Douglas Churches

Location: Various locations, Douglas
Date: 1872-1965

SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH, Washington and Fremont streets, 1879
A local manufacturer founded this congregation in 1874. The church building was fashioned out of an existing building in 1879. Known for its revivals and thriving church school, it is said to have attracted local factory workers because of church restrictions on Saturday work. Now known as Unity Church.

DOUGLAS METHODIST CHURCH, Mixer and Center Streets, 1872
This congregation grew out of a “meeting house” for the village and with periodic visitations by a Methodist circuit preacher in the 1860s. A Methodist church building was erected in 1872 and served as a congregation meeting place until 1918, when the congregation merged with the Saugatuck Methodist church. Thereafter the building has been the home of a men’s fraternal organization (the IOOF), the Douglas Athletic Club, and is now the Saugatuck-Douglas District Library.

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH OF DOUGLAS, 56 Wall Street, 1884
Founded in 1872, the congregation moved into its countrified Gothic Revival edifice in 1884. It became the most socially prominent congregation in the village and was well known for its music. Daniel Gerber was one of the church founders; the builder was local farmer Hugh Graham. The building has undergone considerable recent restoration and is now known as the Douglas Congregational United Church of Christ.

ST. PETER’S CATHOLIC CHURCH, St. Peter’s Drive, 1900
St. Peter’s was founded in 1884, primarily as a mission to basket factory workers. The congregation moved to its first church structure at Washington and Chestnut Streets in 1900 and became an official parish in 1938. A large new church and school was built along the Blue Star Highway in 1958, incorporating stained glass windows from the original church.

COMMUNITY CHURCH OF DOUGLAS, 6780 Wiley Road, 1965
This congregation was founded in 1965 and originally used the old St. Peter’s church as its first home. The church moved to large new campus-like facilities on Wiley Road in 1992.