St. Augustine and St. Monica Catholic Church

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

This east-side Detroit parish took shape from a merger of older Catholic congregations, and its building started life as St. Catherine of Siena church on Seminole Street. Charlie Gabriel, a saxophonist and clarinetist who grew up in a well-known New Orleans jazz family and later became a longtime member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, made Detroit a home base for years and connected with the parish community here in the 2000s. Gabriel co-founded the Jazz on the Lawn concert series at the church, bringing live jazz performances to the church grounds and drawing neighborhood residents and musicians together on the east side. The combined St. Augustine and St. Monica parish continues to serve its Detroit neighborhood today, carrying forward both its Catholic congregation and the jazz tradition Gabriel helped plant on its lawn. The church stands as a reminder of how Detroit's jazz musicians have woven themselves into the city's neighborhood institutions, not just its clubs and concert halls.

1. Housed in the former St. Catherine of Siena church building
2. Jazz musician Charlie Gabriel co-founded a concert series here in the 2000s
3. Gabriel later became a longtime member of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band
4. Still an active Catholic parish on Detroit's east side