Bonstelle Theatre

Detroit architect Albert Kahn designed Temple Beth-El for the Reform Congregation of which he was a member. Congregation Beth-El (House of God), Detroit's and Michigan's first Jewish congregation, was organized at the home of Sarah and Isaac Cozens on September 22, 1850. For a decade meetings were held in private homes or in rooms over store buildings. The congregation worshipped in converted Protestant churches until 1902 when the Beth-El Society built this structure.

The Beaux Arts synagogue, dedicated on September 18, 1903, remained in use by the congregation until 1922 when the northward growth of the business district from the downtown area made the site undesirable. Noted theater architect C. Howard Crane remodeled the former synagogue as a theater in 1924-25, after Jessie Bonstelle, managing director of the Garrick Theatre, purchased the building. From 1925 to 1932, the building served as the Bonstelle Playhouse and presented programs of musical comedy, drama and the dance.

Following Ms. Bonstelle's death in 1932, the building became the Mayfair motion picture theater. In 1951 Wayne State University rented it for its theater program, purchasing the building five years later. A marker in the foyer of the building, presented by the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan, recalls the building's historic significance as the former synagogue of Congregation Beth-El, Michigan's oldest Jewish congregation.

The oldest synagogue structure in Detroit, the 1902-1903 Temple Beth-El is also significant in that it was one of the first American synagogues planned as a total unit to accommodate the specific requirements of modern-day Jewish worship and the cultural and social uses to which a modern synagogue would be put.

The structure is located on the east side of Woodward Avenue between Eliot and Erskine streets and measures 155 feet in length and 85 feet in width. The second Temple Beth-El is a Beaux Arts Classical, domed structure erected in 1902-1903. The central, domed main block is abutted by shallow, gabled wings on the north and south while a third, pedimented extension projecting toward Woodward Avenue originally contained a portico in antis. The building is sheathed in smooth limestone on the front and sides while the less visible walls are of common brick.

Ornate metal crestings edge the base of the drum and define the oculus of the shallow dome. In 1924 the temple was converted into a theater. At that time the portico was enclosed, a marquis added to the facade, and an extension added to the rear. The interior was completely rebuilt to accommodate an Italian Renaissance style theater auditorium and lobby, so that no part of the original interior survives today.

Woodward Avenue became the premiere thoroughfare of Detroit between the Civil War and about 1930 as the city's most prestigious neighborhoods developed along and near it. Consequently the avenue also became the site for the buildings of many of the city's oldest, wealthiest, and most prestigious congregations of all denominations. Woodward Avenue's religious structures comprise a superb representation of the changing trends in American ecclesiastical design from the 1860s to 1930. A number of the struc- tures also possess significance as notable works of architects who made important con- tributions to the development of the art of religious building design in Michigan, the Midwest, or the nation as a whole (see continuation sheets).

This nomination includes nineteen architecturally and historically significant religious structures located along Woodward Avenue from Grand Circus Park in downtown Detroit to one quarter mile south of McNichols (Six Mile) Road--a distance of slightly more than six miles in the cities of Detroit and Highland Park. One of Detroit's leading thor- oughfares, running from the heart of the downtown near the Detroit River directly inland (north-northwest) toward Pontiac, Flint, and Saginaw, and the main artery for the city's most prestigious late nineteenth and early twentieth-century residential neighborhoods, Woodward Avenue is notable for its religious structures. Many of them are significant as artistic achievements, major landmarks of Americahreligious architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, important works of notable architects, and as the homes of some of the oldest and most historic of Detroit's congregations. This nomination is designed to recognize the outstanding cultural significance of this body of religious architecture for Detroit, Michigan, and the Midwest (see continuation sheets).

Woodward Avenue was first developed during the Civil War era as one of the Detroit's finest residential streets, rivaling Jefferson Avenue and West Fort Street in prominence. As West Fort Street and the downtown faded in residential importance during the late 1860s and 1870s, Woodward Avenue was built-up with the magnificent mansions of Detroit's industrial and mercantile elite. By the 1890s the street was completely developed as far north as today's Ford Freeway with a splendid procession of opulent upper-class mansions interspersed with some of the city's finest churches. After the turn of the century, Woodward Avenue experienced a rapid transition to commer- cial and multiple dwelling use. Many of the original occupants of the mansions died during the first two decades of the twentieth century. With their heirs already settled in their own homes in more fashionable suburbs such as the Grosse Pointes and the north Woodward Avenue subdivisions of Boston and Edison, Arden Park, Virginia Park and Palmer Woods, the old parental dwellings were razed for commercial or institutional use or con- verted to multiple-occupancy rental properties. The widening of Woodward Avenue in 1935-36 resulted in the demolition of virtually every remaining dwelling on the east side of Woodward between the central business district and Forest Avenue, as well as necessitating the rebuilding of the church facades. During the 1950s and 1960s most of the remaining mansions that had not been destroyed to make way for new construction were demolished for parking lots. Today Woodward Avenue from the Fisher Freeway to the Cultural Center is a broad, barren expanse of asphalt lined with mostly undistinguished early twentieth century brick and terra-cotta commercial buildings and post World War II strip development such as motels, gas stations, and fast food restaurants. Only the magnificent churches on the east side of the street, the National Register-listed Orchestra Hall, and two mansions on the west side, the palatial David Whitney House (listed in the National Register) and the Smith House next to the Maccabees Building, are of historical architectural significance. North of Warren Avenue is the Cultural Center, where the white marble Public Library and Detroit Institute of Arts face each other across Woodward Avenue surrounded by other im- pressive institutional buildings. Bordering the Cultural Center to the north is the late Victorian residential East Ferry Avenue National Register District which flanks both sides of Woodward Avenue with imposing, turn-of-the-century mansions. North of the East Ferry Avenue District, Woodward is lined with early twentieth century apartment buildings, a few former single-family houses, now converted to commercial use, and modest commercial structures of varying twentieth-century vintages. Woodward's hetero- genous character of mixed uses and non-cohesive streetscapes continues through Highland Park. J-S^-^S*? jr :, -?,' , " "'

