  Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3423 Registered: 10-2003 |
 Stretching along Ford Road and adjacent to the nearby big box malls, big box religion is concentrated like competing anchor stores in a mall. Most prominent among these is the beautiful and recently built Islamic Center of American mosque.  The icon of Saint Clement adorns the entrance to Saint Clement Ohridski Orthodox Christian Church to the west of the mosque.  Full view  To the east St. Sarkis Armenian Christian Church stand behind a memorial to the 1909 Armenian genocide.  Between St. Sarkis and the mosque is the Armenian Community Center.  Viewed from the west are the big four anchors, Warrendale Community Church, Saint Clement, Islamic Center of America, St. Sarkis.  Freedom of Religious choice and Peace on Earth! | ||
Karl Member Username: Karl Post Number: 5392 Registered: 09-2005 |
I understand that the Islamic Center of American mosque is the largest in the world outside the Middle East. | ||
Mike Member Username: Mike Post Number: 793 Registered: 11-2003 |
just points out the greatness of this country and the strength in its diversity. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4891 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm loving the photos, Lowell. I do find it odd how Dearborn, though, kind of cornered all of these structures into this strange little sector of the city. I wonder what the reasoning was behind this, because don't these sit at the end of a dead-end street next to a freeway on a sort of suburban-like "religious row"? (Message edited by lmichigan on December 14, 2006) | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4603 Registered: 11-2003 |
A fantastic ensemble of religious-ethnic communal buildings in one spot. Thanks. Excellent photos. Saalam Alekem. jjaba. | ||
Kova Member Username: Kova Post Number: 84 Registered: 12-2003 |
you are forgetting St Thomas Aquinas to the left! Granted that is Detroit | ||
Leob Member Username: Leob Post Number: 84 Registered: 10-2005 |
That street is a bit of a geographic oddity as it is a little annex of Dearborn north of Ford surrounded by Detroit. The location makes a lot of sense considering the freeway access and proximity to both ends of Dearborn and the universities. The zoning probably was a no brainer and that dead end acess road is a necessity when you have hundreds of cars pouring out onto Ford rd. on high holy days! Nice Pix Lowell | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4892 Registered: 10-2003 |
Thanks for the explanation, Leob. Looking at an aerial of the site you can ever see the borders, oddly, how they've bordered off the site. (Message edited by lmichigan on December 14, 2006) | ||
Ramcharger Member Username: Ramcharger Post Number: 170 Registered: 05-2006 |
Great pictures. I love the minarets at sunset. I could be wrong about this, but with the exception of the Islamic Center, which purchased its site from the YMCA, I believe Henry Ford or the Ford family donated the land to these churches. This might explain why the City of Detroit didn’t annex this strip like it did the rest of old Dearborn Township (Warrendale); it was already off the tax rolls. | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 44 Registered: 08-2006 |
I just noticed something in a photo that I had taken months ago. In a huge bit of irony, notice what appears to be a Star of David on the dome of this mosque that sits along I-75 north of Toledo... http://www.lasersol.com/heartl and_5.html#mosque (This photo was taken from the Interstate while passing by at 70 mph so was not staged.) | ||
Raggedclaws Member Username: Raggedclaws Post Number: 20 Registered: 08-2006 |
In addition to leaving out St Thomas, you neglected to mention Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, the last religous structure to the east on Alter rd. It perhaps reflects the diversity and mutual respect of cultures in that the space is shared by dwindling long-standing Lutheran parishonersf from the neighborhood and Middle Eastern Lutherans. | ||
Southwestmap Member Username: Southwestmap Post Number: 665 Registered: 01-2005 |
Something else to note in passing: as you continue east on Ford Road a few miles, you pass Fordson High School on your left. See the minarets atop this school and wonder if the builders, some fifty years ago or more, somehow had a pre-knowledge of the ultimate population of the school which is certainly Arabic and Muslim now. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 543 Registered: 04-2006 |
What I like most about these religious and cultural places is that they are very walkable from the surrounding neighborhood of Warrendale. By having such a presence in the City, there is a calming effect to the neighborhood. | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 46 Registered: 08-2006 |
"See the minarets atop this school and wonder if the builders, some fifty years ago or more, somehow had a pre-knowledge of the ultimate population of the school which is certainly Arabic and Muslim now." Interesting. Maybe architecture is what draws some cultures to a particular area in the first place. | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 47 Registered: 08-2006 |
"What I like most about these religious and cultural places is that they are very walkable from the surrounding neighborhood of Warrendale. By having such a presence in the City, there is a calming effect to the neighborhood." When driving out Woodward, one thing that strikes me the most are the number of grand churches along the way. It gives the route a stately image. I try to imagine what it would've been like driving down that street 50 years ago on a Sunday with everyone in their finest and Detroit thriving. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3427 Registered: 10-2003 |
