Cass Community Social Services - History of Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church

History of Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church

In the 1880s the Cass farm, lying between Cass Avenue and Third Avenue and extending northward to the Boulevard, was the very choicest residential section in Detroit, barring the stately homes along Woodward Avenue. A group of Methodists living on the Cass farm, belonging mostly to Central and Simpson Methodist churches, were moved to start a church of their own.

On May 1, 1881, David Preston purchased two lots on the corner of Cass and Selden for $7,240, and the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal congregation was organized at the Conference of 1883. The church edifice (originally the area now occupied by the offices, kitchen and gym) was erected shortly after the conference. The congregation used the Mason and Rice architectural firm, the same company that designed the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in 1887, the First Presbyterian Church in 1889, Trinity Episcopal Church in 1892 and the Scripps Mansion in 1891.

The church sanctuary was added 10 years later in 1891. This time Malcomson and Higghinbotham, an experienced Detroit firm that also designed Central High School - now Wayne State University's Old Main, was the architectural firm. Bishop Newman laid the church cornerstone in September 1891. The cost of the structure was approximately $50,000.

In the early years, the Cass membership and constituency were composed almost wholly of well-to-do people. You need only take in the Tiffany windows or the Johnson tracker pipe organ in the sanctuary as evidence of this (the organ is the largest nineteenth century pipe organ in the state of Michigan). Cass boasted many of the city's oldest families and it was one of the most aristocratic churches in Detroit. Moreover, the membership swelled to over 700 members in the first 25 years.

During the decade 1918-1929, the church membership shrank from 767 to 275. The growth of the city altered the nature of the Cass farm area and, thus, of the Cass Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. Most of the members of the church moved from the immediate neighborhood northward to the city's limits and beyond. From a district of choice homes, it became an area with rooming houses and boarding houses with businesses constantly encroaching. The leadership of the church struggled at that time with the option of selling the land and property to build another church closer to where its membership then resided.

Under the leadership of Bishop Thomas Nicholson, the congregation decided in 1928 to remain in the area and to intentionally minister to and with the changed constituency. The name was actually changed to Cass Community Methodist Episcopal Church at that time to reflect its new sense of mission.

It was in the thirties, during the Great Depression, that the church started its first food lines, offering bread and soup to those who were hungry. Cass depleted its endowment fund to make provisions for the unemployed. Rev. William Perkins organized volunteers to go out into rural areas and bring back truckloads of food for distribution. He also deserves the credit for establishing a wide array of programs for the area youth and seniors. While Perkins was appointed to Cass in the 1940s, the Golden Glove boxing tournaments were held in the gym. At the same time, the church was struggling financially and the physical structure was so bad that in 1941 it was condemned for a short period and the congregation was temporarily re-located to the Jefferson School (now the Edison School at Selden and the Lodge freeway).