Sts. Peter and Paul Academy

The SS. Peter & Paul Academy is one of the two Late Victorian landmarks, the other being Central High School, in the Cass Farm Survey Area and one of the few Late Victorian school buildings left in Detroit. The academy was designed by Leon Coquard, a local architect with a national reputation for church design, in 1892. The ss. Peter & Paul Academy was built for the St. Patrick's parish, whose main church was located at Adelaide and John R. St. Patrick's Catholic Church was organized in the early 1860s by the Most Rev. Peter Paul Lefevre, Coadjutor Bishop of the Detroit Catholic Diocese. Built under the direction of Father James Hennessey of the Cathedral of SS.Peter & Paul for the purpose of ministering to that parish's Irish members, St. Patrick's was to be a 'chapel of ease' for the Irish living well north of the cathedral. Father Hennessey was able to collect enough money to erect a small chapel completed in 1862 for $15,000. A few years later the congregation got permission from the diocese to purchase the lot adjacent to the church for the rectory, which was completed in 1867 at a cost of $7,000. St. Patrick's Chapel opened for worship on the Feast of St. Patrick, Patron of the Irish, March 17, 1862. In 1872, at a cost of $30,000, the chapel was enlarged into a church with a seating capacity of 1200. By 1880 St. Patrick had become one of Detroit's largest and wealthiest Catholic churches, located as it was in the then-exclusive Brush Park area. Its property was valued at $100,000 with its parish boundaries extending from the alley between Elizabeth and Columbia northward indeterminately, between Grand River and Gratiot. This geographic area took in some of Detroit's wealthiest families, many of whom were members of St. Patrick's. In 1888, Bishop John S. Foley took charge of the diocese and in 1890 St. Patrick's Church became the Pro-Cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese. While serving as the cathedral, the church's name was changed to SS. Peter & Paul in response to the fact that it served as cathedral church in succession to SS.Peter & Paul on Jefferson Avenue, given to the Jesuits in 1878. According to a newspaper article written at the time, 'the Cathedral parish was the biggest Catholic parish in Detroit and the wealthiest until time and expansion of industry and business wiped out its fine homes and residents.' St. Patrick's served as the Pro-Cathedral of the Roman Catholic diocese until 1938 when Archbishop Edward Mooney named Blessed Sacrament (listed in the National Register) as the new cathedral; St. Patrick's then reverted back to its original name. By the time a parish school was a consideration, land in the area around the church was scarce. Therefore, the scho~ was built some distance away at 64 Parsons in 1892. The deed was signed May 25, 1892. The SS. Peter & Paul Academy was constructed at an estimated cost of $50,000. It was designed by Leon Coquard, an architect nationally known for church design. The SS. Peter and Parul Academy was at that time considered one of the finest school buildings in the city. Coquard is most noted as the architect of St. Anne Church, constructed for the second oldest Catholic parish with a continuous record in the United States. From 1893 until 1969, the academy functioned as a girls high school and a co-ed grade school. The Academy opened under the administration of the Sister Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. When the parish resumed its original title of the Church of St. Patrick in 1938, the high school was renamed 'Immaculata High School,' a name which soon thereafter was changed to 'Girls' Catholic Central High School.' The grade school became 'St. Patrick's Grade School.' The high school and grade school were closed at the finish of the school year in 1969 mainly due to the demographic shift in the neighborhood caused by the emigration of people from the city to the suburbs. The building remained vacant for three years until it opened as the St. Patrick Senior Center in 1973. The senior center has continued to provide comprehensive services to seniors living thoughout the metropolitan Detroit area. During the tenure of the senior center, the building has undergone interior and exterior renovations which have updated the building for its current use while maintaining and restoring the original materials. The SS. Peter & Paul Academy and the adjacent chapel contstructed in 1926 are what remain of the long history of the St. Patrick's parish.

The SS. Peter & Paul Academy is a broad-fronted, symmetrical, three-story above a raised basement school building with hip and side gable roofs. The no-nonsense, limestone-trimmed, rock-face, stone facade has both vertical and horizontal emphasis. The facade is divided into vertical bays and the fenestration creates a strong horizontal emphasis. The building is Elizabethan in style. The SS. Peter & Paul Academy is a three and one-half story, light color stone building with smooth limestone trim which constitutes a rare example of 19th century Elizabethan architecture. The street facade is divided into five vertical sections. The central bay is a tall entrance pavilion, which four stories high because of a large gabled dormer. It has a Tudor-arched entrance at the first floor, a bay window on the second and third stories, and a quadripartite window on the fourth; it is surmounted by a gable flanked with pinnacles. This central element is flanked by three-story staircase elements whose street-facing facades show an irregular window placement following the rise of the stairs within; facing the side, these stairs have entry doors at grade, a paired window with transom at the second landing level, and a paired window with double transoms above. Set back to either side are three story wings containing classrooms and displaying three pairs of transomed windows at each floor, the windows of each level being surrounded by a single dressed stone surround. A simple cornice and parapet completes the facade at the top, and angled corner buttresses give the outer corners of the building a softened silhouette. The side facades display similar patterns of fenestration with a large gable above.