the Harmonie Park neighborhoods, which was the city’s largest concentration of Germans. These German Jews formed the Beth-El Society. Later they formed a Reform congregation and occupied a temple on Washington Boulevard at Clifford (no longer standing). In 1898, Rabbi Leo Franklin began leading this congregation, a job that he held until 1941. He became the city’s leading spokesperson for Jewish concerns and was well known nationally. Although Henry Ford is now seen as a strong anti-Semite, Ford counted Franklin among his friends and provided him with a new car every year.
Franklin had entrepreneurial talents and quickly sought to build a massive temple in Detroit’s Piety Row; that is, in the stretch of Woodward that now extends from Central Methodist at Grand Circus Park at least as far as Blessed Sacrament Cathedral. Having a temple in this prestigious location would give great visibility to the success of the German Jewish community in Detroit. I believe that George Mason was originally commissioned to design the temple. Mason is the architect who recognized the exceptional skills of Albert Kahn and gave him his start in the field. Kahn was a member of the Beth-El Congregation and helped design the building that you see.
This is a Beaux-Arts structure much influenced by Roman and Greek temples. Attached to the prominent doomed main area of the temple are gabled wings on the north and south, and by a pedimented extension on the front that once extended into a porch. Almost all of the impressive religious structures facing Woodward from St. John’s Protestant Episcopal to the Cultural Center lost much of their attractiveness when Woodward was widened. They were either moved away from the street, as happened in the case of St. John’s, or lost the front of the building as was the case for Temple Beth El.
By 1922, this congregation increased to 800 families and the Jewish, although facing barriers in the housing market, moved north along Woodward. The Boston-Edison neighborhood and surrounding areas were “open” to Jewish residents. This Congregation turned to Albert Kahn once again and he designed the classical style synagogue that now stands at 8801 Woodward at the corner of Gladstone. It opened in 1924.
The temple at Gladstone and Woodward served the needs of the congregation until 1973 when, reflecting the geographic movement of Detroit’s Jewish population. a new synagogue was built at the intersection of 14 Mile Road and Telegraph in Bloomfield Hills
That same year, Jessie Bonstelle, manager of the Gerick Theater in downtown Detroit, purchased Temple Beth El and then called in the nation’s most distinguished theater architect, C. Howard Crane. He redesigned the building for use as a legitimate theater. It was used for that purpose for about nine years, but Detroit had a surfeit of such theaters and, in 1932, the Bonstelle Theater became a moving picture venue. In 1951, Wayne State began renting the location for performances by their theatrical students. Five years later they purchased the building.
I don’t believe that I have seen lucid pictures or drawing of the actual
building that Mason and Kahn designed for Temple Beth El in 1902. I believe
that the various reconstructions of this temple and the substantial alterations
made when Woodward was widened diminished the structure’s architectural
merit.
Date of Construction: 1902
Architects: George Mason and Albert Kahn
Date of Remodeling for Use as Theater: 1925
Architect for Remodeling: C. Howard Crane
City of Detroit Local Historic Distcit: Established February 8, 1980
National Register of Historic Sites: Listed August 3, 1982
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