Old St. Mary

About Old St. Mary

Old St Mary's is the third oldest Roman Catholic Church in Detroit and the first German Church. It was first built on the present site in 1841 by a parish of German Catholic immigrants at a time when the total population of Detroit was not much over 5,000. Not including labor, the original brick church cost a little over $239. The present church, replacing the earlier structure, was constructed in 1884, and styled in Victorian Gothic by Peter Dedericks, a native architect. The beautiful polished columns inside are of solid granite and impossible to replace today. The cornerstone for the First Church, built on the same site as the present site as the present stone, was laid on the feast of Corpus Christi, June 19, 1841.