St. Leo Catholic Church was founded by Father Matthew Meathe in 1889.

As the parish grew, it set out to build a grand new home for its faithful. The cornerstone for this church on Grand River Avenue on the city's west side was placed Dec. 6, 1908. It would be dedicated April 17, 1910.

The building was notable at the time of its construction for being the largest church in the United States built entirely without interior pillars - ensuring an unobstructed view of the altar from anywhere in the sanctuary.

Architect Harry J. Rill designed the church after studying Paris’s Church of the Madeleine. The result was a grand and open interior in the Italian Renaissance style, stretching 179 feet in length and 111 feet at the widest point of the transept.

The exterior reflects Spanish Renaissance influences and features two towers, though they were reduced in height in the late 1970s or early '80s in lieu of repairs. Constructed of pressed brick and stone, the church stands as a distinctive and elegant example of early 20th-century ecclesiastical architecture in Detroit.

The church was well-known for a free health clinic run by the Knights of Malta, a Catholic fraternal organization and for being the longtime home base of Detroit Auxiliary Bishop

In 2009, the Archdiocese was losing $42,000 a day operating parishes throughout the city. There were about 10,000 Catholic households in the city, and about 7,700 suburban families commuting into the city to attend historic Detroit parishes in 2012. Adding to the Archdiocese's money woes was the fact that it was saddled with a $54 million loan to build the failed John Paul II Center in Washington, D.C. That effort was led by then-Cardinal Adam Maida. The $75 million project was dedicated in 2001 but sold just 10 years later to the Knights of Columbus for just $22.7 million, and the Archdiocese of Detroit ended up eating a $34 million loss in the venture. In addition to dwindling congregations, the Archdiocese also was battling a severe priest shortage.

In November 2012, the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council released a list of about 20 churches in Detroit, Highland Park and Hamtramck and 30 more in the suburbs that it recommended be closed. St. Leo's found itself on that list. The recommendations followed 25 parishes closed in the city and suburbs since 2000.

"Regrettably, we don't have a time machine to go back in time 50 to 60 years," Archdiocese spokesman Ned McGrath told the Free Press for a Feb. 12, 2012, article on the recommended closures. "We don't have a treasury to print money. Decisions that need to be made will be, more often than not, difficult. But each and every one is being made in an effort to secure Catholic faith communities and their presence in southeast Michigan."

He added that "some people throw it back at us - that his isn't what church is all about. And they're right. But for a fully functioning faith community, a parish has to be able to maintain itself, has to be able to pay its bill and (be) able to sustain itself."

St. Leo's was $2 million in debt to the Archdiocese for building repairs in 2012.

Donna Acuff Jackson told the Detroit Free Press for that story that "when people hear the words 'St. Leo,' they know it's a caring, sharing church, and it does a lot of hard community work for people who are really in need." The then-52-year-old told the paper that St. Leo's health clinic helped her stabilize her diabetes.

St. Leo's committee director Derek Edwards told the paper that his church "really is a gem of the city and should be treated that way." If St. Leo were to close, "I think it becomes a step in the process of the Catholic Church removing itself from the inner city."

In 2013, St. Cecilia and St. Leo's were merged to form St. Charles Lwanga Parish. With 236 households, Lwanga was still struggling because of its small congregation and costs of maintaining a large, aging church.

To save on heating bills, church services were suspended at the former St. Leo's church after the Dec. 20, 2015, Mass, and directed parishioners to St. Cecilia, about 2 miles away. However, the clinic and soup kitchen remained open.

In October 2025, St. Charles Lwanga - formerly St. Cecilia - held its final Mass in yet another cost-cutting move by the Archdiocese. However, the following month, the Archdiocese changed cour

In 2016, the building became home to the Redeemer Presbyterian Church, which had previously been housed at West Grand Boulevard and Trumbull, across from Henry Ford Hospital. That congregation's former home was demolished by the hospital in early 2017 to make way for the Brigitte Harris Cancer Pavilion.

More on this building coming soon.