St Casimir Catholic Church, Detroit
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| Photo is privately held by Tom Wozniak of SaintCasimir.com |
Address: 3401 Twenty Third St. Detroit, MI 48208
Phone in 1985: (313) 897-5360
Website: SaintCasimir.com
Current Parish Status: Closed
School in Operation: No
Year Parish Founded: 1882
Year Church was Built: 1883
First Pastor: Rev. Fr. Paul Gutowski
Last Pastor: Rev. Fr. Eugene Wojtowicz
Mass Schedule in 1985: Saturday 4:00pm (English); Sunday 10:00am (English)
No. of Families in Parish in 1985: 300
Percentage of Polish Descent in 1985: 50%
Annual Festival: 2-One in fall and another in spring
Location: West side
St. Casimir was the first Polish parish on the west side of the city of Detroit.
St. Casimir had an elementary school with 190 students registered in 1985.
A temporary church was built first, then a school with appropriate homes for the clergy and teachers.
In 1889 the parish church, modeled after St. Peter in Rome, was begun and finished in 1890 at a cost of $126,000.
The parish closed in 1989.
The current church building is now an African-American church. It's a new bldg. The original was torn down many years ago for safety reasons. The second church building had an exact twin in Chicago... the Polish church of St. Mary of Perpetual Help.
The Golden Jubilee book of St. Casimir Parish, 1882-1932 has been cataloged and is searchable on the PGSA web site.
The following microfilms of St. Casimir church records are available at the Burton Historical Collection of the Detroit Public Library: Film No.1041
Reel 1: Baptisms November 1882-July 1919
Reel 2: Baptisms May 1918-November 1935
Marriages November 1882-February 1934
Deaths May 1918-March 1935
The web site, SaintCasimir.com has a tremendous amount of information about this historical church and school. It's without a doubt the best historical church web site I've ever seen... yearbooks, photos, and more!
Bibliography
The Polish Roman Catholic Churches of Metropolitan Detroit by PERC, c. 1985. Used with permission from Michael Krolewski, editor.
