St. Mary's Church Complex Historic District

The St. Mary's Church Complex Historic District is a historic district located at the junction of Elm Avenue and North Monroe Street (M-125) in the city of Monroe, Michigan. It was listed as a Michigan Historic Site and added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1982.The complex itself consists of four buildings. The centerpiece of the district is St. Mary Church at 117 North Monroe Street. The church traces its origins to the St. Antoine aux Rivière Raisin, which was founded on October 15, 1788, and it is the oldest church in Monroe County. The current site was constructed in 1834, consecrated in 1839, and renamed in 1845. That year, the church fell under the leadership of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, and the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was founded in Monroe the same year. In 1846, St. Mary Academy was an all-girls educational facility built down the road from the church, while Monroe Catholic Central was an all-boys school built right next to the main church. These two schools merged in 1986 to form the coeducational St. Mary Catholic Central (SMCC) high school, which stayed in the heavily expanded Monroe Catholic Central building next to the church at 108 West Elm Avenue. It remains there to this day as the largest building in the historic district and the largest private school in the county.