Encyclopedia Of Detroit
Ss. Peter and Paul Jesuit Church
Saints Peter and Paul Church is the oldest church building in Detroit. The ground on which the church stands was purchased by Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere from Antoine Beaubien in 1843. The church was completed and consecrated as Detroit's Catholic cathedral on June 29, 1848. In 1877, Bishop Caspar Henry Borgess gave the title to the building to the Jesuit Order (Society of Jesus) as part of an agreement to start Detroit's first Catholic college, which is today the University of Detroit Mercy. The law school of the University still is adjacent to the church. The church was last used as a cathedral on September 14, 1877.
Francis Letourneau designed the church under the supervision of Vicar-General Peter Kindekens. The building is in the late classical revival style with three aisles. The front façade is gabled and topped by a short square cupola. The cupola was originally intended to support a tall spire, which was never built. The interior was heavily remodeled in 1866, introducing Victorian elements, again in the 1890s under the direction of architect Gordon W. Lloyd, and again in 1911 when the classical vestibules were built, the marble wainscot installed and the present leaded opalescent windows created.
The interior of the church features hand carved oak confessionals from the 1890s, a barrel-vaulted ceiling painted with murals, and an extraordinary Carrara marble altar designed by Gustave Adolph Mueller and dating to 1908. Most of the exterior of the church, the organ case, and, perhaps, the baptismal font date to 1848. Henry Erben of New York built the mechanical-action three-manual tracker organ in 1848. It was replaced in 1915 and was later replaced again by the Pilzecker and Company of Toledo, by re-using pipes.
The Pope Francis Center, the church’s warming center for the homeless, has been the mission of the church since 1990. On the sidewalk outside the building is the "Homeless Jesus," a bronze sculpture, designed by Ontario-based artist Timothy Schmalz. It was dedicated on June 28, 2015.
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