16241 Joslyn Street
St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church, Berea-St. Paul United Methodist, Powerhouse Temple, Greynite
Every time I think I’ve seen every corner of a neighborhood, I turn down a street I thought I knew and get slapped in the face by a stunning structure like this one.
St. Paul’s Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1913. I haven’t been able to find much about their origins, but I assume it was somewhere in Highland Park, which was still a village at the time. The Highland Park Ford Plant opened three years prior, bringing thousands of jobs and workers from across the country and Detroit, which did not yet surround it entirely.
On Sunday, October 10, 1926, formal dedication services were held for a new church building for St. Paul’s at the corner of Eason and Joslyn. The structure was designed by Butterfield & Butterfield.
I’m not sure what the neighborhood’s makeup was initially; however, at some point, the church supported a Cornish population, many of whom may have relocated to Detroit from the Upper Peninsula after the copper boom. In 1953, there was an ad in the Detroit Free Press for a cornish-style supper and the showing of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Williams’ color films from a recent trip to Cornwall, England.
In 1957, the congregation hosted an Upper Peninsula Night billed as a “UP Reunion.” Reverends from Houghton (Grace Church), Calumet, Negaunee, and Iron River were in attendance. It’s hard to know how many Cornish people lived in the Upper Peninsula, Highland Park, or Detroit at any given time because it wasn’t an option on census forms.
At some point in the late 1960s, St. Paul merged with Berea Methodist Church. I haven’t found much information on Berea, but I believe it was founded in the mid-1930s as a black congregation in Highland Park. In 1941, they built a new structure for worship at 398 La Belle, near its intersection with Thompson. This would have been a short walk from the Michigan Bell/Western Electric Building on Oakman. After the merger, the church was known as Berea-St. Paul United Methodist.
In the mid-1970s, Project Nutrition of the Wayne County Office on Aging offered hot lunch meals for seniors at the church and other locations around metro Detroit. In the 1980s, the church hosted a children’s summer program for kids in the neighborhood.
After that, I haven’t found much information on the congregation other than in obituary listings. Funerals were consistent until the mid-2000s. I believe Berea-St. Paul closed around this time.
By 2011, Powerhouse Temple was utilizing the structure. I’m unsure what they used the building for, but their registered address was 16241 Joslyn. They had moved their registered address by 2019 and may have lost it to foreclosure. It was listed for sale in 2017 for $120K. Photos of the interior at the time look rugged but breathtaking and usable.
Greynite was incorporated by Yelena Utin, Adam Ludwig, and Caspar Peteus in 2017 to practice “Zen Buddhism with a focus on Taoist principles through mindfulness and meditation.” By 2019, their registered address was 16241 Joslyn. It appears they were working on the interior, hosting outdoor services in the warmer months, and renovating another nearby structure.
I shot them an email, and they informed me that they are selling the building to another nonprofit. It was most recently for sale for $99K.
This part of Highland Park has mostly been forgotten by those who don’t live there. The roads are in utter shambles—some of the worst I’ve seen in my entire life. Most of the homes on Eason Avenue have been scrapped within inches of their lives. Once one of the crown jewels of Highland Park’s school system, Liberty School sits just up the road in a tattered mess.
There are a few religious organizations and corner stores left, but most of the residents in this part of Highland Park are on their own.
I hope whoever purchases this church does the structure and those remaining in the neighborhood justice. It’s a gorgeous building with great bones. The sanctuary has exposed wooden beams, a pipe organ, and seats over 500.
There are a ton of structures like this in Detroit, Highland Park, and Hamtramck that are waiting for new life. Here’s to hoping this one survives long enough to see it.
