Detroit Storefront Churches

A storefront church is a place of worship built within in a non-traditional space. From former doctors’ offices, banks, garages, homes, warehouses, etc, these structures utilize buildings originally built for another purpose. Storefront churches are largely an American phenomenon, while they are not unique to Detroit, there is a disproportionately large number of them in the city which is correlated to the history of Detroit and its population decline throughout the years. Given the origin of each building, every storefront church is aesthetically unique, yet distinctively Detroit. For example, on one three-mile stretch of road in East Detroit, there are 36 storefront churches. The large majority of the churches documented for this project are currently in use.