Central Woodward Christian Church is a Metro-Detroit congregation affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Located in Troy, Michigan, this historic congregation was originally located in Detroit on Woodward Avenue. After the congregation decided to relocate, its historic neo-Gothic building, built in 1928, was sold to the Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church is a church in Detroit Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 located at 9000 Woodward Avenue. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 in 1982 and designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1993.

History

The Disciples of Christ came to Detroit in 1846, as a church was founded by Reverend William Nay. By the 1890s, the congregation had grown enough to construct a large church in downtown Detroit. In 1926 two Detroit congregations, Central Christian Church and Woodward Christian Church merged under the leadership of Dr. Edgar Dewitt Jones

Edgar Dewitt Jones

Edgar Dewitt Jones was an American clergyman, ecumenist, and author, born December 5, 1876 at Hearne, Tex., and educated at Transylvania University where he was a member of the Alpha-Omicron Chapter of Kappa Sigma Fraternity, University of Missouri and Illinois Wesleyan University...

. Jones had been called to serve as pastor of Central Christian Church in 1920, and became pastor of the merged congregation in 1926. In 1928 a new building was constructed at the site of the previous Woodward Avenue Church to house the growing and influential congregation. They hired architect George Mason to design the building, which was opened in 1928.

In the late 1970s, after the congregation moved from Detroit to the northern suburb of Troy, the church built another building at 3955 West Big Beaver Road in Troy

Troy, Michigan

Troy is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan, and is a suburb of Detroit. The population was 80,980 at the 2010 census, making it the 11th-largest city in Michigan by population, and the largest city in Oakland County...

, retaining the name Central Woodward Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). The congregation has had several pastors since it's move to Troy. In July 2008, Dr. Robert Cornwall became the ninth called pastor to serve the church.

In 1978, the building at 9000 Woodward was sold to the Little Rock Missionary Baptist church, a primarily African-American congregation founded in 1938. A State of Michigan historical marker commemorated this church.

Building

The church is built in a classic Gothic style from Indiana limestone

Indiana Limestone

Indiana Limestone, also known as Bedford Limestone is a common regional term for Salem limestone, a geological formation primarily quarried in south central Indiana between Bloomington and Bedford....

, and has a slate roof, copper trim, and stained glass windows. The stained glass windows are a distinguishing feature of the building. Some were installed by the original Disciples of Christ congregation, including two windows designed by A. Kay Herbert. One window depicts George Washington

George Washington

George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...

 and the other shows Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

 holding the Emancipation Proclamation

Emancipation Proclamation

The Emancipation Proclamation is an executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War using his war powers. It proclaimed the freedom of 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with nearly...

. In the 1990s, the Little Rock congregation began installing more windows to replace the previous clear glass ones. Perhaps the best known of these windows is the African American Pulpit window depicting the Reverend Richard Allen, the founder of the African-Methodist-Episcopal church, Dr. Martin Luther King, Reverend Jesse Jackson

Jesse Jackson

Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. is an African-American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He was the founder of both entities that merged to...

, Reverend C. L. Franklin

C. L. Franklin

Clarence LaVaughn Franklin , was an American Baptist minister, a civil rights activist, and father of the legendary soul and gospel singer Aretha Franklin.-Background:...

, and Reverend James Holley, pastor of the Little Rock congregation.