Ste. Anne de Detroit Catholic Church - History

History

Ste. Anne's church was the first building constructed in Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, which later grew into the city of Detroit. Cadillac and French settlers arrived at the bank of the Detroit River on July 24, 1701. Construction began on a church on July 26, 1701, the feast day of Saint Anne. The parish was founded and named by the settlers in honor of the patron of France, Saint Anne, mother of Mary and grandmother of Jesus. Nicholas Constantine del Halle, a Franciscan, and Francois Vaillant, a Jesuit, were the two priests who accompanied the group. Vaillant returned east in the fall.

A fire in 1703 destroyed part of the fort including the church, the rectory and the baptismal records. A new church building was built in 1704 and the oldest surviving church records date to this time with the first record on February 2, 1704 being the baptism of a child born to Cadillac.

Father del Halle was kidnapped by Native Americans and, after his release, as he walked back to the fort, he was shot and killed by an Indian. His remains were buried under the altar and have been moved four times to new church buildings since.

Father Cherubin Deniau began work on a larger church in 1708. This church was outside the palisade and was burned in 1714 by the settlers during a Native American attack as they feared it would offer cover to the attackers.

The parish did not have a church building for many years after this although one might have been built by Father Bonaventure Lienard, who was priest there between 1722-1754. Father Simple Bocquet began a new church building in 1755, within a year after he arrived. Bocquet stayed nearly 30 years during which time Detroit passed from French to British ownership and then to American. An Anglican wedding is even recorded in the Catholic Church records during this period.

Father Gabriel Richard arrived at Ste. Anne's in 1796. While the local priest, he helped start the school which evolved into the University of Michigan, started primary schools for white boys and girls as well as for Indians, as a territorial representative to U.S. Congress helped establish a road-building project that connected Detroit and Chicago, and brought the first printing press to Michigan which printed the first Michigan newspaper. After his death in 1832, Richard was interred under the altar of Ste. Anne's.

In 1805, most of Detroit including the church was destroyed in an accidental fire. A new building was not begun until 1818 and was not completed until 1828. This church was at a new location outside the grounds of the old fort and was designed by Leon Coquard, a parishioner. In 1833, Ste. Anne's was designated as the cathedral for the new diocese of Detroit; it served in this role until 1848, when coadjutor bishop Peter Paul Lefevere moved the bishop's throne to St. Peter's Cathedral, today's Saints Peter and Paul Church.

In 1817, many of the remains in the old cemetery were moved to the new St. Anne's. In the 1860s, many were again moved to Mount Elliott Cemetery, including the remains of Colonel Jean François Hamtramck. In the 1860s, the 1818 church building was demolished with the furnishings and even the cornerstone split between the new Ste. Anne's and the new parish of St. Joachim, named after Ste. Anne's husband.