Holy Redeemer Catholic Church

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Redemptorist priests founded Holy Redeemer Parish on St. Patrick's Day 1880 to serve Irish and German Catholics in what was then the Springwells area southwest of Detroit, first holding Mass in a general store before building a small wood-frame chapel, nicknamed the Little Church on Sand Hill, at Vernor and Junction that same year. A larger church replaced it in 1896, and as the surrounding Mexicantown and Southwest Detroit population kept growing, the parish built its present Renaissance Revival church, designed by Donaldson and Meier, between 1921 and its dedication in 1923. In December 2006, future US Congressman Keith Ellison, then campaigning to become the first Muslim elected to Congress, addressed the interfaith community organizing group MOSES at Holy Redeemer as part of his coalition-building work. The parish remains active today, serving Southwest Detroit's largely Latino Catholic community and continuing an effort to document its long history.

1. Parish founded on St. Patrick's Day, 1880
2. Current Renaissance Revival church dedicated in 1923
3. Keith Ellison addressed a community organizing meeting here in 2006
4. Still an active parish in Southwest Detroit