This church may be best remembered for the controversy that emerged after it was demolished for a parking lot despite being in immaculate shape.

The Chapel of St. Therese, the Little Flower, was designed by the firm Donaldson & Meier in the Neo-Romanesque style and built in 1926. The chapel was one of two religious structures on Parsons Street tied to the former St. Patrick's Cathedral in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood.

The chapel was named in honor of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, France, who was known as the "Little Flower" because she said was like a small wildflower in God's garden, reflecting her humility. She died of tuberculosis in 1897. Just 24 years after her death, Pope Pius XI beatified her as a saint in 1925. Being a new saint made St. Therese wildly popular at the time that the Archdiocese of Detroit was building this church.

Name changes and changing times

St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, located at Adelaide and John R streets, was dedicated by Coadjutor Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere on March 17, 1862, the feast of St. Patrick. In 1890, St. Patrick was designated a cathedral and renamed Sts. Peter & Paul, as it was taking the role of mother church from Sts. Peter & Paul on East Jefferson Avenue, which had been turned over to the Jesuits. Being made a cathedral was a big deal, effectively making the church “the capitol” of the diocese. It was also little surprise that St. Patrick got the nod at the time, because Brush Park was the wealthiest neighborhood in the city, which made its congregation the richest in the diocese.

When the time came to erect a school for St. Patrick’s parish, land in Brush Park wasn’t easy to come by. This led St. Patrick to build quite a bit to the north of the church, picking a lot between Woodward and Cass avenues on Parsons Street, next door to Orchestra Hall. Sts. Peter & Paul Academy opened in 1892. It was already a hike from the church up to Parsons, but by the 1920s and the advent of the automobile, it was becoming a perilous journey for younger students.

This led to St. Patrick erecting the Chapel of St. Therese, the Little Flower, next door to the school. Students could attend Mass at the chapel instead and just walk next door for their education. Building permit No. 8236 was issued on May 12, 1926. The chapel was estimated to cost $143,000 to build, about $2.7 million in 2026 valuation, when adjusted for inflation.

Meanwhile, St. Patrick lost the cathedral distinction in 1938, when Archbishop Edward Mooney arrived as the first head of the newly established Archdiocese of Detroit and found his cathedral to be a bit too modest and somewhat ramshackle. He transferred the cathedral title to the Most Blessed Sacrament, and Sts. Peter & Paul on Adelaide Street reverted to being called St. Patrick’s.

At the same time, more and more of St. Patrick’s activities were being held at the St. Therese chapel. As Detroit’s decline began to cause Brush Park to empty out, this only accelerated. It got to the point where the decision was made to close St. Patrick on Adelaide and move the congregation to the chapel on Parsons in 1972. At this point, St. Therese was renamed St. Patrick Catholic Church.

The old St. Patrick’s was sold to Woodward East Projects Inc. It would be destroyed by fire on May 4, 1993.

The newer St. Patrick’s - the one on Parsons that was originally St. Therese - was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Sept. 22, 1997.

Woes of biblical proportions

By 2000, only 1 in 10 Detroiters were Catholic, and empty pews in aging buildings in need of repairs continued to squeeze already cash-strapped congregations. 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. All of this led the Archdiocese to adopt a seemingly never-ending series of closures and merging of congregations.

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 - including St. Patrick’s. 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 this 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. Patrick’s Parish closed in 2015, but the archdiocese retained ownership of the church in hopes that the revitalization of Midtown might make it possible to reopen it someday.

That didn’t happen.

From house of the holy to parking lot

Detroit’s Catholic population continued to shrink and parishes continued to be closed and merged. That meant there was no chance St. Patrick’s was going to be reopened. The building was deconsecrated in 2022, and its sacred items were removed and distributed to other churches. The Archdiocese started looking for buyers and found one, but that buyer didn’t want the building, it wanted the land.

The Detroit Symphony Orchestra next door wanted more parking for its guests that didn’t require them to walk far to get to their seats. It offered to buy the land that St. Patrick’s was sitting on – but only if St. Patrick’s was no longer on it.

Demolition began Sept. 22, 2023.

Crain’s Detroit Business reported that day that one of the conditions of the sale is that the church had to be demolished and that an archdiocese spokeswoman said “quite a few developers” had looked at the church but said a renovation “would have been cost prohibitive.”

“While it is never easy to say goodbye to a church building, St. Patrick has been vacant and unused for many years,” Holly Fournier, associate director of communications for the archdiocese, told Crain’s. “As a result of this sale, a vacant structure will be removed from the neighborhood, the property will be put to use once again, and the Archdiocese of Detroit can remain focused on its mission to unleash the Gospel.”