The story of this church began Aug. 16, 1833, when the Rev. Friedrich Schmid - considered the father of German Protestantism in Michigan for founding some 20 churches across southeast Michigan - arrived in Detroit from the Mission House at Basel in present-day Switzerland on his way to Ann Arbor to found a congregation. After finding himself in Detroit, he was asked to give a sermon, and on Aug. 18, 1833, he did so, at John Haik’s carpentry shop on the corner of Woodbridge and Bates streets.
This congregation continued to meet, and on Jan. 30, 1836, it bought Lot 54 at the northeast corner of Monroe Avenue at Farrar Street, today known as Library Street. The cost was $40, or about $1,400 in 2025, when adjusted for inflation.
Schmid continued to preach there, making the long walk from Ann Arbor to Detroit once every five weeks until July 1836, when J.P. Schwabe stepped in to lead the congregation. At the time, services were held in the Presbyterian Session room on Woodward Avenue until the church’s members had the money to build their own home. Schwabe would leave in January 1837.
The congregation would build its first church, made of wood, on the lot at Monroe and Farrar in the early months of 1837. The building was 35 feet wide by 50 feet long.
On Oct. 22, 1837, the Rev. M. Schaad was called to the pastorate, serving until June 1841, when the Rev. Fredrick Herrmann took over. He would continue to give sermons for the group until Aug. 19, 1852, when the Rev. C. Haass stepped in.
The church established a school in 1843, and erected a schoolhouse behind the church in 1845.
During this time, the congregation grew significantly. By 1840, the congregation had grown to 175, but just 10 years later, numbered 375, according to Silas Farmer’s “The History of Detroit and Michigan” from 1884. The small wooden church had been outgrown.
In January 1851, the church and schoolhouse buildings were listed for sale, and that year saw the congregation hold a fund-raising fair for a new building. It appears that the congregation continued to use the church until it was sold in the summer of 1852. The building was deconstructed and its materials repurposed into a house on Beaubien and Beacon streets. The house was destroyed in a fire sometime before 1884.
A new brick church was built over the site of the original, measuring 56 feet wide and 75 feet long with room for 850 people. The church was dedicated on Jan. 3, 1853, with the Rev. Hartman of Chicago delivering the sermon. However, on Aug. 6, 1854, the building was damaged by fire, as were two wood-framed houses. The church was rebuilt, but no information could be found on this.
Haass left the church in September 1854, with the Rev. C.F. Soldan taking over the following month. He remained there for one year, with the Rev. Herman Miller then stepping in. Miller stayed until February 1861, when he and a faction of the congregation left and formed a German Presbyterian church, which held services in a building on the south side of Catharine Street near Gratiot Ave. that was erected in 1857 as a French and German Presbyterian Church. In April 1862, Haass was called back and returned to the St. John’s congregation.
The congregation continued to grow, and by 1860, was at 638 members. By 1872, it had grown to 1,550.
Charles H. Borgman was in charge of the school as of 1862. Like the congregation, attendance grew significantly, going from 30 students in 1862, to 420 students by 1866. As a result of the significant increase in students, in May 1866, the church bought W.W. Wilcox’s carpentry shop on Farrar Street near Monroe Avenue for $5,200 (about $106,000 in 2026). That building was torn down and a new two-story, four-room schoolhouse was built in its place. Each room was about 50 by 25 feet.
In 1872, the church building was sold for $25,000 (about $664,000 in 2025) to George H. Gies. Soon after, the congregation built a new home on Russell Street between Antietam and Chestnut streets, which still stands today as the St. John St. Luke United Church. However, a faction of 24 members broke off and formed St. Paul's German Evangelical Lutheran Church. The schoolhouse was sold in 1872 for $10,000 (about $265,000 in 2026), and the school moved to a building behind the new church on Chestnut Street, which also still stands.
After the congregation moved out, the former church building on Monroe was renovated and reopened on July 6, 1872, as the George H. Gies Orchestration and Lager Beer Hall. Sometime between April and December of 1877, the building was renamed the Academy of Music. The building was taken over at some point by John P. Long, who put over $2,300 into the structure.
On Jan. 16, 1878, the lot that held the former church was sold under foreclosure to Valentine Hilsendegen for $22,025 (about $714,000 in 2025), who soon announced his plan to tear down the building to erect an addition to the Hilsendegen Building next door. Long, in an attempt to retain the building, got a temporary injunction to prevent Hilsendegen from carrying out his plan. However, the injunction was dissolved on Feb. 16, 1878, and Hilsendegen proceeded to get to work, hiring a crew to clear the building down to the bare walls. Within a week of the eviction, the building was demolished.