One good church: St. Matthew Parish added to National Register of Historic Places

St. Matthew Parish

• Whittier Street

Address: 6021 Whittier Ave., Detroit

Architecture: Tudor Revival

History: Built in 1954 and designed by local firm Donaldson & Meier. The church was updated in 1972. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.

Show and tell: What building in Detroit has special significance to you and why? Email aaron@outliermedia.org with your favorite, and we’ll dig into its history.

The National Park Service added 19 Michigan buildings , including six in Detroit, to the National Register of Historic Places last year. Properties are listed for their historic, cultural or artistic value. Around 1,200 places from across the country get nominated each year, and most of them eventually make it onto the list . There are around 96,000 properties on the register now, including almost 2,000 in Michigan , and nearly all of them are at least 50 years old .

The buildings in Detroit added to the list include one of the first Black-focused bookstores and a Black women’s club — both part of a state preservation project including 100 historic civil rights sites in Michigan — as well as an early example of a fireproof warehouse .

St. Matthew Parish on the far eastside , designed by local firm Donaldson & Meier , was also recognized. The Catholic congregation has been around since 1926 and built its current place of worship near the Grosse Pointe border in 1954. The building is notable for having traditional church features and using classic materials like stone and granite, while displaying the clean lines of modern architecture.

Its most notable feature is probably the 1,300-square-foot domed mural titled “Christ, Lord of the Universe,” by Sicilian-born artist Andrew Maglia. The shimmering mosaic is made up of thousands of tiles, overlooking the sanctuary and its large stained glass windows, also created by Maglia.

See the full list of places in Michigan added to the register .

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