Wyandotte is a town in the suburbs of Detroit, located about 20 km from the city on the former Michigan Central Railroad. There was a strong Polish community in the town, gathered around three parishes, none of which exists any longer: Our Lady of Mount Carmel (1899-2013), St. Stanislaus Kostka (1914-2013) and St. Helena (1927-2007). As we can read in a press article from the beginning of the 20th century concerning the beginnings of the parish, “the first Pole to come to this place was Antoni Zynger. He emigrated to America after the Prussian-Austrian War in 1866 and by an inexplicable chance he got to Wyandotte. Here he settled down and took a job in a factory. In 1868 came Antoni Leszczyński from a farm to Wyandotte, working as a carpenter, then delivering materials, and finally setting up a store at Oak Street and 4th [...]. In 1870 quite a lot of Polish families arrive [...]”.

The first Polish parish was established here in 1899, after the land had been purchased and the bishop of Detroit John Samuel Foley had appointed a parish priest, Father Bernard Żmijewski. Initially the Masses were held in St. Patrick’s Church.

The parishioners wanted their church to be dedicated to Our Lady of the Scapular, but this was not accepted by the curia, and the parish was dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel instead. However, the parishioners still preferred the Scapular dedication. And finally they got what they had always wanted, although not until a hundred years later. In 2013 the parishes of Our Lady of Mount Carmel and St. Stanislaus Kostka were turned into one parish dedicated to Our Lady of the Scapular.

The first school and church building was erected in 1900 and we know its shape from press photos. It was a huge building, whose partially ecclesiastical character was indicated by a façade with a triangular gable crowned with a cross. Over time the church became the center of life for many people and a community was formed around it. From 1901 onwards the school was run by the Felician Sisters. Like in many other parishes, the honeymoon period was soon over and there came a bitter conflict. Like in the Church of St. Albertus, it ended with a temporary closing of the parish and a transfer of the parish priest. However, the split was averted, the matter was solved and after a month a new parish priest was appointed. Unfortunately, he did not stay long; being seriously ill he resigned from his function after just a few days, and soon died. This was not the end of the trouble in the parish. When the situation started to normalize an epidemic of tuberculosis broke out. As a result of this epidemic 20 Felician Sisters died; they were all young girls, about 20 years old, who were teachers in the school. One more tragic event happened some time later. The parish priest and lecturer at the Orchard Lake Seminary, Father Leon Jarecki, was shot on 1 April, 1921 as he had opened the presbytery door to his killer, and neither the motive nor the perpetrator have ever been established.\

Despite the difficult times the parish slowly cleared its debts and a new presbytery was erected, while the old one could serve as a temporary hospital for the dying nuns. The biggest changes, however, took place in 1916, when a new church and a Felician convent were erected. The designer was the dependable Harry J. Rill.

Thanks to the archives that have been preserved we can learn a lot about the decoration process, which extended over several years. And when it ended the renovations and redecorations began. In fact, these have never really finished; for instance in recent years the woodwork has been renovated, as a result of which it regained its appearance from the time of the construction of the church, i.e. from 1916. The aim of these works is to restore the church to its historical glory. In 1920 the church obtained three bells named St. Stanislaus Kostka, Holy Angels and Our Lady Queen of Poland. The new main altar was installed in 1942 and restored in 2020. In the 1950s the works included the new painting decoration made by the artist Józef C. Mazur from Buffalo (1897-1970), a stained-glass maker, painter and sculptor originating from Galicia. He was educated in the USA at the Albright Art School in Buffalo and at the Art Students League of New York. He was the creator of the painting decoration of the Church of St. Stanislaus in Buffalo and many other projects, and some of his works are housed in the Polish Room at the University of Buffalo.

The latest addition to the church furnishings is the pulpit, the fourth in the history of the church. The original one was replaced with a steel structure in the 1950s, which was replaced in the 1970s, and in 2019 the church obtained another pulpit, from one of the churches being closed. The pulpit was made at the beginning of the 20th century and is very consistent with the interior of the church. Its restoration was finished in November 2020.

In recent years restoration works have also been carried out on the stained glass windows, which come from the time of the construction of the church. In 1915 they were ordered from the Chicago branch of The Munich Studio Stained Glass and they cost 1575 USD. There were 8 windows in the aisles, 5 in the chancel, 2 in the façade and 2 small windows above the side altars. They were based on the pattern no. 719 from the company’s catalog, and the priest could indicate which figures were to be represented. Moreover, two windows in the transept were to be made separately, but in the same style. The windows were made of glass imported from Germany, according to the company’s standard procedure. Their attachment to traditional methods was supposed to counterbalance both the dynamically developing stained glass industry in the USA and the technique developed by Tiffany, which used opaque, translucent and iridescent glass, i.e. the kind which is transparent, but part of the light reflected from the surface gives it different colors, making it possible to combine several colors on one pane. The Munich Studio Stained Glass used a traditional technique dating back to the 16th century, i.e. painting glass with special paints and its subsequent firing in the furnace and installing in the window frames by means of lead to achieve a uniform composition. The work was, of course, preceded by first making the design. The beginnings of the Chicago branch are connected with the arrival of Max Guler in the city around 1895 as a fully fledged artisan. He took up work as artist-craftsman in Chicago, where he is first recorded in 1898. Together with Kugel (d. 1932) and Holzchuh he opened a company specializing in selling glass products. In 1903 Guler, Denis Shanahan and Holzchuh founded a branch of the Munich-based stained glass company. The plant developed dynamically and the painting work was carried out on site by craftsmen trained in Bavaria. In 1913, when the company moved to new premises, it was employing 30 craftsmen, including seven painters. We know the names of some of them: Peter Kugel specialized in painting the faces, Herman Schulze was responsible for landscapes and floral patterns, George Wieroder and Joseph Lazar cut the glass and joined the plates with lead. The artistic and technical side of the works was taken care of by Max Guler. The studio operated until 1932 and then collapsed due to the recession and the death of Denis Shanahan, who had been responsible for the business side of the undertaking. Max Guler, as well as some of the other employees, moved to other companies and worked for Drehobl Brothers Art Glass Company in Chicago.

Chronology

1899 - establishing the parish

1899 - establishing the parish

1901 - the Felician Sisters start teaching at the school

1916 - completing the current church and the convent

1928 - constructing a new school annex and opening of Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School

1966 - starting the construction of a new school

2011 - closing Our Lady of Mount Carmel High School

2013 - change of the church’s dedication to Our Lady of the Scapular

Text originally published in a book issued by the POLONIKA Institute.
Anna Sylwia Czyż, Bartłomiej Gutowski, Paweł Sieradzki, Polish Parishes and Churches in Milwaukke, Winsconsin and Massachusetts, Warszawa 2021, pp. 185-197.