Historic Trinity Lutheran Church

Trinity Lutheran Church is one of the oldest church bodies of its denomination in Detroit. The congregation was founded in 1850, and the Reverend Gottlieb Schaller served as its first pastor. After conducting services for several years in borrowed quarters and a small frame building that the members rebuilt as a church, the congregation purchased this property at Gratiot and Rivard in 1865. A Gothic-style brick church served as the church home on this site form more than sixty years, until Detroit businessman Charles Gauss, a Trinity member, offered to fund the construction of a new church building in thanksgiving for the healing of his daughter. The old building was razed in 1929 to make way for the construction of the new building, and the members worshipped in the adjacent parish hall during the interim. The present Neo-Gothic style church, designed by Detroit architect W. E. N. Hunter, was dedicated in 1931.

Architect William Edgerton N. Hunter was well-known in Detroit for his ecclesiastical architecture, many examples of which can be found throughout Michigan and the Midwest. Born in Ontario, he practiced in Canada, Buffalo, and Toledo before coming to Detroit to work in some of the city's leading architecture firms. He eventually established his own practice in Detroit, specializing in church architecture. Among his other works is the Metropolitan United Methodist Church of Detroit, also listed in the National Register of Historic Places and considered to be the architect's masterpiece.

The stained glass windows of the church were designed by nationally-acclaimed stained glass artist Henry Lee Willet, who also designed windows for the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. The windows were painstakingly restored by the Willet Studio in Philadelphia in 1998, in preparation for Trinity's 150th anniversary celebration in 2000. The building's carved stonework is the work of noted architectural sculptors Corrado Parducci and Joseph Jungwirth.

Trinity's Cathedral Bells are fifteen cast bells on the seventh level of the 104-foot bell tower. Eleven of the bells were made by John Taylor Bell Founders of Leicestershire, England. The largest bell weighs 1,727 pounds. Four more bells, made in Holland, were added to the tower in 2007, a gift of the Calvin Bruning family. Together, the cathedral bells comprise one and one-half musical octaves.

The church's pipe organ is the Ernest M. Skinner Company's Opus 808 of three manuals, 31 ranks, and five divisions, with chimes made by Skinner. The instrument is considered to be very rare among pipe organs because so few Skinner organs have survived in their original, unaltered state.

Trinity Lutheran helped to establish many daughter congregations in the greater Detroit region, where 132 parishes can now trace their roots back to the historic Detroit church. Trinity is therefore regarded as the "mother" church of Detroit Lutheranism. The property was designated a historic site by the City of Detroit in 1980 and by the state of Michigan in 1982. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, Trinity Evangelical Church Complex, Detroit, Michigan, listed 10 February 1983.

Erickson, Robert E. History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Following Counties of Michigan: Wayne, Oakland, Bay, Midland, Monroe, Macomb, St. Clair, Saginaw, Gladwin, Clare, Huron, Sanilac, Tuscola, Lapeer, Ingham, Jackson, Shiawasee, Genesee, Calhoun, Lenawee, Hillsdale, Branch, And Presque Isle. Detroit: Robert E. Erickson, 1924. 

"Fine New Stained Glass Designed for Church," Detroit Free Press, November 2, 1930, p.4.

"Trinity to be Dedicated," Detroit Free Press, February 14, 1931, p.8.

"Will Dedicate New Trinity," Detroit Times, February 14, 1931, p.7.

"Trinity Lutheran Centennial Sunday," Detroit Free Press, June 3, 1950, p.8.

Trinity Lutheran Church (Detroit, Mich.). 1850 Centennial 1950, Trinity Lutheran Church, Detroit. [Detroit, Mich.: The Church], 1950. 

Cook, Louis. "Serene Trinity Finds Salvation," Detroit Free Press, August 30, 1982, p.14A.

Crumm, David. "Saints Return to Church," Detroit Free Press, July 15, 1988, p.11.

Capeloto, Alexa. "Detroit Church Celebrates 150 Years of Keeping Faith," Detroit Free Press, November 6, 2000.