72. Saugatuck Churches

Location: Various locations, Saugatuck
Date: 1861-1925

FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
269 Hoffman Street
Saugatuck’s first church, founded 1860, was the site of the village’s first rally in support of the Union side of the Civil War. The original 1861 structure was plain clapboards with tall windows and rough-hewn wood pews. By 1880 the church had almost 100 members. A new wing was added to the original drab building in 1896. Around 1920 it was faced with stucco and later with brick veneer. Another addition was built in 1968.

SAUGATUCK UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Originally built on the southeast corner of St. Joseph and Main Streets in 1872, the building was moved to 250 Mason Street in 1915.
Known for its revival services in the 1880s, the tall Country Gothic-style structure had seating for 175. It adopted a more stylish Arts & Crafts facade when it was moved to its new location. The church disbanded in 2025 and the building is now a private property.

ALL SAINTS EPISCOPAL CHURCH
252 Grand Street
A Michigan capitalist-politician of his time founded this church in 1868. The building was built in 1874 by local shipbuilders of wood from the nearby forests in what is called “Carpenter Gothic” style. Features such as board and batten exterior, decorated verge boards, wood buttresses, and pointed windows were built to mirror the style of the cathedrals of Europe.

THE REFORMED CHURCH
995 Holland Street
This building housed a rather short-lived congregation started by H.D. Moore, the nearby lumber mill owner, who probably intended it as a church for his mill workers. The 1840s structure was built in a simplified Greek Revival manner and was described at the time as “an ornament to the place.” Circa 1873 it housed a German Reformed Church, circa 1889 a United Brethren church, and circa 1919 a German Lutheran Church. Sometime around 1930, the church was replaced by a house.

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE CHURCH
12 Main Street on the Saugatuck Village Square.
Christian Science lectures were being given in Saugatuck as early as 1891. Howard Cheney was a Chicago architect and project construction architect for the famous Chicago Tribune building. Here, in 1925, Cheney created a Colonial Revival building of the finest classical form.