In October 1920, a group of residents, having no church in their neighborhood, began holding Sunday school services in the basement of a home on Northlawn Street. Finding plenty of like-minded faithful in the area, the group organized in 1921 as the Westlawn congregation and held services in a frame structure near Ohio Street and Grand River Avenue that was donated to the Methodist Conference by B.E. Taylor. The congregation adopted the name Westlawn, as the neighborhood was called the “Westlawn District” at the time.

Though designated a Methodist church, Westlawn was essentially a community church serving members from different denominations since its inception.

In September 1924, the Rev. Hazen G. Werner became the congregation’s pastor at age 28, and the young preacher grew his congregation steadily. “He is considered one of the most fluent, magnetic and forceful speakers in his denomination,” the Detroit Free Press wrote Jan. 24, 1925. Werner, a Detroit native and 1914 Central High School graduate, studied at Albion College, Drew Theological Seminary and Columbia University.

On Jan. 10, 1925, the Detroit Free Press reported that “upwards of 130 families are moving into the district every month,” and having outgrown their church building, members of the congregation began raising funds to build a new one. Their campaign sought to raise $50,000 (about $939,000 in 2025 valuation, when adjusted for inflation) for what was planned to be a $150,000 structure (or about $2.8 million in 2025).

The fund-raising committee was begun on Jan. 8, 1925, and $10,000 - an impressive $188,000 in 2025 valuation - was donated that night, the Free Press reported.

“It is said that there is no Protestant church in the large territory north and south of Grand River between Livernois Boulevard and Meyers Road, and the Westlawn congregation hope to provide this need,” the Detroit Free Press reported Jan. 24, 1925. Indeed, The Detroit Times wrote March 13, 1926, that “the Westlawn church is the only Protestant church for a long stretch of the Grand River Avenue district.”

The architectural firm Stahl & Kinsey gave the limestone church rough-cut stone trimmings and an auditorium holding about 1,000 people, as well as a kitchen, Bible study room and church offices.

As the congregation continued to raise money for the project, ground was broken on the church on March 15, 1925.

The cornerstone was laid May 17, 1925, with remarks by Werner, the Rev. Edgar J. Warren and the Rev. J.A. Yeoman of Whitfield Church. Bishop Thomas Nicholson had the honor of mortaring the cornerstone into place. The Rev. W.S.C. Pellowe of Preston Methodist Church pronounced the invocation, and his church’s chorus sang several songs.

By the time the cornerstone was slathered into place, the foundation and side walls were already well under way, and construction was moving at a quick clip. At the ceremony, coupons allotting for the purchase of one stone or five bricks were sold to congregants as a fund-raiser. More than $1,600 was raised this way ($30,000 in 2025 value), bringing the church to $30,000 of its $50,000 goal.

Between 1925 and 1927, church attendance grew from 125 members to nearly 800, with an average Sunday school attendance of 725. In 1928, membership reached 1,200.

In order to handle its seemingly ever-growing congregation, the church started hosting services in the basement in November 1925. By the time the church was completed, its price tag had dropped to $100,000, about $1.9 million in 2025. The Detroit Times on March 13, 1926, called the fund-raising effort “a fine example of faith and determination.”

The church was dedicated with a week of events, with Bishop Nicholson returning to give a dedicatory sermon on March 14, 1926. Mrs. Troy Roddenberry appropriately sang “Open the Gates of the Temple,” and the choir sang a hallelujah chorus. The week featured additional performances, including one by the Northwestern High School orchestra and glee club, as well as sermons, readings and communion services.

Just a year after the new church’s opening, the Men’s Bible class built a large annex at the back of the structure with a seating capacity of 200. Built with donated labor and materials, it was estimated to be worth about $3,000.

In the summer of 1928, the church launched another $70,000 campaign to build a three-story community church house, redecorate the only 2-year-old church and install a pipe organ. This new structure was completed the following year. A basketball court was located on the third floor.

Werner had left the church in February 1928 to lead Cass Community Methodist Church, where he served until 1934. The Rev. J.A.. Halmbuber took his place at Westlawn. Werner later became a professor at his alma mater, the Drew Theological Seminary in New Jersey, from 1945 to 1948, before rising to become bishop of the Ohio area of the Methodist Church in 1948. He died in St. Petersburg, Fla., in September 1988 at age 93.

For the next several decades, things were fine at Westlawn. However, as the city started bleeding population in the 1950s, its hundreds of churches began to lose members. This only accelerated after the unrest of 1967 and a decrease in overall general church attendance that would follow. In 1969, a unification between the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church led to further mergers of congregations, according to the book “The Methodist Church in Michigan.” In 1974, the Fourteenth Avenue Methodist Episocpal Church was shuttered and merged into Westlawn. But even the larger flock brought on by that merger was enough to keep the aging church building going. Westlawn was closed in 1977 and folded into the Greenfield United Methodist Church.

The former Westlawn church was sold to the Greater St. Mark’s Missionary Baptist Church, which would operate out of it for almost 20 years. In 1995, the building was sold to the Body of Christ Church, which used it until 2013, when it took over the former Our Lady Gate of Heaven Church at Westwood and West Chicago Boulevard.

From that point on, the church on Ohio Street sat largely vacant, though remained in good condition and with stained-glass windows intact.

However, in the early morning hours of Nov.10, 2025, the church was destroyed by a massive fire. It was believed to have been started by an unhoused individual trying to keep warm during an early-season snowstorm. After multiple fire crews arrived on the scene and started battling the blaze, a man wandered out of the church suffering from burns and smoke inhalation saying he had been sleeping inside when the fire started. He was hospitalized and listed in temporary serious condition, but expected to survive.

DetroitUrbex.com contributed to research on this history.