Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District Boundary Increase Two

The former Saint Dominic's Church complex was built during the district's expanded period of significance and through its architecture contributes to the district's visual and historic character. The first section of the former church complex was built in 1893 by the Brewster Congregational Church, which by 1897 had 230 members. In 1906 the congregation hired Almon C. Varney to design a large addition that, constructed to the west of the original building, became the main part of the church. Varney (1849-1930) was a prominent Detroit architect and a member of the First Congregational Church in Detroit. Most noted for financing, designing, and supervising the construction of the first apartment building in Detroit, Varney designed numerous residences and other buildings including the Oriental Hotel and four factories for the Boydell Brothers. A number of residences designed by Varney are located in the South Cass Corridor area of Detroit, located about a quarter mile to the east of Woodbridge, including in the West Canfield Historic District (NR Listed). In 1926 the Brewster Congregational Church merged with the Pilgrim Congregational Church to become the Brewster Pilgrim Congregational Church, and relocated to Linwood Avenue about four miles to the northwest of Woodbridge. The Brewster church was sold to the Catholic Diocese of Detroit. The church was renamed St. Dominic's Catholic Church. Responding to the rapidly increasing Catholic population in the formerly largely Protestant section of Detroit, the new parish was created from three surrounding parishes, the Cathedral, St. Leo's, and the Most Holy Rosary. Saint Dominic's opened officially on December 8, 1926, and at that time Bishop Gallagher stated, 'Holy Rosary parish was overcrowded, and so were St. Leo's and the Cathedral parishes. That meant that masses had to be read every hour to accommodate the crowds.' St. Dominic's Church was staffed by the Dominicans, the Order of Preachers. It was the first and only church in the Diocese of Detroit of that order. The diocese had been attempting to create a Dominican parish for five years prior to 1926, probably because at that time the diocese was under the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and the Cardinal was a Dominican.

The proposed boundary increase to the Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District will add the former St. Dominic's Church complex and is approximately one-half block in size. The area to be added is located on the east side of Trumbull Avenue just south of West Warren. The area east of Trumbull, which here forms the existing district's east edge, is bounded by Wayne State athletic fields on the north, a 1980s public housing apartment complex to the east, and a 1990s public housing apartment complex to the south. The former church complex's buildings date from the period of the Woodbridge Neighborhood district's development. When standing within the existing Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District and looking towards the former church complex from both directions on Trumbull and from the west on Warren, it is clear that the buildings fit the character of the neighborhood in scale and materials. The former church complex faces two and a half story residences and larger apartment buildings nearby across Trumbull. When viewed together these form a dense urban neighborhood that, containing a variety of building types, functioned as a cohesive unit. The former Saint Dominic's Church complex contains four buildings standing at the southeast corner of Trumbull and Warren Avenues. The site is flat with little landscaping. The former church and rectory face Trumbull, the former school faces Warren, and the former convent faces a vacated Lincoln Avenue, parallel with Trumbull.

All three buildings fall within the period of significance for the Woodbridge Neighborhood, which was built up between 1870 and 1920. The two residential structures on Trumbull are indicative of the duplex and relatively modest single family house as desirable middle-class building types constructed in Woodbridge around the turn-of-the-century. Patterson Dog and Cat Hospital is significant in its own right as a longstanding Detroit business and, additionally, it contributes to Woodbridge as a neighborhood business along Grand River, the historic commercial thoroughfare. The Paterson Dog and Cat Hospital, established in 1844, is the oldest privately operated veterinary hospital in the state of Michigan. It was first located at 71 W. Columbia by Dr. James W. Patterson. He was the only practicing veterinarian in Detroit at that time. His son, Elijah E. Patterson, graduated from the Grand Rapids Veterinary Medical College in 1901, and moved the practice to 591 Grand River Avenue. In 1909 he purchased property at what was then 650 Grand River (the present location) and built a house and a two story brick hospital. The downstairs had room for twenty-five horses and the upstairs could house fifty dogs. Dr. Elijah's son, James E. Patterson, joined him in the practice in 1926 and, in that year, the building was remodeled. The basic layout of the hospital has not changed since then. The hospital was purchased by Dr. Eugene E. Miller in 1966. He practiced at this location until retiring in 1985, when Dr. Glynes D. Graham, the present owner, bought the practice from him. The Manchester Double House at 4304-08 Trumbull Avenue was in the family of Eugene W. Manchester from the time it was built in 1891 to when it was sold out in 1937. Manchester, superintendent of the press room at the Detroit Free Press, was issued permit #1019 on November 17, 1897 for the construction of this double-house at a cost of $5,000. Eugene W. 8. Manchester occupied 740 Trumbull and John L. Gibson, a travel agent, occupied the other half, 742 Trumbull (old addresses), according to the 1900 Detroit City Directory. Anthony L. Hoenscheid, a laborer, occupied the house at 4314 Trumbull shortly after it was constructed under a permit issued to N.S. Praigg, a contractor, on December 9, 1897 at a cost of $2,700.

The three buildings in this proposed addition to the Woodbridge Neighborhood Historic District are adjacent to the existing district and are compatible architecturally and historically. They contribute to the Woodbridge Neighborhood, which was built as a middle-class, turn-of-the-century urban residential area of primarily one and two family homes and scattered small-to-moderate scale apartment buildings, with a strong commercial presence on Grand River Avenue. The two residential buildings, 4304-08 and 4314 Trumbull Avenue, are contiguous to each other and are within the boundaries of the Woodbridge Farm local historic district. The Patterson Dog and Cat Hospital at 3800 Grand River Avenue occupies the above-referenced Grand River Avenue commercial frontage. The two residential structures on Trumbull Avenue contribute to the array of architectural styles found in Woodbridge from the period between 1885 to 1920, ranging from the Queen Anne style to the vernacular Prairie style. Like their neighbors on Trumbull and the Woodbridge neighborhood as a whole, the buildings exhibit the characteristic projecting porches, bay windows, and half-stories within the roofs. The Manchester Double House at 4304-08 Trumbull Avenue is typical of the turn-of-the-century Queen Anne duplexes found in the Woodbridge community. Measuring 40 feet wide by sixty-two feet deep, the two-and-one-half story brick building has a three-story engaged conical tower as the major feature of its southern unit. This tower, projecting from the roofline, marks the southwest corner of the building and the corner site. The rest of the roofline is comprised of a gable roof with intersecting gables; the one facing frontally forms the gable over the north unit. The building immediately to its north, 4314 Trumbull Avenue, is a modestly scaled two and one-half story brick veneer single-family residence completed in 1898 by the contractor N. S. Praigg. In style, it can be characterized as Queen Anne, with its sharply angled three-sided, two story bay, shingled gables, and substantial projecting porch, now enclosed. Its rectangular plan is twenty-six feet across the front and forty-two feet deep. Patterson Dog and Cat Hospital is a long, rectangular shaped two story brick building originally measuring forty feet across and eighty feet deep. Its roof is flat and not visible from the street. Recent removal of the aluminum siding revealed the original orange brick underneath, as well as the original pattern of openings. Rectangular double-hung, four-over-four sash windows with relieving arches on the second floor and small boarded windows on the first floor, east elevation; ocular window to right of entrance, second door with a transom above the west side of front facade.