St. Patrick's Parish Complex

Founded in 1831, St. Patrick's of Northfield is significant as the first parish established in Michigan for English-speaking Catholics. Occupying the original property purchased in 1831 to accommodate the state's first church building for English-speaking Catholics, the present parish complex comprising St. Patrick's Church (1875-78), rectory (1889-90 and 1917) and cemetery (opened by 1835) -- is significant by virtue of its associations with the early history of the Catholic Church and of Irish immigration in southeastern Michigan and an account of the architectural importance of the lofty-spired, red-brick, Gothic-style St. Patrick's Church.

The St. Patrick's Parish complex is located in a gently rolling field and woodland setting in Northfield Township, a predominantly rural area several miles to the north of Ann Arbor. The property consists of a church, rectory, and cemetery sited on a five-and-one-half-acre tract straddling Whitmore Lake Road (old U.S. Route 23), a two-lane, north-south highway, at its intersection with Northfield Church Road, a narrow, east-west road. St. Patrick's Church, the central element of the complex, faces south on Northfield Church Road and is about forty-five by ninety feet in size. Resting on a foundation of rough-hewn stone blocks, the church is a symmetrical-fronted, Gothic structure of red brick, with a partly projecting, square-plan tower crowned by a lofty, cross-tipped, octagonal spire that makes the church a landmark for miles around in the nearly level countryside - and, at the north end, a hip-roof, semi-octagonal apse. The handsome exterior relies heavily for its decorative effect on simple but carefully wrought brick detailing, which, fashioned entirely of standard brick, includes a broad band of arcaded corbelling, surmounted by a course of sawtoothed brickwork, at the eaves of the main body, tower, and gabled front entrance; sculptural label moldings over the Gothic windows; and buttresses at the angles and between the side windows. The white-painted cornices, window trim, and pinnacle gablets are all of wood and the smooth-faced water table, window sills, and buttress copings are of yellow-buff sandstone.