St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church
St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church was a Roman Catholic church located at 2356 Vermont Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. It was also known as St. Boniface-St. Vincent Roman Catholic Church. The church was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1983[2] and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989,[1] but was subsequently demolished.[3]
St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church | |
St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church, c. 1884 | |
Location | 2356 Vermont Avenue Detroit, Michigan |
---|---|
Coordinates | 42°19′57″N 83°4′26″W |
Built | 1882 |
Architect | Scott, William & Co.; Wuestewald, Caspar |
Architectural style | Romanesque Revival |
Demolished | c. 1992 |
NRHP reference No. | 89000487[1] |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | June 09, 1989 |
Designated MSHS | March 23, 1983[2] |
History and significance
The German Catholic citizens of Detroit began moving to the west side in the 1860s, particularly along the Michigan Avenue corridor.[2] In 1867, Bishop Casper Borgess created St. Boniface parish to serve the German population on the west side. In 1873, a two-story, red brick Italianate rectory building was built for the parish at a cost of $6,000.[2] A stone church building was planned by the prominent local architect William M. Scott, and construction was completed in 1883 at a cost of $30,000.[2]
The parish was closed in 1989,[4] and the building was demolished a few years later.[5]
Description
St. Boniface Church was an eclectic example of Romanesque Revival and Ruskinian Gothic architecture. It was built in a cruciform shape from red brick and cream-painted wood, and featured a high nave roof, steeply gabled stone entry arches, and a central pavilion with recessed round arches.[2] The church had a square, louvered bell tower with an octagonal metal roof. The side walls were supported by heavy, stone-embellished buttresses.[2] The rectory was a two-story Italianate stone building, painted black. It had a modified hip-roof with cross-gabled dormers and a bracketed corniceline, an open gabled portico, and rectangular and round arch window enframements.[2]
Gallery
- St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church, c. 1910
- St. Boniface School, c. 1910
- Lot where St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church once stood
References
- "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. April 15, 2008.
- Saint Boniface Roman Catholic Church from the state of Michigan
- St. Boniface (Demolished) from the city of Detroit
- Closed Parishes from the Archdiocese of Detroit
- Roman Godzak, Catholic Churches of Detroit, Arcadia Publishing, 2004, ISBN 0-7385-3235-5, p. 102
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Boniface Roman Catholic Church (Detroit, Michigan). |