Gesu Catholic School

01 / The story of this place

Make time for these

Jesuit priest John P. McNichols founded Gesu Parish in 1922 as a mission just north of the University of Detroit campus, celebrating its first Mass in a converted farmhouse before a resident pastor took over in 1924. The parish opened Gesu School in 1925 on Oak Drive at the edge of what became the University District, staffed from the start by the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and enrolling 180 students in its first year. Congregants worshipped in the school's basement for a decade until the current church building opened in 1935; enrollment peaked around 1,660 students in 1968. Singer Aaliyah, born in Brooklyn but raised in Detroit, attended Gesu as a young girl in the 1980s and gave her first stage performance there, playing the title role in a first-grade production of "Annie". Gesu remains an operating Catholic elementary school today.

1. Parish founded by Jesuit priest John P. McNichols in 1922
2. School opened in 1925 on Oak Drive
3. Staffed from the start by the IHM Sisters
4. Singer Aaliyah acted here as a first-grader in the 1980s
5. Still an active Catholic elementary school