St. Florian Historic District

The St. Florian Historic District occupies approximately seventy-six acres in the west-central portion of Hamtramck and contains 691 structures (all but nine of which contribute to the district's historic character) within a district area bounded on the north by Yemans Street, on the south by Holbrook Street, on the east by Joseph Campau Street, and on the west by Lumpkin and Dequindre Streets. The focal point of the district is St. Florian Church, an imposing twentieth-century Gothic Revival edifice designed by architect Ralph Adams Cram and constructed from 1925 to 1928. The red-brown brick church presides over the entire neighborhood. Apart from the church-associated structures and a few commercial buildings, the St. Florian Historic District is composed of high-density, detached housing, nearly all of which was constructed between 1905 and 1920 on lots measuring thirty by one hundred feet. Most of the district houses are frame structures set on tall foundations. The houses have a uniform setback from the street, and this greatly enhances the feeling of uniformity which the neighborhood possesses. The housing stock in the district is characterized by three basic types, each with variations. The first type is rectangular in plan, one and one-half stories in height, and has a medium or steep-pitch gable roof with gable ends facing front and rear. Many houses of this type have side dormers. Nearly all have front porches of various sizes and materials; some porches are small with pedimented roofs, some extend across the entire facade, and some have an upper deck. Many of the porches are constructed of brick. This first house type is by far the most common. The second house type is similar to the first, but is two-and-one-half-story in height. Again, the porches on the houses vary: some merely front the doorway while others are full, two-story galleries. Houses of this second type have either gable roofs or hipped roofs with dormers. The third type appears throughout the district, though with less frequency than the preceding types. This is a one-and-one half-story house with a combination hipped and gable roof. The gable is off center and a small dormer rises above the hipped portion of the roof. The porches in this third type of house are one story in height and span part of the front facade.