This building on the southwestern corner of West Fort and Washington Boulevard started as a church but later offered refuge to a homeless newspaper following the deadliest disaster in Detroit's history.
The First Congregational Church and Society was organized Dec. 28, 1844, and quickly established a lasting legacy by helping to usher enslaved African-Americans to freedom on the Underground Railroad.
Under the Rev. H.L. Hammond, the congregation dedicated its first church, on the southwest corner of Jefferson Avenue and Beaubien Street, on Aug. 30, 1846. This was a small brick structure just 45 feet wide and 75 feet deep. At the time, that was just fine, as Detroit had only about 13,000 people at the time. However, a decade later, Detroit had grown to more than 40,000. Plans for a much larger home for First Congregational would get under way in 1853.
A site with history
The site they chose was once part of Fort Lernoult, which had been completed in April 1779 as a replacement for the crumbling Fort Pontchartrain, the original French fort built by Detroit's earliest settlers. The center of the fort was located at the present-day intersection of Fort and Shelby streets, and housed some 400 men at its peak. It would never see an attack during the American Revolution.
After the Revolutionary War, Detroit was handed over to the Americans as part of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, yet the British refused to surrender the fort. It wasn't until the Jay Treaty of 1796 that the Redcoats finally agreed to hit the road. The fort would shed its French name in 1805, when it was renamed Fort Detroit. The fort would be one of the few structures not destroyed by the catastrophic fire of 1805 that wiped out almost everything else in the city. Fort Detroit would go on to protect Detroit as it grew from a frontier outpost to a full-fledged city.
During the War of 1812, Territorial Gov. William Hull surrendered Fort Detroit to the British, and once again the Union Jack flew over Detroit, albeit briefly. After the pivotal Battle of Lake Erie, the British fled Detroit in September 1813, and the fort was recaptured. It would be renamed Fort Shelby in honor of Gov. Isaac Shelby of Kentucky, for his role in leading American forces under William Henry Harrison.
Sufficiently convinced that the Brits were gone for good, the federal government pulled the last of its troops from Fort Shelby in 1826 and donated the land to the City of Detroit to do with as it pleased. The fort was demolished, and the City divvied up the land to be sold in 1830.
The first buyer for what was known as Lot No. 6 was Edward Brooks, a popular auctioneer, who shelled out $501 for it. He sold it five years later to Dr. Randall S. Rice for a tidy sum of $3,000. It would be Sheldon who then sold it to the Congregational Church.
A fine new house for the holy
This new church would be designed by Albert H. Jordan, and dedicated on Sept. 21, 1854, with a sermon preached by the Rev. Leonard Bacon of New Haven, Conn. The total cost of construction and the lot was $56,000, the equivalent of about $2 million in 2024 valuation, when adjusted for inflation.
This church - which legendary Detroit historian Clarence M. Burton called “a very handsome structure for the times” - originally had a traditional steeple. (Also note: When the church opened, Washington Boulevard was called Wayne Street.)
The church would use this building for the next 37 years with what Burton called “varying fortunes caused by financial panics, the Civil War and the constantly changing aspect of the city’s geography.”
First Congregational's congregation continued to grow until its members again found themselves cramped. From the time the church opened in 1854 to 1890, Detroit had grown from a city of about 30,000 to one of more than 205,000.
Some of the church's members split off, buying a lot on the northeastern corner of Woodward and Forest avenues to build a new home designed by one of the nation’s top church architects, John Lyman Faxon. It took five years, but the first services were held in its new chapel on Feb. 9, 1891. The rest of the church took a bit longer, and wasn’t dedicated until Dec. 13, 1891. The rest of the congregation decided to join them and leave the church downtown.
In May 1891, the trustees of the Plymouth Congregational Church (formerly the Trumbull Avenue Congregational Church) secured the former First Congregational for its popular Sunday night services effective that June 1. The Rev. L. Morgan Wood, Plymouth's pastor, led the services. This lasted until a new Plymouth Church was completed at Trumbull Avenue and Baker Street. Plymouth’s new church was dedicated Nov. 8, 1891.
After the church moved out, it was sold to George S. Avery for $78,000, which would be about $2.8 million in 2024 valuation. The walls of the church were left standing, but its steeple was removed and swapped for a cupola and the interior renovated. Various commercial firms would come and go until a devastating disaster would give the church-turned-office-building its most prominent tenant.