In evaluating the -Woodward Avenue religious structures against the general National Register criteria, particular attention was given to the following, more specific set of considerations: 1. Architectural and artistic significance of the structure in terms of its period of construction, architectural style, plan and form, and decorative finish. 2. Significance of the structure by virtue of its association with a notable archi- tect and as a significant example of that architect's work.

3. Significance of the structure's original congregation in the religious history of Detroit and Michigan. Based upon these considerations, the following nineteen structures or complexes have been selected for nomination. They are listed in the order in which they appear to the traveler on Woodward Avenue, beginning in downtown Detroit and ending in Highland Park. 1. Central United Methodist Church, Woodward at Adams Avenue, Detroit 2. St. John's Episcopal Church, 2326 Woodward (at East Fisher Freeway), Detroit 3. Woodward Avenue Baptist Church (now United House of Jeremiah), 2464 Woodward (at Winder), Detroit 4. First Unitarian Church (now Church of Christ of Detroit), 2870 Woodward (at Edmund Place), Detroit 5. Temple Beth-El (now Bonstelle Theatre, Wayne State University), 3424 Woodward, Detroi t 6. Cathedral Church of St. Paul Complex, 4800 Woodward (at Hancock), Detroit 7. St. Joseph's Episcopal Church (now Holy Rosary Roman Catholic Church), 5930 Wood- ward (at the Edsel Ford Freeway), Detroit 8. Metropolitan United Methodist Church, 8000 Woodward (at Chandler), Detroit 9. Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church, 8501 Woodward (at Philadelphia), Detroit 10. First Baptist Church (now Peoples Community Church), 8601 Woodward (at Pingree), Detroit 11. North Woodward Congregational Church (now St. John's Christian Methodist Episcopal Church), 8715 Woodward (at Blaine), Detroit 12. Temple Beth-El (now Lighthouse Cathedral), 8801 Woodward (at Gladstone), Detroit 13. St. Joseph's Episcopal Church (now St. Matthew-St. Joseph Episcopal Church), 8850 Woodward (at Hoi brook), Detroit 14. Central Woodward Christian Church (now Little Rock Baptist Church), 9000 Woodward, Detroit 15. Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament (Roman Catholic), 9844-54 Woodward (between Arden Park and Belmont), Detroit 16. Highland Park Presbyterian Church (now United Presbyterian), Woodward at Cortland, Highland Park 17. Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church (now Prayer Temple of Love Cathedral), Woodward at Highland, Highland Park 18. Trinity United Methodist Church (now New Mt. Moriah Baptist Church), 13100 Woodward (at Buena Vista), Highland Park 19. First United Methodist Church of Highland Park, 16300 Woodward (at Church Street), Highland Park In addition, three other Woodward Avenue churches have previously been listed in the National Register: the Mariners Church, now located at Jefferson and Randolph streets in downtown Detroit; the First Presbyterian Church, 2930 Woodward, Detroit; and the First Congregational Church, Woodward at Forest, Detroit.

Albert Kahn designed the third Temple Beth-El for his Reform Jewish congregation to replace the earlier temple located closer to the downtown area. The temple cornerstone was laid on October 5, 1921. This monumental structure remained the house of worship for Michigan's oldest Jewish congregation until 1974 when a new temple was constructed in Birmingham, Michigan. The former temple was then sold to the Lighthouse Tabernacle. This third Temple Beth-El is notable as a major monument of early twentieth-century, Classical Revival, synagogue architecture in the United States.

The structure is three stories high with dimensions of 140 feet by 240 feet. It is rectangular, flat-roofed, Classical-style, limestone structure built in 1921-22. The Woodward Avenue side is the most notable elevation. It is spanned by a shallow, eight column, Ionic portico sheltering three sets of entrance doors with simple classical surrounds.

The rest of the walls are sheathed in plain masonry relieved only by the denticulated cornice. The only other architecturally articulated elevation faces Gladstone Avenue. A range of tall narrow windows are projected out from the main block of the building by the bold, plain piers which enframe them. At the rear is a secondary entrance.

The interior includes numerous plainly finished class rooms, lounges, offices, meeting rooms, and service facilities in addition to the main auditorium. This latter is a vast, domed space with curving pews arranged in a semi-circle on a sloping floor with a balcony across the rear. The focus of the room is the raised platform that now contains a choir and pulpit. The ceiling and walls are ornamented with frescoes depicting events and personages from Jewish history.

Behind the pulpit platform is the raised choir loft backed by a screen of eight Ionia columns.