Famous people's places / Detroit – Midtown

Statues of Detroit's French Pioneers

Four sandstone statues of Detroit's French-era founders, carved for the old City Hall and now standing on Wayne State University's campus.

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01 / The story of this place

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In the 1870s, Detroit sculptor Julius Melchers carved four larger-than-life sandstone statues honoring the city's French colonial history: explorer Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701, missionary Jacques Marquette, explorer Robert de La Salle, and Father Gabriel Richard, the priest who helped found the University of Michigan. The statues were commissioned for Detroit's grand Victorian City Hall downtown, where they stood until the building was demolished in 1961. The Detroit Common Council saved the statues and gave them to Wayne State University, which displayed them on the Ludington Mall starting in 1973. In 2017, the university moved the statues to a redesigned greenspace beside the Faculty/Administration Building, where they still stand as one of campus's most distinctive landmarks.

Carved by Julius Melchers in the 1870s for old Detroit City Hall
Depict Cadillac, Marquette, La Salle and Gabriel Richard
Saved when City Hall was demolished in 1961
On Wayne State's campus since 1973, moved to their current spot in 2017

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Lexicon entries for the people who lived, worked, performed or liked to spend time here.

Julius Melchers 1829–1908 · sculptor, woodcarver, teacher
Worked here
Melchers's sandstone figures of Marquette, La Salle, Cadillac and Gabriel Richard, made for the 1871 City Hall and moved to Wayne State's campus after the hall's 1961 demolition.

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Sources & fact check · Checked: 2026-09-25

An independently written bilingual guide. This collection is not an attendance-based ranking.