Famous people's places / Detroit – Downtown
Mariners' Church of Detroit
Detroit's 1849 sailors' church, moved whole in 1955, whose bell rang 29 times for the Edmund Fitzgerald; Patti Smith married here in 1980.
01 / The story of this place
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Mariners' Church is Detroit's sailors' church and one of the oldest churches still standing in the city. Julia Anderson left the land in her will in 1842 so that Great Lakes sailors would have a place to pray, and the limestone Gothic Revival church, designed by Calvin N. Otis, was built in 1849. When the city cleared the riverfront for its new civic center in the 1950s, the church was set to be demolished, but a public campaign led by Detroit News columnist George Stark saved it. In 1955 the entire stone building was moved about 880 feet east to its present spot on Jefferson Avenue, right above the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel. When the freighter Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior on November 10, 1975, rector Richard Ingalls rang the church bell 29 times, once for each lost sailor, and Gordon Lightfoot wrote the church into his famous ballad. On March 1, 1980, punk poet Patti Smith married MC5 guitarist Fred "Sonic" Smith here. The congregation is independent Anglican today.
- Built in 1849 on land left by Julia Anderson for Great Lakes sailors
- Moved about 880 feet in 1955 to save it from demolition
- Its bell rang 29 times for the Edmund Fitzgerald crew in 1975
- Patti Smith and Fred "Sonic" Smith married here on March 1, 1980
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1971
Famous Detroiters
Famous people tied to this place 2
Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.
- Patti Smith born 1946 · singer, songwriter, poet, author
Related place
The historic riverfront church where she married Fred “Sonic” Smith on March 1, 1980.
- Hugh Moffat 1810–1884 · carpenter-builder, lumberman, mayor of Detroit
Worked here
Detroit's oldest stone church, which he built as contractor; in 1955 it was moved about 880 feet to its current site next to the Detroit–Windsor Tunnel entrance.
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Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25
An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.
03 / Events
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Official website & visitor information ↗