Guardian Angels Church

On January 24, 1888, a predominantly Irish and German group left St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Manistee and founded a new church. The Reverend H. W. Grimme became the church’s pastor in May 1888 and proposed that the new church be dedicated to the “Guardian Angel.” In June 1888 the congregation purchased the orchard of the Englemann homestead. There they laid the building’s cornerstone on September 2, 1888. Bishop H. J. Richter dedicated Guardian Angels Church on December 21, 1890. At 170 feet tall and topped with a 12-foot white cross, the church’s steeple placed it among Manistee’s tallest structures. By the early 1900s the church had built the large schoolhouse to the south, the rectory and a convent for the Sisters of Mercy. The German-born church architect Adolphus Druiding designed Guardian Angels Church in the Romanesque Revival style for a German and Irish congregation. Its many rounded arches suggest an influence of the German Rundbogenstil, translating literally as “round-arch style.” Other stylistic features include corbelled brickwork beneath the eaves and six eyebrow dormers. The Irish founding families were said to be represented by the three Celtic crosses on the façade. In 1909 Carrie Filer funded a twelve-bell chime built by the Meneely Company for the church’s belfry. In 1910 the chime was installed alongside the church’s three original bells. In 1911 the Dempsey family funded the church’s pipe organ with its more than sixteen hundred pipes. Henry Reinisch built the organ.