In February 1837, the Reverend Calvin Clark, a circuit-riding pastor sent by the American Home Missionary Society, met with twenty-four persons and organized the Albion Presbyterian Church. The first church was built in 1840 on the corner of Clinton and Erie streets. In 1857 the congregation erected a new church on this site, and in 1858 the First Presbyterian Church built here later burned in February 1873. Detroit architect Elijah E. Myers, who also designed Michigan's present state capitol, was immediately commissioned to plan a new church, which was completed in 1879. In 1883 fire again ravaged the church, but the Romanesque Revival building's shell and two stained-glass windows were saved and incorporated into the present church, which was dedicated on August 10, 1884.