Encyclopedia Of Detroit
St. John's Christian Methodist Episcopal Church
In 1917, the Reverend O. L. Mitchell established the first Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) mission in Detroit. It was located near the intersection of Dubois and Catherine streets, erected in 1883 for the First German Evangelical Association Church. By 1920, a larger facility was needed, so the CME congregation purchased the former home of St. Mark’s English Evangelical Lutheran Church, located nearby. The congregation used that facility until 1955 when they purchased the North Woodward Avenue Congregational building. With the move to the new location on June 5, 1955, St. John CME became the first Black congregation to be established in the “Piety Hill” section of Woodward.
The North Woodward Congregational Church was built in stages in the Neo Gothic style. A small chapel, designed by the firm of Malcomson and Higginbotham, was constructed early in 1907. The main sanctuary, designed by architect Hugh Barret Clement, was dedicated on February 5, 1911. On March 20, 1929, a permit was issued to architect A. R. Morison for the most recent addition, the church house.
The interior of the church is Basilican, with a high central nave and lower side aisles. Large stained glass clerestory windows light the space which is finished in plaster with Gothic moldings. The organ is on the south side of the sanctuary facing the congregation, hidden behind a pierced wooden screen. The baptistery is lined in mosaic tiles by Pewabic Pottery and surmounted by a Pewabic tile floor and beamed ceiling.
The official denominational name was changed to “Christian” in 1954. As the first CME church established in Michigan, it remains one of the largest and most well-known Christian Methodist congregations in the state.
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