Jesse Dumond Dumond

Dr. Martin
Honors 1000
November 3, 2017
Essay II: Urban Form

From how we shop, to where we work, and even how we raise our families, its all based off

urban form. What is urban form? Urban form is something we see every day and affects us more than

we know. It is the driving force behind many of our daily actions, it sets the social normalitys and

constantly changing and evolving. Urban form like the Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit

resembles the resilience and unity of Detroit. It is a great example of living with the past considering

that throughout the hardships the building has gone through, it still stands as a forceful reminder of the

rugged history of Detroit.

The early 1900s was paramount for the church, during this time the church started to rapidly expand

and have a greater impact on the community (Fort Street Presbyterian Church). This is the time in

history where the church started having a bigger impact on the urban form and ways of seeing in the

community. Among many, the church became a larger place of refuge and support to its surrounding

community, serving not only as a place of worship, but a food bank, but a shelter and child care center.

The Fort Street Presbyterian Church exemplifies an important step towards revitalizing

architecture in 19th-century America. By viewing the Presbyterian church in downtown Detroit, it is

aware that architects copied gothic elements and combined them with simpler building structure to

create a style known as Victorian Gothic. The church is an example of city beautiful over city profitable

(Dean Herron 9 Oct. 2017) because it is nothing like the structures surrounding it. In recent years as the

churchs structure starts to deteriorate the community has come together to keep the building in

working order, investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations and repairs because of the

churches great historical value (Fort Street Presbyterian Church).

My group members Lyan Alsabti and Alexandria (Robbie) Robinson, shared relatively the same opinions
on the church. We all believed it to be important and play a powerful role in Detroit not only as a place
of worship, but a historical marker. Lyan believed the church was a bit outdated with its specific style of
architecture, while Robbies opinion was the church is a great example of living with the history and
growing form it as to not allow ourselves to become stagnant in social progress. She believed the church
lets us have a community in order to not totally separate ourselves into modern individuality.
Jesse Dumond Dumond
Dr. Martin
Honors 1000
November 3, 2017
The American period did not lead a rush to create religion in Detroit (The Spirit of The Motor

City) however as numerous religions arose, so did their influence on the city. The Presbyterian church in

Detroit stands out and above others from its time because of the resilience of its congregation. Because

of this, it is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as of 1971 (Fort Street Presbyterian

Church(Detroit)). Religion became less of a necessity and more of an obligation after the city went into

bankruptcy. The more the city struggled as a whole, the weaker the congregations became. The years

following the city filing for bankruptcy, the congregation slowly grew but is still nowhere near thriving. In

the years to come there is promise that the community, that evidently still cares greatly about this

historic site, will come together to bring the Post Street Presbyterian church back into its former glory.

As of the churches influence and place in the city in the future, there have been several

remodels made to the church in past and recent years. The most former update to the building is

replacement of the roof of the building in 2013. It is obvious that renovations are being made to the

structure, but only on an as-needed basis. This shows one of two things; either the church is not able to

finance the needed repairs to the structure, or the church isnt as relative in the community as it used to

be. A fire completely destroyed the interior of the church and sent the steeple crashing onto Fort street

in 1876, after this incident the church was completely rebuilt according to its original architecture plans

the following year (Fort Street Presbyterian Church (Detroit)). Whereas in current years, the church isnt

entirely up to date because of the lessening of its following throughout the community.

In the final analysis, the Fort street Presbyterian church is a beautiful and important site with a

lot of historical value not to just the people of Detroit but the Nation as a whole. Occurrences of fires

during the years of 1876 and 1914 have challenged the character of the church and its followers, but still

the community persevered through these hard times and is stronger for it. The church may play an

important role in the community, but no matter the strength of the congregation or its beliefs, the
Jesse Dumond Dumond
Dr. Martin
Honors 1000
November 3, 2017
structure is still weathered. My group along with myself even witnessed construction continuing in our

short visit there. It is evident that efforts are being made to keep the church youthful, but theres only

so much they can do. Although there are issues the church faces, it will steadily leave a mark and have

continuing value to the community.

Jesse Dumond Dumond
Dr. Martin
Honors 1000
November 3, 2017
References

Wilson, Brian. The Spirit of the Motor City: Three Hundred Years of Religious History in
Detroit. Michigan Historical Review, vol. 27, no. 1, 2001, pp. 32. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/20173893.

Fort Street Presbyterian Church (Detroit). Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Sept. 2017,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Street_Presbyterian_Church_(Detroit).

Beach, E. "COMMITTEES APPOINTED." Detroit Free Press (1858-1922): 5. Dec 02

1890. ProQuest. Web. 4 Nov. 2017 .

Fitzgerald, Francis Scott Key., et al. Chapter 1. The Great Gatsby, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004,
pp. 11.

Cohen, Lizabeth. Encountering Mass Culture at the Grassroots: The Experience of Chicago
Workers in the 1920s. American Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 1, 1989, pp. 7. JSTOR, JSTOR,
www.jstor.org/stable/2713191.

Dean Herron. Designer Apples. Honors 1000 Lecture. Honors 1000 Lecture, 9 Oct. 2017,
Detroit, Wayne State University.

Fort Street Presbyterian Church. Fort Street Presbyterian Church, fortstreet.org/.