Pewabic opens St. Matthew's & St. Joseph's, a Detroit church that ran on the Underground Railroad

Pewabic Pottery is handing Detroiters an hour inside one of the city's oldest Black churches. The pottery is leading guided tours of St. Matthew's & St. Joseph's Episcopal Church on select dates this fall and winter.

The congregation dates to 1846, among the oldest historically Black congregations in the Episcopal Church and the nation. It was started by William Lambert and former members of Second Baptist Church as St. Matthew's Mission. Before Harriet Tubman made her own escape, its members were already moving people north. Nearly 40,000 freedom seekers passed through Detroit on their way to Canada with support from church members and Lambert.

The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 pushed many Black Detroiters across the river to Canada and cut the mission's membership. The two names on the door come from a 1971 merger, when St. Matthew's joined St. Joseph's, whose building had moved to Holbrook Street and Woodward Avenue in 1926.

That history shares a roof with real craft. The building was designed by James Nettleton in an English Gothic style, with carved oak reredos and wainscoting, stained glass that includes three Tiffany windows, and a four-manual Skinner organ installed in 1927. The sanctuary floor is laid in Pewabic tile. In 1926, Marian Anderson gave her first Detroit concert at the dedication of the parish house.

The next tour runs Wednesday, October 21, 2026, from 3 to 4 PM. Two more follow on November 19 and December 15, 2026. Tickets are $50 per tour and available through Pewabic Pottery. The church stands at 8850 Woodward Ave, and the pottery asks that participants arrive directly at the church, since the tour does not begin at Pewabic Pottery.