Business & brands / Politics
Alexander Lewis
1822–1908 · grain merchant, mayor of Detroit
Windsor-born grain and flour merchant who ran one of Detroit's largest businesses, served as police commissioner and was Democratic mayor in 1876–1877.
- Born
Sandwich (Windsor), Upper Canada- Died
aged 85- Detroit years
- 1837–1908
- Field
- Business & brands, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Alexander Lewis was born across the river in Sandwich, today's Windsor, Ontario, and came to Detroit in 1837 at fourteen to clerk for a merchant firm. After a spell in Pontiac he returned in 1843 to run forwarding and commission businesses on the waterfront, then in 1862 founded a flour and grain house that became one of the largest in the city; he was president of the Detroit Board of Trade that year. He also directed banks and insurers and headed the Detroit Gas Light Company. After a decade as police commissioner (1865–1875), he was elected mayor as a Democrat for 1876–1877. He served on the Detroit library board and, with Thomas W. Palmer, founded the Michigan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Around 1900 he built a lakeside home in Grosse Pointe Farms that is now the parish house of St. Paul Catholic Church, a Michigan State Historic Site. He died in 1908.
Highlights
- Mayor of Detroit, 1876–1877
- Detroit police commissioner, 1865–1875
- President of the Detroit Board of Trade (1862)
- Co-founder of the Michigan Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Lived here · 1900s
St. Paul on the Lake Catholic Church (Lewis house, parish house)
The lakeside house he built around 1900 is now the parish house of St. Paul Catholic Church; the complex was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1992.