Central United Methodist Church

The present Gothic Revival building is the seventh structure occupied by this congregation. Central Methodist is the oldest continuing Methodist church in Michigan. Organized as the First Methodist Episcopal Society on April 12, 1821, the society merged with the Congress Street Methodist Church when fire destroyed the latter's church in 1863. First Methodist sold its commercially valuable property at Woodward and State and purchased lots at Woodward and Adams where a frame chapel was erected in 1865.

The present stone edifice was dedicated on November 17, 1867. A six story parish house, constructed east of the church in 1914-16, was designed by the Detroit architectural firm of Smith, Hinchman and Grylls. Considered to be the finest Methodist church in Michigan at the time of its construction, Central Methodist is highly significant as an example of a High Victorian, Gothic, auditorium church and as a major work of the prominent, nineteenth-century, Michigan church architect, Gordon W. Lloyd.

The structure is located on the northeast corner of East Adams and Woodward Avenue and now measures 105 feet long and 100 feet wide. Central United Methodist Church is a light gray, rock-faced coursed ashlar, limestone, Gothic Revival-style church with dark stone trim built in 1866-67. Like most of the other Woodward Avenue churches located south of Mack Avenue, Central Methodist assumed its present size as a result of a 1935 remodelling necessitated by the widening of Woodward Avenue. Although it was reduced in length by the shortening of the nave several bays, the facade was reconstructed so as to be virtually identical to its original design.

The gabled entrance elevation facing Woodward Avenue is balanced by a tall, buttressed, corner tower with open belfry and tapering slate spire. The doorway is inset within a compound, molded, Gothic arch. Dominating the facade is the oversized, traceried, lancet-arched window over the doorway. The only other exposed elevation faces Adams Street.

As a result of the shortening of the nave by twenty-eight feet in 1935 when the Woodward facade was moved back, the corner tower now practically abuts the gabled transept. From this elevation, the small wood and copper lantern over the crossing is visible. The interior of the church maintains its 1860s appearance. Inside the Woodward Avenue entrance, a small vestibule opens directly into the church.

Exposed timber trusswork supporting the pitched ceiling extends down the cream-painted, plaster walls to the balcony level, which encompasses the church auditorium. The raised sanctuary is recessed into full-height, lancet-arched niche with a paneled wooden ceiling. The carved wood Gothic-style reredos is framed by a plaster Gothic arch surrounded by a painted depiction of saints ascending toward heaven against a background of clouds. The church retains its natural wood pews, pulpit, and Gothic style furnishings.

Adjoining the rear of the church on Adams Street is the six-story, cross-gable-roofed, limestone parish house building built in 1914-16. This is a Jacobean-style building with three-part windows, stone hood moulds, gabled dormers, and a steeply pitched slate roof. It was designed to contain rental offices and stores as well as educational facilities for the church.

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.