8151 Thaddeus Street
First Hungarian Lutheran Church, New Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church
I believe this structure’s modern address was originally 8141 Thaddeus Street. At some point, it changed to 8151 Thaddeus Street. Before the city-wide address change in 1921, it was 53 Thaddeus Street.
The First Hungarian Lutheran Church was organized in Detroit’s Delray neighborhood on April 2, 1911. The man in charge was James Becker, a pastor ordained in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1911. He was elected to be the first pastor of the congregation. On June 30, 1913, their church was dedicated, pictured here. Reverend James Becker resigned in April 1914 for reasons unknown to me, and Gustave Vályi took over.
On March 29, 1916, Reverend Vályi died in a train accident in Amherst on his way to Cleveland. Other Detroiters died on the train ride, too. According to an article in the Detroiter Abend-Post, a German newspaper, he left a wife and small child behind. After his death, Géza Albrecht was elected pastor. By September 1922, Reverend James Becker was reelected as church pastor, where he would remain for decades.
On May 3, 1936, the First Hungarian Lutheran Church in Delray held its 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee. Reverend John L. De Papp of Windsor gave the anniversary sermon. There was a banquet following the service at Verhovay Hall on West End.
In 1945, Reverend James Becker took on more duties. He was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives, serving one term. During his time in Lansing, he called the death penalty “un-Christian, inhuman…a brutal degrading, detestable, ugly thing.” He argued that if legislation allowed incurable insanity to be grounds for divorce, “the next step will be to permit divorce for other incurable illness such as paralysis,” and that the redistricting of Detroit by republicans “would result in the election of representatives “on a racial basis.” The former and latter were defeated, though the redistricting may have given a voice to underserved communities and added republican seats to the Michigan House.
In 1946, the same year that Becker left the State House of Representatives, the Reverend celebrated the 35th anniversary of his ordination. By this point, Becker had a wife and two kids, and masses at the First Hungarian Lutheran Church were in English and Hungarian. The 10 o’clock mass was typically in English, and the 11 was in Hungarian.
On September 4, 1951, the church celebrated its 40th anniversary. Five years later, in April, their 45th anniversary. A half-decade after that, their Golden anniversary. The church was still an essential part of the community, hosting neighborhood events, marriages, and funerals.
On August 3, 1953, Reverend James Becker died. Born on January 4th, 1887, the pastor had served in the Michigan House of Representatives and been an editor at the weekly Detroit Hungarian News. I’m not sure what paper this was, as multiple were printed in Hungarian; however, I believe that it might have been the Detroiti Újság, founded in 1910 and lasted until the early 1970s. While in the Michigan House of Representatives, Becker was the Committee on Religious and Benevolent Societies Chair. He was 66 when he died, and I believe he was still the pastor at First Hungarian Lutheran Church. He is buried at Woodmere Cemetery.
After Becker’s death, the First Hungarian Lutheran Church in Delray was mostly mentioned in obituaries and funeral announcements. That isn’t necessarily because the congregation suffered without Becker but because of the neighborhood’s changing landscape. Dirty industry continued to expand here, I-75 was constructed through the neighborhood in the mid-1970s, and former residents moved to the suburbs.
In the 1970s, the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department explored expansion options. One of the most popular plans was to expand their current facility in Delray, which had been growing since the 1930s. The plant was eventually developed in Delray, but the draft EPA documents from the proposal are insightful.
“Several ethnic churches are located near the DWWTP: the First Hungarian Lutheran Church, St. John Cantius Catholic Church, and St. John the Baptist Byzantine Catholic Church.” The piece continues to comment that most residents are European, with a plurality coming from Hungary, and that the neighborhood has “undergone adverse changes due to the encroachment of the industrial sector, the DWWTP, and highway construction.”
The draft continued to state that if the plant were to try and expand, any “reasonably compensated relocation might now be welcomed by Delray residents.” This era is often described as the one when the City of Detroit government decided to send Delray down the shitter, literally. For decades, Detroit has been expanding industry in the neighborhood and downsizing city services there, closing schools, firehouses, and the Post Office.
Even considering everything that was working against Delray, the neighborhood continued to fight to exist, and still does, to a degree. I believe that the First Hungarian Lutheran Church remained open until the 1990s. On December 12, 1993, Helen Becker, Reverend James Becker’s widow, died. Though she was significantly younger than her husband, it’s still shocking that she lived so much longer than he did. She was around 91 years old.
I’m not sure when it closed for good; however, another church moved in shortly after. New Greater Love Missionary Baptist Church was incorporated in 1993. It may have moved into the former First Hungarian Lutheran Church around that time, but I can’t be certain.
I’m also unsure whether the congregation still meets here. The church is still functional on the state level, but I haven’t seen anyone inside this building before. That said, the church is very well maintained, has power, and has fake flowers and pictures in the windows. Whether it’s open or not, the owners are keeping it in stellar shape.
Delray had a church on every corner; however, fewer and fewer remain as the years go on. Some were demolished for the new Gordie Howe Bridge to Canada, others were claimed by fire, like Szent Janos Görög Katolikus Magyar Templom, and some continue to serve the community, like Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church.
I’m not sure what Delray will look like in 10 years, but I’m nearly certain there will be fewer church buildings than today.
