The Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, situated at 8501 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, is an abandoned church. It was designed by architect Sidney Badgley in the Gothic revival style and used as a place of worship from 1911 to 2004.
The Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, situated at 8501 Woodward Avenue in Detroit, Michigan, is an abandoned church. It was designed by architect Sidney Badgley in the Gothic revival style and used as a place of worship from 1911 to 2004.
The large octagonal lantern that rises from the middle of the roof and is flanked by twin, low towers that surround the church’s gabled entrance is the most striking feature of Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church. In 1982, the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The construction has since been abandoned and is deteriorating.
History
When Detroit expanded, it was decided that a church was needed to serve the city’s northern extensions. On March 11, 1907, the Presbyterian Alliance trustees met in the Westminster Presbyterian Church to discuss the establishment of a church in Detroit’s northern outskirts. The North Woodward Presbyterian Committee, led by Richard Owen, L.C. Stanley, Irwin Fullerton, Dr. George H. Lau, and D.H.F. Wills, was formed to organize the church.
By January 1909, the church’s membership had increased to 325, with services held in various rented facilities as the group grew. The church had 742 members when the cornerstone for the new church was set on January 1st, 1910, and membership had topped 2200 by 1921.
By 1924, the church had an active sporting league, with teams competing in bowling, tennis, basketball, baseball, and golf. Membership grew steadily, reaching 2,000 by 1931. In 1937, the church launched a fundraising campaign to finance repair work on the church’s façade, which was, in the opinion of church members, “frankly, shabby.” The inside of the structure was also repaired, including the sanctuary, altar, and pipe organ.
The Rev. Herbert Beecher Hudnut was unanimously approved as pastor of the Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church by the church’s almost two thousand members in July 1940. He was installed on October 18, 1940, and was the church’s longest-serving pastor.
But, by the 1950s, many members had relocated to the northern suburbs of Detroit. With less than 1000 members in 1961 and only 404 in 1971, Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church began to struggle. Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church united with Covenant Church in 1981. The united congregations still had fewer than 500 members, and by 1991, just 210 remained.
The congregation separated from the Presbyterian church in 1993, eventually becoming the Abyssinia Interdenominational Church. After the pastor died in 2005, the church was forced to shut. Since then, the former Woodward Avenue Presbyterian building has been in limbo, passing from one owner to another as renovation plans fell through. The abandoned building was purchased by the Cathedral of Praise Baptist Church in November, with intentions to repair it and reopen it by July 2010.
Architecture
Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church is an English Gothic-style church that measures 184 feet long by 104 feet broad and is faced with rough rock and trimmed with contrasting limestone. The Woodward Avenue façade has a huge carved-stone entryway with a traceried stained glass window above, flanked by two square towers.
The Woodward Avenue façade has a huge carved-stone entryway with a traceried stained glass window above, flanked by two square towers. Gabled transepts on either side with full-height traceried windows. A two-story educational wing was erected at the same time as the main church structure. The theater is illuminated by a lantern dome placed above the roofline.
