I know very little about this attractive white building. It houses administrative offices for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. I presume that has been its use for some decades. The retail space at the street level has been vacant for some time. After the Book-Cadillac Hotel was refurbished and then reopened by the Westin firm in the fall of 2008, the archdiocese of Detroit updated the facilities of the Gabriel Richard Building and remodeled the retail space on the first floor. Presumably, these spaces will soon be occupied by retail businesses.
This building honors the accomplishments of Gabriel Richard who, along with Judge Augustus Woodward, was responsible for the development of Detroit in the early 1800s. Born in La Ville de Saintes in southern France in 1767, he was ordained a Sulpucian priest in 1791 and began a career as a professor of mathematics in France. However, anti-clericalism was growing in France and so he and several colleagues departed in 1792 for Baltimore. He then went to the Cahokia area of southern Illinois to minister to Indians. In 1798, he moved to the small Francophone village of Detroit where he served as assistant pastor of St. Anne’s church. He was a man of the Enlightenment and, while in Detroit, founded six educational institutions, including the one that became the University of Michigan. He also established the first press in Michigan in 1809 with the publication of a French language periodical, Essais du Michigan, and an English language periodical, The Impartial Observer. He strongly supported the United States in the War of 1812 and was briefly held as a prisoner by the British. He served as the Michigan territory’s representative in Congress from 1823 to 1825 where he sought federal funds to pave the Indian trail that then connected Detroit with Chicago. Father Richard ministered to the sick during the Detroit cholera outbreak of 1832 and then died of that disease in September of that year.
Architect: Unknown to me, but Donaldson and Meier may have
designed the building since they built many churches and schools for the
Catholic diocese in the 1920s.
Date of Construction: Probably the 1920s
Use in 2009: Office building for the Archdiocese of Detroit
City of Detroit Designated Historic District: Not listed
State of Michigan Registry of Historic Sites: Not listed
National Register of Historic Places: Not listed
Photograph: Ren Farley, May 2, 2009
Description prepared: May, 2009