History of OLQH &
Good Shepherd Church
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History of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church
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Few Catholic churches within the Archdiocese of Detroit have a history as fascinating as Our Lady Queen of Heaven parish. It was founded in 1929 by Fr. Albert Mrowka.
O.L.Q.H. was started by the Archdiocese of Detroit to serve the many Polish Catholic immigrants who were moving to the still-rural outskirts of the city.
The Polish immigrants came in great numbers. The Archdiocese responded by establishing parishes with Polish-speaking priests to minister to their spiritual needs.
Hamtramck became a virtual Polish enclave among other sprawling neighborhoods in the Detroit area. The Poles, just like every other ethnic group, quickly assimilated into the new society and, after a few decades, sought to move on from their portal neighborhoods into a more typically American lifestyle. They bought homes of their own and chose to move on to an even better way of living.
By the 1920's many were moving to the outskirts of the city, settling on farmlands that were quickly developed into subdivisions by the farmers. One of the attractive areas was the still-rural region in the vicinity of Van Dyke, Seven Mile Road and Outer Drive.
One local farmer, John G. Hafeli, would become a catalyst for a new neighborhood and a new Catholic parish to serve the people about to move in. His 13 acres were the one-day location of O.L.Q.H. parish.
By the late 1920's enough people had moved into the new neighborhoods that the Archdiocese of Detroit began searching for property to build a new Catholic parish. John G. Hafeli was among the organizing group that petitioned the Archdiocese to form a new parish to minister to area Catholics. In early 1929, the Archdiocese purchased five acre plot from the Hafeli farm.
The name for the new parish was first titled "Our Lady of Czestochowa." It was determined to be "too Polish" by many who couldn't pronounce it. When Bishop Gallagher finally appointed a pastor, the parish name was changed to "Our Lady Queen of Heaven."
Later in 1929 came both the Great Depression and the parish's first pastor, Fr. Albert Mrowka, from St. Michael parish in Port Austin, MI. Upon his arrival, he was given house at 8037 Rolyat by John Hafeli to use as a rectory. John's brother, Henry, owned a strip of stores on Van Dyke and he gave Fr. Mrowka two of them, which were used for organizing the new parish. They were the site for the first parish Mass held on Sunday, November 17, 1929.
With a congregation of 125 families, plans were made to build a church for Mass and a school for the children. Fr. Mrowka received a commitment from the Sisters of St. Francis in Sylvania, Ohio, to staff the school when it was built. The new facility would be a combination church and school. The idea was to get a building up and running as soon as possible and later build a free-standing church. And in 1931, Fr. Mrowka acquired two residences on Rolyat across the street from the parish property, using them for the rectory and convent.
Back in the 1930's, hard times meant that people had little money for entertainment, diversions and recreation. They created their own social events closely intertwined with the local Catholic church. The first parish organization at O.L.Q.H. was the St. Ann Sodality formed in 1929. It was organized to help secure, prepare, and maintain the altar needs for Masses, like the altar cloths, Communion Hosts, sacred vessels, the priest's vestments, etc.
Other organizations also quickly grew from need or convention: the Ushers Club, the Holy Name Society, the Young Ladies Sodality, and the Q of H chapter of the League of Catholic Women. there was even a Dramatic Club organized by the Associate Pastor, Fr. Edmond Wilschon, in 1937.
With continued growth of the school, in 1935, money was raised to expand the combination church/school building and to build a new auditorium.
By 1944 the school enrollment peaked at 960 students, eclipsing the size of many private high schools. In almost breathtaking succession the parishioners raised funds for and built a temporary church structure, a rectory and office building, a convent and a school addition. In a few short years further construction completed the parish complex except for a permanent church which was begun in 1955 and completed in 1959, and dedicated on November 11, of that year. In 1963 the finishing touch, a bell tower and baptistry were built.
