The History
It all began in 1911, when The Annunciation Church was built in Detroit’s East Village neighborhood. Eventually renamed as Good Shepherd, its iconic Romanesque-style design was and remains an architectural splendor. And while the church officially closed in 2016, its dramatic design continued to inspire the community long after. In 2020, the founders of Library Street Collective purchased the church and its surrounding 3.75 acres in hopes of reactivating the site into a new cultural corridor rooted in the arts.
New York-based Peterson Rich Office (PRO) was brought on to transform the abandoned relic and its adjacent rectory into cultural venues that both respected and preserved their original architectural character while also developing the new spaces into community-centered anchors for public programming, exhibitions, hospitality, artist live/workspaces, and more. The former rectory was reshaped into both a bed and breakfast and non-profit headquarters that shined anew with Mid-century-inspired furnishings, locally-rooted art, and a warm embrace of the building’s historic character. Outdoors, landscape design firm OSD, was tasked at revitalizing the surrounding greenspace into an artistic sanctuary for all in the community to enjoy.
