A Continuing Series of “Let’s Raise the Roof!” Reflections by Josiah Tazelaar. “Let’s Raise the Roof!” is the 2008 Capital Funds Campaign of Fort Street Presbyterian. For more information, contact Motoko Huthwaite or Jack Callas, Campaign Co-chairs.

The People Under the Steeple

The next time you park your car in the lot kitty-corner from Fort Street Presbyterian Church, and look at that building (and it IS the best spot to see that building!), you're bound to be impressed at the sheer beauty of the church. It is spectacular no matter how often you've seen it. Especially at dusk when the setting sun bathes the building in a wondrous light. Or, at night, when artificial light creates a magical scene. Then, one is tempted to say that, at least on the outside, it is Detroit's most beautiful church.

Now, close your eyes. Imagine, now, that the parking lot doesn't exist. Nor the newspaper building, or the tavern behind the church, nor Joe Louis Arena, nor anything else you were looking at. Imagine, instead, beautiful, stately homes surrounding the church: a fashionable, wealthy neighborhood, and our church was built to spiritually serve the residents thereof.

These were people with a vision. There were 167 of them that found the first congregation, and they scraped together $70,000 to pay for the site and the building. These numbers amaze us! The structure was completed in 1855. Only 21 years later, a fire broke out and destroyed the interior. The roof collapsed, and the spire ended up on Fort Street like a giant felled tree. It was all rebuilt in one year, but, 38 years later, in 1914, another fire destroyed the roof. It was, again, replaced, and it is the roof we have today, nearly one hundred years old.

(Our next installment will tell us about some of our early church members and city landmarks.)