Societal and demographic changes in the 1970's also brought change to O.L.Q.H. with decreasing membership and school enrollment. Founding pastor Fr. Albert Mrowka retired on June 21, 1968, 39 years after his appointment began. Two years after a debilitating stroke, he died on October 8, 1976.
The loss of a founder and leader is sometimes too devastating to an organization for it to continue. But O.L.Q.H. managed to survive, if not flourish, through a succession of new pastors over the years that followed. Although the school continued to lose enrollment and eventually close, first a public and later a charter school, Dove Academy, leased the building for many years with a population of 450 students. This provided the parish with a dependable source of income which helped to defray the costs of running the other facilities.
Today, O.L.Q.H. continues to meet new challenges by maintaining several viable groups that provide the needed leadership and social functions for parishioners old and new. Additionally, the very special and fortunate merging of parishes with Good Shepherd in Detroit provides new members for such organizations as Christian Service, Choir, the annual "Good Times Festival" and the Social Club.
Over almost 90 years, O.L.Q.H. Parish has followed the dreams of its founding pastor, Fr. Albert Mrowka, as well as the expectations of the men and women who helped him found it. In doing so, together they created a faith community of believers who have lived, worshipped, and grieved together. The parish succeeded and flourished through unemployment and economic hardship, wartime and social upheaval, changing neighborhoods, and moral attitudes. The life of the 21st century parishioner is very different from the day to day concerns of those who began the parish in the 1920's. But deep roots will assure the continued flowering of one of Detroit's most beautiful spiritual communities.
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Pastors / Administrators
1929-1968
Rev. Albert Mrowka
1968-1974Rev. Lawrence J. Matysiak
1974-1982Rev. Edward F. Konopka
(more info)
1982-1989Rev. James H. Profota
1989-2011Rev. Donald Sopiak
2011-2015Rev. Robert Kotlarz
2013-2014Rev. Ronald Borg, CSB
2015-PresentRev. Dr. Michael C. Nkachukwu
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History of Good Shepherd Church
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A petition of four hundred names led Bishop John Foley to establish Annunciation parish at Parkview and Agnes in 1906 to serve Catholics living east of Burns and west of Connors Creek. The church was begun under a building permit issued July 6, 1911, and was designed by Donaldson & Meier in the Romanesque mode. The building is in general very similar to the same architects’ St. Elizabeth and St. Anthony, both earlier buildings. Although a reference says that the first Mass in the church was in June, 1912, there is a photo from the Detroit News in January, 1913, stating that the church was dedicated on Christmas Day, 1912. The church was then said to be in the Romanesque style, and the exterior shows that influence strongly; it is somewhat unusual with small-scaled towers and a very large lantern over the crossing. The interior is more mixed, with classical influence. The chancel windows depicting the Seven Sacraments, as well as those in the body of the church, are likely of European origin (some say of Austrian glass).
The final work of the artist’s brush on a striking series of mural paintings by A. Z. Bellante, of Newark, New Jersey, marked the completion of the beautiful Romanesque Church of the Annunciation, on Parkview Avenue, near Jefferson Avenue.
The painting and the other decorative work of Mr. Bellante, by which the whole interior was brightened and lightened, and the settings of the windows and pillars which are most effective, were finished in time for special parish services and the dedication on Christmas day.
This was the latest achievement of the congregation which in 15 years had grown from a little group of people who met their newly-assigned pastor, the Rev. Fr. James Stapleton, at a Mass celebrated in a private house, to a parish of 1,000 families, worshiping in a church capable of holding 1,700 people and sustaining a school and high school with 1,000 pupils.
The parochial buildings included the church, the school, the rectory and the home for the teaching sisters. Eventually, a gymnasium and a community center were built to the west of that group of buildings.
The church building, whose interior has been much admired because of the gracefulness of the arches and beauty of the stained glass windows, was begun in 1911. The general Romanesque plan is similar to that of St. Anthony’s Church (Detroit) designed like the Annunciation Church by Donaldson & Meier. The front of St. Anthony’s, however, rises in two pointed towers, while the towers of the Annunciation church are square and castellated.
