Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church, Detroit
Address: 5207 Lovett, Detroit, MI 48207
Phone in 1985 was: (313) 896-3916
Current Parish Status: Closed
School in Operation: No
Website: Assumption BVM Catholic Church
Facebook: Assumption BVM Church, Detroit, Michigan
First Year Parish Founded: 1911
Year Church was Built: 1912
First Pastor: Rev. Fr. Dziuk
Pastor in 1985: Rev. Fr. Stanislaw Rokicki
Mass Schedule at time of closing: Saturday 6:00pm (English);Sunday 10:00am (Polish), 12:00pm (English)
No. of Families in Parish at closing: 150
Percentage of Polish Descent: 99%
Considered as a Polish Ethnic Parish: Yes
Polish Religious Traditions Preserved: Yes
Annual Festival: Month of November
Festival Name: None given
Location: West side
In statuary form, the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary was portrayed inside the Church of the Assumption.
The parish closed in 1989. All the buildings have been torn down.
The Silver Jubilee Souvenir Booklet of Church of the Assumption 1912-1937 has been cataloged and is searchable on the PGSA web site.
Some facts and statistics from the parish Golden Jubilee Souvenir Book: As of 1962...
Over the 50 years of existence of the parish 9213 souls were baptized - recorded in 8 volumes.
The first child to be baptized was Anna Oberman, daughter of Joseph Oberman and Mary Stanislawski, born July 18, 1912 and baptized July 23, the same year, by Rev. C. Dziuk. Sponsors were Anthony Dopkowski and Mary Kapelewski.
5873 souls received First Holy Communion during this period.
5856 people received the Sacrament of Confirmation since the founding of the parish.
The First Communion class was Sunday, July 6, 1913. It included 32 boys and 18 girls.
The First Sacrament of Confirmation was administered in this parish on July 6, 1913 by the Most Rev. Bishop Edward Kelly.
According to our records, the first Catholic marriage vows took place on April 1, 1913, between Anthony Zielinski and Martha Waszelewski. Rev. C. Dziuk officiated in the presence of T. Drain and Veronica Biernat as witnesses.
In the span of half a century 3002 marriage vows were spoken here.
In the corresponding period 3810 received burial service in this church, 2102 in the last 25 years.
At the age of 77, Valente Markowski was the first to receive burial services at Assumption B.V.M. on February 22, 1913.
The first bell of the church was blessed July 6, 1913 and donated by the St. Joseph Society.
The Assumption B.V.M. School was opened in September, 1913 with 343 pupils. The first Superior was Sister M. Martin.
The first product of the school was William Hausch, the only graduate for 1913.
The first child to enroll in school in 1913 was Venanty Szymanski, now Reverend and now pastor of St. Angela parish.
The Assumption school is conducted by the Ven. Felician Sisters.
Assumption School has distributed diplomas to 2855 graduating students.
During the half century of existence of the parish only three pastors directed the destinies of the parish, namely the Founder, Rev. Constantine Dziuk, from the beginning to December 1919; Rt. Rev. Msgr Adalbert Dadala, from December 1919 to May 1960; and Rev. John Krause, from June 24, 1960 to the present time.
Since June 1915 there were 20 assistant-pastors and two priests in residence.
Five of the former assistants have passed away. Namely: Rev. A. Polanowski; Rev. Joseph Napieralski; Rev. Bernard Ciesielski; Rev. Joseph Gorski; and Rev. Victor Dominas.
Father Eugene Mrocka has an appointment in the diocesan matrimonial court.
Yvonne Urbaniak, now Sister Yvonne, is a novice with the Felician sisters, Plymouth, Michigan.
Misses Puziol and Niebrzydowski are aspirants in the Felician Sisters Academy.
Some information from, "The Polish Roman Catholic Churches of Metropolitan Detroit" by PERC. c. 1985. Used with permission from Michael Krolewski, editor.
