On April 25, 1959, Life chronicles the move of Mariners’ Church to make room room for the Detroit Civic Center.
It’s dwarfed by the towering RenCen hovering over it, but Mariners’ Church of Detroit on East Jefferson is a giant in its own right.
What other church can boast of escaping demolition, being moved 900 feet, and appearing in Life magazine? It also provided refuge for slaves on their way to freedom in Canada, won a landmark case against the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, and gained fame in a hit 1976 song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Mariners’ Church, built in 1849, still conducts an annual Blessing of the Fleet in March and holds a Great Lakes Memorial Service each November to honor those who died on the Great Lakes, as well as those who perished in the armed forces.
For the full article, see George Bulanda, “Mariners’ Church of Detroit : The downtown house of worship acknowledges the 35th anniversary of the sinking of the ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’”, Hour Detroit, November 2010.