As one enters the vestibule of the church, he faces the first artwork, an imitation bas-relief of the Annunciation over the inner door to the middle aisle. This is a copy of a medieval Italian work and is the only copied piece in the church. In all the other paintings, Mr. Bellante followed his own designs.
The opening of the door to the main aisle shows the rounded Romanesque unity of the cross-shaped interior, the arches rising in a color scheme of white and pale gold from rectangular side pillars crowned with modified Corinthian capitals. The pillars are of the hue and texture of Sienna marble. Between the arches on either side of the nave are medallions of the 12 Apostles—except in the arch over the choir loft at the rear—where on one side King David can be seen with the harp, and the other St. Cecilia at the organ.
The arches of the nave and the transepts meet in a low dome skillfully designed in the lacunar style, representing sunken panels. The design of the dome is repeated and balanced by the sunken panels of the rounded apse, or altar recess, within the sanctuary, and by the meeting arches of the nave and the transept are united in one impressive structure of grace and strength.
In the place where the arches of the nave and transept meet, four heroic sized figures are painted on the upward broadening curve of the arches: St. Matthew with his angel; St. Luke, whom Mr. Bellante has painted as a painter with easel and palette, and symbolical ox beside him; St. Mark with the lion, and St. John with the eagle. And from low niches at other points in this part of the church, four statue figures look forth, statues of the Sacred Heart, St. Peter, St. Paul and St. Anthony of Padua.
The roomy sanctuary has a baldachin high altar whose lines are in harmony with the architecture of the church. The rounded ceiling of the apse, with its series of sunken panels, bears in the middle, high over the Tabernacle, the chief painting of the entire Bellante series, a picture of the Annunciation, with the Blessed Virgin upon her knees beside the spinning wheel, the archangel Gabriel in a cloud saluting her, and through the open window a vista of the road and of the city of Nazareth. Beneath this arching roof, in the round walls of the apse, seven stained glass windows show in softened light representations of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic church: Penance, Matrimony, Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Orders, Extreme Unction, with Christ at the last supper, representing Holy Communion, showing in the window immediately over the middle of the high altar. The other windows depict scenes from the life of Christ. The window showing Jesus driving the moneychangers from the temple is particularly compelling, since this scene is not generally shown.
In completing his work, Bellante has not only carried out his own pictorial plans, but fitted all those plans into the general architecture of the church and also has put touches of effective art on the setting of the windows, the statues of the Stations of the Cross and other places.
Through 75 years, Annunciation had seven pastors. Until 1942, Msgr. James Stapleton - the founder - was pastor. During the next forty year period, there were three pastors--Fr. Thomas J. Carroll, Fr. P.G. McSherry and Fr. Arnold Q. Schneider--who shepherded the flock through Annunciation’s Golden Age. They were followed by Monsignor Wilbur Suedkamp, Fr. Valentine Gattari, and Fr. Michael Chidi Nkachukwu.
Msgr. Suedkamp served as pastor until his death in 1987. Fr. Gattari served until July 1, 1998, when Fr. Nkachukwu became co-pastor of Annunciation and St. Anthony. Our Lady of Sorrows joined with Annunciation to become Annunciation/Our Lady of Sorrows Church in 2000.
In 2006, St. Anthony of Padua closed its doors at Sheridan and Gratiot. Most of her parishioners joined with Annunciation/Our Lady of Sorrows to form a new parish—Good Shepherd. Fr. Nkachukwu continued as pastor. In 2015, Fr. Tyrone Robinson joined the staff as Associate Pastor.
On Monday, January 11, 2016, Good Shepherd officially merged with Our Lady Queen of Heaven and began a new chapter in advancing the Kingdom of God here on Earth. While the main worship site has been transferred to 8200 Rolyat Street in Detroit, our majestic structure pictured above remains available for weddings, funerals and special occasions.
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Photo Albums
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