Notice the oldest institution in Detroit, still worshipping after centuries. Ste. Anne de Détroit was founded in July 1701, just days after the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac landed and built his fort along the river.
Only the cathedral parish in St. Augustine, Florida, has older continuous Catholic records in the United States. The congregation has worshipped through eight different church buildings; this twin-spired Gothic Revival basilica, with its flying buttresses and great rose window, was completed in 1887. Inside lies the body of Father Gabriel Richard, a priest who helped found the University of Michigan and was elected to Congress.
Today the parish serves a largely Latino community in southwest Detroit, its Spanish-language Masses a living echo of how this church has always belonged to whoever came next. Picture the pinnacled towers and rose window, then the neighborhood beyond where the faithful still walk to morning Mass.