St. Albertus Polish Roman Catholic Church Original Steeple

I was going through my post card collection when I ran across the attached post card I purchased some years ago. It is a post card of St. Albertus Polish Roman Catholic Church on St. Aubin and Canfield, Detroit, Michigan, in the heart of Poletown to my way of thinking. The post card dates back to 1909 as you can see from the post mark on the back of the post card. What is so historically significant is the steeple in the post card. This picture shows the original steeple as it was originally built. I have attached another more current post card of St. Albertus in its current state with a much shorter and reduced steeple.

In going back through the records I find that on Good Friday of 1913 under the pastorate of Fr. Mueller there was a terrible, wintry windstorm that damaged the steeple and chimney. It was decided to shorten the steeple because of the cost involved. I personally would have liked to have seen it built back to its former height. But, I was not at the parish for input when the decisions were made! I’m an old fashioned, traditionalist and like old things. Anyway, I find post cards to be some of the most accurate and available historical footprints of the past. I have a rather large collection of post cards I have been collecting for many years as a hobby and historical record.