St. Theresa of Avila Roman Catholic Church

School (Allen Academy)

Rectory

The St. Theresa of Avila Roman Catholic Parish Complex consists of the church, rectory, school, and convent.[2] All of the buildings are essentially Neo-Romanesque in character, and are constructed of dark red brick trimmed with Indiana limestone.

The church is in the Italian Romanesque style, with Byzantine and Art Deco influences. It has a gable front facade with towers at the sides.[2] The entrance is through a five-arched, two-story Romanesque arcaded portico. Above the entrance is a round window flanked with arched niches.[2]

The school is a three-story I-shaped building; the rectory is a five-bay center entrance house with Romanesque Revival details.[2] The three-story convent building, which was built during the Great Depression, features more modest ornamentation. A central pavilion containing the entrance divides the building into three elements.[2]

The St. Theresa of Avila Parish was built as an Irish-American parish, built at a time when the prosperity of the community was such that this magnificent complex could be afforded.[2] The need for this building reflects the population boom in the city brought about by the automobile industry.[2]

The parish was closed in 1989;[3] the Allen Academy, a K-12 charter school, used the school building from 1999 to 2016.[4]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St. Theresa of Avila Church (Detroit, Michigan).

• Allen Academy