Raggedclaws is correct that there are more churches lining Ford Road but time did not permit my adding them. I would not consider them all that walkable as all the Detroit Streets are dead-ended at the religious institution's parking lots. In fact it took me quite a while to figure out how to enter the parallel, and appropriately named, Altar Road that fronts them. There are only two points of access adding to the mall-like nature of them. The main difference from the malls is the that they do not share parking lots so all ecumenalism ends at their fenced property lines. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3428 Registered: 10-2003 |
"I try to imagine what it would've been like driving down that street 50 years ago on a Sunday with everyone in their finest and Detroit thriving." Try it again; that actually still exists. The churches are one part of Detroit that is still thriving. | ||
Bvos Member Username: Bvos Post Number: 2101 Registered: 10-2003 |
Thanks for the great pics Lowell. I pass the site often and always thought it would make for a great pic. However as a less-than-amateur photographer, I could never figure out how to do it myself. As you've stated it's a tough site/area to photograph in a single picture. One thing that I find interesting about the site is that it shows the progression of Dearborn over time from an ultra-white enclave to an immigrant community. Prince of Peace Lutheran on the east of the area (which isn't pictured) has an immigrant church meeting in it (I can't remember the ethnicity off hand) as noted by a sign out front of the church. Thanks again for the great pics! | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4608 Registered: 11-2003 |
Bvos, Dearborn has had immigrants forever. Muslims are white also. Perhaps you forgot when Henry Ford and the auto barons recruited the Italians, Poles, Bohemians, Turks, Lebanese, and Mexicans. Ford needed black people to work in the factories too but set them up elsewhere. Too bad, had he built integrated housing in the new Utopia, we'd be better off today, eh. He had the power and prestige in his day to do it. Today, Dearborn is one-third Middle Eastern-Americans. Fordson HS observe Ramadan and closes the cafeteria for a month. There are Halal Mc Donalds on Michigan Ave. in Dearborn. jjaba, Westsider. | ||
Peachlaser Member Username: Peachlaser Post Number: 48 Registered: 08-2006 |
Very nice photos Lowell. Really like the light in the first two. | ||
Soulhawk Member Username: Soulhawk Post Number: 283 Registered: 04-2004 |
Lowell, This is an amazing coincidence. Yesterday, you posted a picture of the MGM casino. I was working on that site and my truck appears in the picture. It is the white dot on Third street in the bottom right corner. Today, I was working a few blocks away from Saint Clement and the Mosque and many of the same thoughts about the importance of religious freedom were running through my head. So, two days in a row you have posted pics of my day! Kind of creepy but cool at the same time! See ya tomorrow;) | ||
Treble484 Member Username: Treble484 Post Number: 16 Registered: 02-2006 |
The Dead end street is now called Altar Rd. prior to the widening of Ford Rd. it was the westbound 2 lanes of the former Ford Rd. which crossed Evergreen at a light. It continued west to Hines Dr. which ended at Ford with a t-intersection. this was all redone in the late sixties to what is there now. Alter Rd. was left as access for church traffic. | ||
Ericdfan Member Username: Ericdfan Post Number: 185 Registered: 08-2005 |
Anyone ever see the show 30 days? I think its on TLC or something..anyway they featured an episode a while back where a christian man was to be living with a muslim family in dearborn to see whats its like for 30 days. It was pretty cool. They had some nice shots of Detroit and Dearborn as well as that mosque on Altar rd. next to the Warrendale community church. They said that the mosque is actually in Detroit. Is this correct or were they just using the "Oh, I live in Detroit (but I actually live in Garden City)" Cliche? | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4616 Registered: 11-2003 |
Isn't the Eastside Detroit City Limits also Altar Rd. Now jjaba is really confused. jjaba, Westsider. | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 3430 Registered: 10-2003 |
Alter, not Altar jjaba. | ||
Jjaba Member Username: Jjaba Post Number: 4617 Registered: 11-2003 |
Ah, Saalam Alekem, Lowell. jjaba doesn't know the Eastside. They do things differently over there, eh. jjaba, Westsider, Shalom Alechem. | ||
Chuckles Member Username: Chuckles Post Number: 25 Registered: 02-2007 |
I am very familiar with the churches on Altar Rd my in-laws were regulars of Prince of Peace Lutheran for many, many years..... POPL church was always up against the money wall and fell into some disrepair, it suffered from the economics of the neighborhood, the entire area suffers from the economics of the area. Southwest lower Michigan, IMO, suffers from Economics...we are essentially an economically divided society...that is the way it is. chuckles... | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 336 Registered: 08-2006 |
These buildings lie in a wierd triangle in the border line of Detroit/Dearborn. I always used to wonder why there was a wierd change in the border there. It is because of a private claim extending from the Rouge River. In case anybody else ever wondered.... | ||
Treble484 Member Username: Treble484 Post Number: 33 Registered: 02-2006 |
Altar Rd was once the original Ford Rd. before it was widen and the overpass at Evergreen was built in the mid to late sixties. Thus the reason for the now dead end. |
