8020 Thaddeus Street
Free Magyar Reformed Church, Solvay Church of God in Christ, Second Chance Christian Ministries
I haven’t been able to determine the exact origins of this structure. However, I’d estimate that it was constructed in the early 1920s.
The first Magyar Reformed Church in Detroit was set up just after the turn of the century, with some reports pinning it sometime in 1904. Most of these churches were tied to Hungary and had no true governing body in the United States. That changed on October 7, 1921, when the Tiffin Agreement was signed in Tiffin, Ohio. This combined the Hungarian Reformed Church in the United States and the American Hungarian Reformed Church under one organization.
However, not all churches were on board; some factions were created, including numerous Free Magyar Reformed churches. One such church existed in Detroit, having been founded in 1922, and they, at one time, occupied the structure pictured here. They weren’t the only Magyar Reformed Church in Detroit; in fact, there were at least three in Delray alone.
There was a large church on the corner of Vanderbilt and West End, around the block from the church pictured here, called the First Hungarian Evangelical and Reformed Church. At Dearborn and Vanderbilt, there was the Hungarian Reformed Church. The former was demolished decades ago, and the latter burnt to the ground in the early morning hours of November 4, 2022. More on that parish later, though.
I haven’t found a ton about the origins of this parish other than that it existed on Thaddeus by 1934. Around 1945, John Paul Nagy became the pastor. Nagy spoke Hungarian and English, completed a course at a teaching school in Romania, took a year of law school, and had a bachelor’s degree from Bloomfield Seminary and College in Bloomfield, New Jersey, according to a Detroit Free Press article written by the paper’s religious writer, Adrian Fuller, in 1954.
In 1951, the church purchased a new organ and chimes and redecorated the edifice. A year later, the church celebrated its 80th anniversary. I’m not certain what anniversary this was for, but it was reason enough for a day-long festival on November 2, 1952.
In 1954, Adrian Fuller’s article, referenced earlier, was published in the Detroit Free Press. It highlighted the church and shined a light on the pastor, John Paul Nagy.
The first service in the morning was in English, and the second was in Hungarian. Many Magyar stayed put for both services. Hungary had been pulled behind the iron curtain by this point, and Nagy didn’t hide that fact. “Our generation may best be described as the ‘Age of Sighs…’ We have experienced world wars and are now in the midst of a cold war. Courage and despair alternately fill the hearts of men. There are intense yearnings for a better tomorrow.”
According to Nagy, the parish was one of 22 Free Magyar Reformed Churches in the United States, and the church was in the lineage of the Reformation in the Kingdom of Hungary that converted Hungary from a majority Roman Catholic state to a Protestant one in the 16th century.
The article explained that Nagy had found the church a structure to call home, acquired a parish house, and bought a two-story home that housed the church janitor and music director. Nagy was also influential in bringing numerous Hungarian refugees to Delray from behind the iron curtain to safety, including helping them find jobs and supporting them financially until they got on their own two feet.
In July 1955, the church congregation burned the mortgage. The church, parsonage, and caretaker’s residence were officially debt-free, which was a call for celebration.
In the mid-to-late 1950s, a State Unemployment Office Branch was in the church’s basement. I’m not certain why, but I’d guess Mr. Nagy had something to do with it. Additionally, Nagy was involved in the Detroit Hungarian Churches and Societies organization, which significantly impacted Delray, Detroit’s Magyar enclave.
In April 1959, around Easter, the Free Magyar Reformed Church on Thaddeus (pictured here) merged with the Hungarian Reform Church on Dearborn Street. The parish on Dearborn Street had 2,200 members, and the Thaddeus location had 300 at the time of the merger. Tibor Toth, the pastor of the larger parish, would be in charge. He claimed that it would be the largest parish of its kind.
John Paul Nagy, a beloved community member, would move away with his wife. They left for Miami, Florida, and Nagy would become the pastor at the First Hungarian United Church of Christ. Nagy had been in the United States since 1938, spending roughly 14 years in Detroit. He was 46 when he moved.
Of the four Maygar Reformed churches in Delray, the congregation on Thaddeus was the smallest. However, of the three, it’s the only one that still stands.
Although Delray’s population was still high, the merger signaled changes in the community. People had begun moving downriver as Delray continued to become more industrialized, and Hungarian enclaves had started to form in cities like Allen Park. By the 1960s, significant changes were underway.
After the two Hungarian Reform churches merged, the building on Thaddeus was sold. I’m not sure when, but at some point, the Solvay Church of God in Christ began utilizing the space. The congregation was founded in 1962, so there’s a chance it moved in shortly after Nagy and his parish left the building.
Solvay is a nod to the Solvay Process Company, one of the largest employers in Delray for most of its history. The chemical company, founded in 1880, had left Delray entirely by the 1970s. The church survived until the early 2000s.
In 2012, Second Chance Christian Ministries was established on the state level and had moved into the Thaddeus location by 2013. It’s still there and is one of the only churches operating in Delray. Charles L. Heath Jr. is the current pastor.
The church that absorbed the Free Magyar Reformed Church survived until at least the mid-1960s. At that point, the congregation was absorbed into the American Hungarian Reformed Church in Allen Park, where many former parishioners had already moved. The structure would later be used by Peter’s Rock Missionary Baptist Church and burned down in 2022, as mentioned above.
Very few businesses, organizations, and community groups are still open in Delray. The fact that the Free Magyar Reformed Church building still stands is shocking enough—that it still operates in 2023, even more so.
I believe that this structure, at one time, had a steeple that was removed.
For more reading on Delray churches that still stand, check out Szent Janos Görög Katolikus Magyar Templom and Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church.
