Highland Park Presbyterian Church

Highland Park Presbyterian Church originated as a mission of the First Presbyterian Church of Detroit in 1893. In 1896 a small frame chapel was built and dedicated on the site of the present church. The growth of the congregation led to the erection of the present building in 1910-11. Membership in the church had by then grown to over two hundred members. The Highland Park congregation is the oldest Presbyterian group in the city. The church is significant as a fine example of the work of the prominent turn-of-the-century church architect, Sidney Rose Badgley, and as a well preserved example of a standard, Akron-plan, auditorium church.

The structure is located on the northwest corner of Cortland and Woodward Avenue in Highland Park and measures 110 feet in length and 85 feet in width. The church is a red brick and limestone-trimmed, Tudor Gothic-style church raised on a rockfaced limestone basement. The gabled main portion containing an oversized, traceried, stained-glass window is abutted on the south by a square, buttressed, flat-roofed, corner tower with a louvered belfry and a massive, gabled, wooden porch supported on brick piers sheltering the entrance. Adjacent to the corner tower and set back from the main block is the gabled educational wing. A small, buttressed, corner tower shelters the entrance to the church office. The building retains its distinctive red terra cotta tile roof. The interior reflects a modified version of the Akron Plan. A small vestibule leads into a large square auditorium whose high ceiling is supported by an intricate trusswork system. A broad raised platform extends across the front with the choir space at one side. To the south of the main church hall, a wide opening which was once fitted with folding pocket doors leads into a spacious overflow area with a balcony. The property also contains the manse, which, built in 1905, is a simple, two-story, hip-roof, brick structure, located adjacent to the church at 20 Cortland Street.