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St. Luke's School

In December of 1927, Bishop Gallagher of the Detroit Catholic archdiocese authorized the creation of a new parish on the city’s west side bounded by Livernois, Wyoming, Bonaparte, and McGraw. Rev. Frank J. McQuillan was appointed pastor of St. Luke, with the first services held in a house on Wisconsin, and then a store on Tireman Avenue. Within a year the church had over 800 attending mass on Sundays, and work on a combination church and school on Ohio Street north of Tireman had begun.

Like most schools built at the time, St. Luke was constructed in phases. The first appears to have been completed in 1928, as that is when the school was dedicated. A permanent sanctuary was built in 1930, but it isn’t clear if this was connected to the school or another freestanding structure next door. The auditorium has a cornerstone indicating it was built in 1936, which is the date given on Sanborn maps. The second floor of the school was added in 1950, and the present-day sanctuary was built in 1958. The auditorium of the school was then converted into gymnasium.

St. Luke was one of over 30 Catholic Churches slated to close in Detroit in 1989, but it won a reprieve, and was merged with Epiphany. The combined church continued until another round of closures was announced in 2011. The final mass took place on November 25th, 2012. It was later sold to a protestant congregation who continue to use it today.

The school merged with St. Brigid and remained open until 2005, when it closed due to low enrollment. At least two private schools might have used the former St. Luke building after it closed, the most recent of which was DCC Dar Al-Arqam School. It has been unused since at least 2013.