St. John’s Episcopal Church, O'Dell

St. John's Episcopal Church, a landmark structure at the edge of the downtown Detroit business district, is significant as one of the most fully developed Early Victorian, Gothic Revival, English-parish-church-type church buildings in Detroit and Michigan built during and remaining from the brief period before ecclesiological correctness became institutionalized as a fundamental principle of design for Gothic-style, Episcopal churches.

The structure is located on the southeast corner of Woodward Avenue at the East Fisher Freeway. The church and chapel measure 170 feet long and 80 feet wide, while a 1971 rear addition measures 70 feet long and 40 feet wide. Saint John's Episcopal Church is a light gray limestone, rockfaced, coursed-ashlar Gothic Revival church with dark stone trim built in 1860-61. It is an end-gable-roofed structure with a square, buttressed corner tower capped with a tall, louvered belfry with octagonal pinnacles. Pierced stone cresting spans the parapet between the tall pinnacles of the flat roofed tower. Balancing the tower on the entrance facade is a tall, slender octagonal pinnacle capped with an elaborate molded stone finial. Sandwiched between the corner tower and the pinnacle is the elaborately carved, stone, gabled, entrance vestibule with its large, traceried transom. An equally ornate Gothic-arched entrance with carved stone surround is located next to the main entrance in the base of the corner tower. Over the entrance vestibule is an oversized, Gothic-arched, traceried window flanked by carved stone niches. A final ornamental touch is provided by the stone cross located at the peak of the front gable. The north elevation is composed of regularly-spaced, Gothic-arched windows separated by stone buttresses. A gabled stone transept terminates the nave. The English Gothic style interior reflects alterations made in 1936 when the facade and tower were moved back sixty feet during the widening of Woodward Avenue. The high vaulted nave is flanked by side aisles and balconies supported on massive steel piers covered in molded plaster to resemble limestone. The wood-paneled balcony surrounding the auditorium is an original feature although it was originally supported on cast iron columns. The original wooden, hammerbeam roof trusses were replaced with plaster vaulting in 1936 further disguising the structure's Victorian Gothic origins. The vaulted sanctuary niche is framed in a Gothic arch. Elaborate brass and metal railings define the perimeter of the raised sanctuary which contains a monumental wood and marble Gothic style reredos. The many fine stained glass windows, the elaborate sanctuary furnishings, and the original wooden pews complete the interior.