The Cathedral Church of St. Paul is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...

of the

Episcopal Diocese of Michigan The Episcopal Diocese of Michigan is the Episcopal diocese comprising more than 70 congregations in the southeast part of Michigan. The diocese traces its roots to the founding of St. Paul's, Detroit in 1824. It became a diocese of the Episcopa ...

. In 1824 its congregation formed as the first Episcopal and first Protestant church in the Michigan Territory. Designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram and constructed in 1907, this building is located at 4800 Woodward Avenue in Midtown Detroit,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

, adjacent to the campus of Wayne State University. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1982.

History

The parish of St. Paul was founded in 1824, by the Rev. Richard Fish Cadle, as the first Episcopal and the first

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

congregation in what was then Michigan Territory.page
from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul The original site of St. Paul's church was on Woodward Avenue, between Congress and Larned. In 1851 the church moved to the corner of Congress at Shelby. The funeral service for

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

, the entrepreneur who catalyzed development of the automobile industry in Detroit, was held at Cathedral Church of St. Paul on Thursday, April 10, 1947.Lochbiler, Don (July 22, 1997
'I Think Mr. Ford is Leaving Us'
. Michigan History, ''The Detroit News'' Mourners passed by at a rate of 5,000 each hour at the public viewing the day before at Ford's Greenfield Village in Dearborn. At the funeral service, 20,000 people stood outside the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in the rain with 600 inside. The funeral had attracted national attention and an estimated seven million people mourned his death.According to '' A&E Biography''

Architecture

The current building, designed by renowned church

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

Ralph Adams Cram, dates from 1907. It remains unfinished, the bell tower never having been completed. The church is built of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms w ...

, using medieval construction techniques, with no supporting steel superstructure. The building boasts soaring, pointed arches, wide expanses of stained glass, and elaborate tracery, exemplary of Gothic architecture. It includes a large architectural installation of Pewabic Pottery. In 1912 it was designated as the cathedral of the diocese.

Significance

St. Paul's Cathedral is a fine example of the Late

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

, an architectural style popular in the early years of the 20th century.Cathedral Church Of St. Paul
from the National Park Service American architects of the mid-19th century imported and re-interpreted the English

style, based on the visually lush details of Medieval cathedrals.Fort Street Presbyterian Church
from the National Park Service This was the period of the Oxford Movement in England, which also influenced Episcopal clergy and congregations in the United States to commission revivals of Medieval styles. American architects copied the "Gothic" elements and combined them with simple building plans to create an American architectural style known as " Victorian Gothic." The Fort Street Presbyterian Church, built in 1876 in Detroit, is a premier example of early Victorian Gothic architecture. In contrast, in the early 20th century more American architects attended new schools at M.I.T. and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

, or traveled to France for training at the

École des Beaux-Arts École des Beaux-Arts (; ) refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The term is associated with the Beaux-Arts style in architecture and city planning that thrived in France and other countries during the late nineteenth centur ...

. These architects, including Ralph A. Cram, believed that Gothic architecture should be developed from, rather than simply copy, the architecture of Medieval churches. St. Paul's Cathedral is one of Cram's major early projects, one that defines his "Late Gothic Revival" style.

Present use

The current dean is the Very Reverend S. Scott Hunter, formerly Canon to the Ordinary of the Diocese of Michigan.
from the Cathedral Church of St. Paul The cathedral coordinates programming with the Detroit Cultural Center.

References

External links

Cathedral Church of St. Paul website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cathedral Church Of Saint Paul, Detroit Churches in Detroit Episcopal church buildings in Michigan Paul Detroit Woodward Avenue Churches completed in 1908 20th-century Episcopal church buildings Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan Michigan State Historic Sites in Wayne County, Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Detroit Religious organizations established in 1824 1824 establishments in Michigan Territory Ralph Adams Cram church buildings Buildings with sculpture by Corrado Parducci Gothic Revival church buildings in Michigan