T he Church of St. Albertus is the mother church for Polish parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit. It was a spiritual home for many immigrants from Poland until the parish was closed in 1990. The building was saved thanks to the activity of the local Polish community: they bought it for one dollar and turned it into the seat of the Polish-American Historic Site Association. It was therefore luckier than many other closed churches, but then, its historical position in the city was really unique.

The history of the parish dates back to the 1880s, when the first Polish religious community was established on the outskirts of historic Detroit, on the border of “Poletown”. First they erected a wooden church, and when it turned out to be insufficient, they constructed a brick church as well as other parish buildings and a school. The community did not avoid tensions and strife, especially between the bishop and the parish priest, Fr. Szymon Wieczorek from the Resurrectionist Congregation, who was an extraordinary man: he had taken part in the January Uprising, for which he was imprisoned and later banished from Poland, then he went to Paris, and in 1868, after numerous trials and tribulations and having been ordained a priest, he was sent to America as a Polish missionary. His first post was in Parisville, Michigan, one of the oldest Polish settlements in the USA, founded in 1848. From there he was moved to Detroit to take care of the Polish community. It consisted mainly of immigrants from the Prussian partition. As “Prussian Poles” they were automatically incorporated into the German-speaking parish. Like in other communities, there emerged strong tendencies to create their own national parish, probably not without inspiration from Father Wieczorek. In 1869 he came to Detroit to serve as a priest, and two years later he wrote to the General of the Resurrectionist Congregation: “There have already been four Polish priests in Detroit seeking appointment, but as they were dubiae famae and only spoke Polish language, the bishop would not accept them, even though there are many Poles in Detroit and they are trying to find Polish priests. I only go to Detroit in summer [...]”.

In 1871, after a disastrous fire in his former church and presbytery, he obtained permission to move to Detroit. During this period the parish organizing committee conducted negotiations with the bishop, who demanded an assurance that the construction of the church would not encounter any difficulties. At that time the Polish community consisted of about 350 families.

Some researchers express the view that the inclusion of Poles into the German communities was, to put it mildly, unfortunate and likely to generate national tensions. After all, these people did not leave Poland only to be Germanized in America. Although the reasons for emigration were more often economic than purely political, their attachment to Polish identity was undoubtedly an important element of the immigrants’ self-perception, perhaps even intensified during their separation from the homeland. Among the various sources which testify to this fact are the decorations of churches which include national themes, and there are also emotional statements. In the United States these national resentments may have been fuelled by a sense of loss and the possible envy at the evidently better position of the German community in the new country. There are also accounts of hostile behaviours of Germans towards Poles. One of the most heated conflicts took place in the German parish of St. Joseph, where Poles originally belonged and at first the relations were good: e.g. they participated in the costs of building the church. When it was finished, they received separate seats. A conflict arose when Poles were attacked on their way to church and the following week they walked to church together in an organized procession. Possibly this was an impulse to build their own church. Unfortunately, we know too little about this conflict to be able to determine whether national issues were at its root or perhaps they were a side effect of the dispute. And yet, Polish communities often commissioned German architects to design their churches and ordered stained glass windows from Bavarian manufacturers; similarly, representatives of the German community took part in the inauguration of the new parish. To what extent, then, can we talk about the discrimination of Poles by Germans in the USA and, on the other hand, about Poles’ resentment towards Prussians, to what extent did these divisions brought by the immigrants from the old country become less important, to what extent did they go along the political lines or the economic lines? These issues occupy several historians, but it is still impossible to capture the complexity of these relations throughout America. The Polish-German relations were vividly described in the history of St. Albertus Church, which was included in the parish Jubilee Book of 1973: “The Poles got tired of taking the long journey to the church in Greenfield or going to the German Church of St. Joseph. They were annoyed by the weekly processions to the Germans on Sundays and by the Germans’ rudeness. They decided that they must have their own church where they would sing and praise God in Polish. They did not leave their homeland only to become Germans in America. The Kashubians did not have the habit of swearing. Their worst curse was: “Niech ca kaczka kopnie!” (May a duck kick you!). When they decided to build their own church, they probably told the Germans: “Niech wos kaczka kopnie!” The stones that the Germans had thrown at them during the procession to St. Joseph’s Church the Kashubians picked up and used in the foundations of the first St. Albertus Church and built on these foundations for the Polish people”.

It was a difficult period and conflicts arose in many parishes, and not only Polish ones. The investments made with the money of the faithful involved their enormous emotional commitment and often physical effort. Therefore both the communities and some parish priests wanted to be as autonomous as possible in their decisions. However, the expectations of the bishop were quite different. The conflicts were underpinned by financial misunderstandings. On the one hand there was obedience to the bishop and on the other a sense of belonging to the national community.

