Sacred Heart Seminary

Established in 1919, the Sacred Heart Seminary is significant for being the first seminary in Michigan designed to train candidates of all ethnic backgrounds for diocesan priesthood and the first to receive candidates from throughout the state of Michigan. It possessed additional importance for offering students a complete educational program including both high school and college curricula. Established during a period of rapid growth of the diocese, the Seminary quickly acquired a reputation for excellence. The monumental seminary structure, built in 1923-25, is significant as a dominant landmark in its section of the city and as a major Detroit example of the Collegiate Gothic style. The building is a major work of the prominent Detroit architectural firm of Donaldson and Meier and is notable for fulfilling the complex set of requirements essential for a seminary and for being designed as one unit and built in a single campaign. Of additional significance is the beautiful altarpiece carved by craftsman Alois Lang, well known in the Midwest for his woodcarvings of religious scenes.

The Sacred Heart Seminary is an imposing three-and-one-half-story, Collegiate Gothic-style building of red brick with light colored stone trim. The main building surrounds a square central courtyard divided into two sections by the centrally positioned chapel and has a symmetrical facade and four wings. The building is located on a rectangular site of approximately twenty acres bounded on the north by Chicago Boulevard, on the east by Linwood Avenue, on the south by Joy Road, and on the west by Lawton Avenue. Approximately five miles from the central business district, the Seminary is located adjacent to the western border of the National Register-listed Boston-Edison Historic District. The Seminary reflects the Collegiate Gothic style popular at the time. Exterior sheathing of red rough texture face brick hides a modern structural system of steel, reinforced concrete, hollow-tile floors, masonry walls, and tile and gypsum partitions. Exterior trim is of Gray Canyon, Ohio, sandstone. Door sills are granite and steps are of Indiana bluestone. Roofing is graduated, variegated slate with copper flashing, gutters, and conductors. The main facade, facing north on Chicago Boulevard, features a 130-foot high tower centered in the over 600-foot width of the building; the tower marks the main entrance. The central block is brought forward at its outer ends, framing the entrance pavilion extending from the front of the tower. At either end of the central block is a flanking wing; the auditorium is at the eastern end and the separate facilities for philosophy students are at the western end. A variety of bay windows, dormers and buttresses subdividing banks of windows are used to maintain a sense of scale in this very long facade, as well as throughout the complex. The facade of the main block fronts a formal internal arrangement; the three-story main building is square, surrounding a courtyard which is subdivided by the chapel running north-south through its center. The entrance tower, then, serves both as entrance emphasis and as a west-end tower for the chapel, which forms the symbolic and physical center of the complex. The administrative and public reception rooms were placed near the main entrance which faces Chicago Boulevard and the school functions behind the west half of the main facade. Flanking the main quadrangular building at its corners are the auditorium and philosophy wings already noted, as well as the gymnasium at the southwest corner and the convent and infirmary at the southeast corner. The interior walls of the main chapel are of brick with light-colored stone trim. The ceiling is spanned by arched wooden trusses. The areas between the trusses are divided into panels which follow the outline of the roof system of rafters and purlins. The panels are painted in a decorative pattern. Above the nave arcade is a row of Stations of the Cross which occupy the triforium space. Traceried Gothic windows form a clerestory above the arcade. A brick arch divides the nave from the chancel and on the south chancel wall is located a large stained glass window. The chancel side walls contain smaller arcades with windows and an organ chamber above. Choir stalls flank the altar. An arch at the west end similar to that dividing nave and chancel divides the nave from the narthex. On the second story and above the narthex is the choir loft with a display of organ pipes on the west wall. The chapel aisles and chancel are paved with locally manufactured Pewabic tile. The furniture and trim are of red oak. Also of oak is the reredos, which was carved by German-born Alois Lang. The niches in the reredos contain the carved figures of Christ and the twelve Apostles.