From tragedy, a rebirth
The Detroit Journal was a newspaper that published from 1883 to 1922. It was based out of a building on Larned Street, just around the corner from Shelby Street. That is, it was until the morning of Nov. 6, 1895, when it was destroyed in the deadliest single disaster to ever strike Detroit.
"Men and women were hurled into eternity without an instant's warning," the Detroit Free Press reported the following morning. "The catastrophe was undoubtedly the most horrible one that has ever cast a gloom over the city of Detroit. It came with such suddenness, with such terror and with such overwhelming force, that the extent and full scope of the accident can even yet scarcely be estimated."
Low water levels in a boiler caused excessive pressure to build, leading to an explosion akin to a bomb going off. The sound was heard across the city, and buildings along what was known as Newspaper Row were said to have swayed. In all, 37 people were killed and nearly 50 others injured. Had the blast happened an hour or so later, many more would likely have died.
The Journal, now in need of a new place to publish, agreed to take over the former First Congregational Church. The paper spent $10,000 in fitting out the building for the purpose of publishing and printing newspapers, only about $383,000 in 2024 money.
The building’s second story housed the Journal’s editorial, composing and stereotyping departments, and was where general manager and majority owner William Livingstone had his office. The stereotyping team was in the back of the building, toward the alley. What was once the church’s sanctuary was occupied by the paper’s business office, with the rear of the ground floor being used by the Wolverine Printing Co. The basement was where the mailroom and the Journal's giant Hoe printing presses were, and also housed the Detroit Photo Engraving Co.
Tragedy returns
On the morning of July 1, 1900, the Detroit Journal would suffer yet another tragedy, though this time, no lives would be lost. For the second time in five years, the newspaper's home was destroyed, this time by a three-alarm fire.
By the time the fire department arrived, the fire was sweeping toward the front of the building, fueled in part by a skylight that allowed the wind to blow the flames forward toward the front of the building.
"The blaze was of short duration, owing to the great volume of water poured in by the fire department, but while it continued in force (it) was very disastrous, and when it had completely died out, only a skeleton of the main building remained," the Free Press wrote the following morning. The roof and part of the second floor quickly collapsed. Given the building's age, it lacked the modern fireproofing advances and had a wooden support structure.
A water tower was quickly erected at the building's main entrance on Fort Street, and "this great stream was also poured into the building, and the drowning process soon had a telling effect," the Free Press wrote. "Water came rushing down the stairways and developed into a miniature falls as it came through the main entrance and down the broad stone stairs on Fort Street."
Though the fire was doused about two hours after the first alarm went out, it still generated a sizable crowd of onlookers. "Hundreds of excursionists on their way to the boats and trains (at the foot of Jefferson and Third, a few blocks from the Journal building) were attracted to the blaze and … many of the would-be pleasure seekers purposely missed their boats and trains and remained in the vicinity to witness the destruction of the building," the Free Press wrote.
It was clear that the fire started in the stereotyping department, but what wasn't clear is what sparked it. An hour before the fire broke out, stereotyping staffers were melting lead used to form the raised metal plates used for printing. It is possible the fire started after the workers left, a flame left unextinguished. Another theory blamed faulty wiring.
"Whether caused by an electric light wire or the result of carelessness on the part of some employees is not known, and will probably always remain a secret," the Detroit Free Press wrote the morning after the fire.
The Journal built a new home and printing plant on the site of the church, but work didn’t start on it until May 20, 1907, seven years after the blaze. The new building - what the Free Press called an “ornament to Fort Street West” - opened Oct. 14, 1908, with an event that also marked the Journal’s 25th anniversary.
On July 21, 1922, The Detroit News bought out the Journal, consolidating the two evening newspapers into one. The Journal’s former home - which was far smaller than that of The Detroit News - was then sold and became known as the Title & Trust Building. The Detroit Stock Exchange would move in around 1923, staying until Feb. 4, 1927. For the rest of the building's life, it would be occupied by real-estate firms and other offices.
In 1948, the Detroit Journal building was razed for a parking deck. Today, the site is home to the Fort Washington Plaza Building at 333 W. Fort St., designed by Louis Redstone and opened in 1969. The location of the church and Journal buildings is now occupied by the Fort Washington Plaza's parking garage.