Although the first parish priest, Fr. Szymon Wieczorek, convinced his superior, the general of the Resurrectionist Congregation, that things were financially sound, the bishop saw matters quite differently. The problem was caused by a conflict with the builder who constructed the first church (1872), John Wiesenhoefer, concerning faulty workmanship and delayed payment. Although the case was resolved amicably, for the future the bishop ordered greater prudence in expenditure, seeking his consent to larger investments and securing the financing before beginning the construction. He must have been surprised, therefore, when he passed by the parish while travelling by train to Detroit and he saw a school building being constructed. After all, nobody had informed him about this construction, nobody had asked for his permission. Or maybe, as a different version states, he had been informed, designs had been handed over, but the community had refused to hand over the title deed to the diocese. He considered it insubordination, dismissed the first parish priest and appointed a new one. Then a significant event took place. A meeting of the Polish American community was organized at the parish, and the participants included Fr. Wincenty Barzyński (1838- 1899), Fr. Leopold Moczygemba (1824-1891) and Peter Kiołbassa (1837–1905). It was not an ordinary, informal meeting, as it resulted in the establishment of The Polish Roman Catholic Union of America. Initially the organization functioned at the parish, and after two years it moved to Chicago, and so did the parish priest.

From the beginning there was also a parish school, first in rented private buildings and later in a new building erected for this purpose. At first the school employed secular teachers; however, in 1879 it was decided to entrust the school to the Felician Sisters. The first five sisters came from the convent in Polonia (Wisconsin): Mother Kajetana, Józefa, Teresa, Ludwika and one postulant.

At the time the parish was growing quickly and comprised over 2000 people. In 1884 it was necessary to start building a new church. Its designer was Henry Engelbert, the same architect who erected the Church of St. Mary of Perpetual Help in Chicago. He also designed several other churches, including the Holy Cross Church in Detroit. Engelbert was a versatile architect; in his secular work he often used the forms of the French Second Empire, and this style was probably his forte. When he designed churches he often used the Gothic Revival style, possibly acting under the clients’ instructions.

Engelbert was born in Germany to a family of Swedish descent. He started his practice in New York. His designs belong to the conservative trend, which can be seen in the structure of the Church of St. Albertus. Unlike many “Polish cathedrals” it is a one-tower building; unfortunately, the original impressive elevated steeple was destroyed in 1913 and its absence greatly disturbs the proportions of the church. The building can be seen as an extended variant of the first wooden temple. Besides, it seems to correspond to the Gothic Revival churches known from the Prussian partition, among others. These are not direct references, though it is possible that the clients expected the church to be close to what they were accustomed to.

The building was dedicated by Bishop Caspar Borgess on 4 July, 1885. It was an impressive structure with more than 2000 seats. It was about 60 meters long and 20 meters wide with a spire reaching 85 meters. At that time it was the second largest Polish church in the USA.

Not only the shape, but also the furnishings of the church are quite conventional, with marble altars, a pulpit, a decorative chancel rail and a baptismal font. A certain exception is a series of representations of Polish Marian sanctuaries in Gostyń, Gietrzwald, Swarzew, Lubawa, Borek, Nowe Miasto, Leżajsk, Lviv, Cracow (the cathedral and St. Mary’s Church), Zembrzyce and Częstochowa. As Anna Sylwia Czyż noted in the article on national motifs in the decoration of churches, “they were chosen not so much because of the importance of the cult, but because of the presence among the parishioners of people from Pomerania, Warmia and Lesser Poland. It is very significant that one of the sanctuaries of local importance presented in the church was Gietrzwałd in Warmia, where in 1877, during the intensification of Bismarck’s Germanization campaign, Mother of God appeared to two girls, speaking to them in Polish. The revelations, widely reported in the press, became famous among the inhabitants of the three partitions also because the Blessed Virgin Mary had promised the rebirth of the Church in independent Poland”.

We can also add that the depictions are modelled on the engravings by Alojzy Fridrich published in Historye cudownych obrazów Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Polsce (The Histories of Miraculous Pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Poland) from 1903. The construction of the church was unfortunately the cause of another conflict. Due to the lack of financial reports, Fr. Dominik Kolasiński was suspended and was transferred to North Dakota. His successor also came into conflict with the bishop, which led to temporary closing of the church.

Chronology

1871 - establishing the parish

1872 - construction of the first church and presbytery

1873 - construction of the school building

1879 - arrival of the Felician Sisters, who began teaching at the school

1884 - beginning the construction of the present church

1885 - completion of the present church, construction of a Polish seminary on parish grounds (later moved to Orchard Lake)

1889 - beginning of the construction of a new schoo

1891 - construction of the present presbytery

1894 - completion of the new school

1913 - destruction of the church steeple during a storm

1917 - construction of the third school

1974 - listing the church on the Michigan State Historic Site Register

1978 - listing the church on the National Register of Historic Places

1990 - closing the parish and establishment of The Polish American Historic Site Association, which took over the care of the church.

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. 27-45.