Hamtramck is an unusual town, because it is an enclave surrounded by Detroit. It seems more like a district than a separate organism. It was probably founded in the 18th century by French settlers, and later mainly Germans settled there. The decision to establish first an assembly plant and later a Dodge factory in the town was crucial for its development. This resulted in a rapid influx of immigrants. In its heyday the town was dominated by Poles; in the 1920s they constituted over 60% of the population, and it is estimated that at the peak of its development their share in the population was over 90%. The town had a Polish theater, a philharmonic hall, and numerous Polish institutions. In the 1950s demographic changes began. The last straw was the wave of riots which swept through Detroit in the 1960s. Many people decided to move to the suburbs, real estate prices began to fall. The destruction was completed by the closing of the Dodge factory.

The Polish parish of St. Florian in Hamtramck was established in 1907, at the beginning of the town’s prosperity. Its establishment was connected with the development of the automotive industry and the rapid growth of Polish immigration. The Masses initially took place in private rooms. The first church was erected in 1908 and its dedication took place on 10 January, 1909. At that time conflicts began to grow in the parish, there emerged a group who would not allow the parish priest to perform the liturgy. There was even a fight between his supporters and opponents and two people were injured. At that time the parish suffered considerable financial problems, which additionally heated the atmosphere. In 1911 Father Bernard Żmijewski (1862- 1916) was released from his parish duties. Officially, due to ill health, which, given his death five years later, may have been true. According to another version, he was released from his duties because of the mismanagement of parish funds and conflicts in the parish; he is also believed to have been facing a case in ecclesiastical court. After he left the conflicts in the parish began to settle.

The church, built at great expense and not paid off until the 1920s, soon turned out to be too small, so in 1914 the construction of a new church started, but due to the shortage of funds only the lower church was finished. The construction was continued between 1925 and 1928, after the financial situation had stabilized. The church was designed by Ralph Adams Cram (1863–1942), a well respected architect with several dozen ecclesiastical projects to his credit, which he started designing as early as in the 1890s.

Cram is one of the most influential American architects because of his publications and the role he played in the American reception of Gothic Revival architecture, mainly of French and English origin. He was a visionary who believed that it is possible to change society by designing ecclesiastical architecture of spiritual provenance, as he called it. He was inspired mainly by the Arts and Crafts movement.

The Church of St. Florian fits perfectly into the idea of architecture which goes beyond the more or less creative imitation of old styles. The designer was looking for the architecture that would emanate spirituality and resist the progressing industrialization, which distracted man from non-material values. The beauty of Gothic architecture and its inner harmony was to be the opposite of the ugliness and chaos of the industrial world. He believed that it was important to strive for the unification of the style of Christian ecclesiastical architecture, so as to tone down the differences between the various churches. Although Cram’s architecture is not uniform, it is mostly united by the experimentally treated Gothic Revival form.

The design of the church follows the patterns of British architecture. It is one of the most original and interesting churches in the group called “the Polish Cathedrals”. The striking feature is the absence of the tower; instead, there is a 60-metre-high spire at the crossing of the nave and the transept. Thanks to its height the church was the tallest building in the area, towering over the factory chimneys. Another characteristic feature is the huge pointed arch which bounds the portal and the rose window above it. Cram had already experimented with similar solutions, derived from British architecture, in the designs of the Glens Falls Presbyterian Church in New York in 1906 and the Church of the Covenant in Cleveland, Ohio in 1907. In St. Florian’s façade great harmony of vertical and horizontal features is achieved by decorating the red brick structure with horizontal stripes made of lightcolored limestone. The construction technique which Cram used was very modern – a steel frame. The building is believed to have been awarded by the American Architect magazine in 1929, but there are no records confirming this fact.

The interior is consistently Gothic Revival and gives the impression of coherence despite later additions. The least interesting are the contemporary paintings, while really worth noting are the altars, installed in 1928, made in Italy according to Cram’s design. The stained glass windows were probably made by three companies – the rose window in the façade was made by J.M. Kase & Company, the windows in the body and in the transept, installed in the 1930s, were made by Mayer Studios from Munich, and the rest of the windows of the body, installed in the 2nd half of the 20th century, were probably made by Conrad Schmitt Studios from Milwaukee (later moved to New Berlin). According to tradition, they refer either to the stained glass windows of St. Mary’s Church in Cracow or those of Notre Dame in Paris. However, these claims are difficult to support and refer more to the Gothic stained glass style than to specific borrowings.

Chronology

1907 - establishing the parish

1908 - constructing the first church, presbytery and school

1909 - dedication of the church, bringing in the Felician Sisters and opening a school

1912 - extension to the school building

1914 - beginning the construction of the present church (lower church)

1921 - extension to the convent

1922 - extension to the school

1925 - resuming the construction of the current church

1928 - completion of the current church, completion of the new presbytery

1929 - alleged award from American Architect

1940 - launch of St. Florian’s High School

1952 - completion of the educational center

1959 - completion of the new convent

1979 - National Geographic award for church architecture

1998 - closing of St. Florian’s High School

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. 171-181.