The Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church records includes a church history, celebratory and obsequy programs, clippings, and notebooks of materials accumulated during the pastorates of R. B. James, Solomon David Ross, William H. Crews, and Harold Knox; also bulletins of church services. The record group consists of four series: Church Publications, History, Topical File, and Miscellaneous Records.
Greater Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church is the second oldest African-American Baptist congregation in Detroit and was founded in 1881 by the Reverend John Wills; at its founding, there were 25 members.
The church at the Benton Street site was designed by a black draftsman--Carlos N. Stokes--in 1920, but the church was not completed until 1926 when the congregation moved from their previous church in the Eastern Market.
Reverend Solomon Ross was called to the pastoral vacancy in 1929 (following Reverend Robert James' death) and was integral to the church's survival in the depression years. In 1931 he detected fraud among some of the church officials, and had more than 50 members expelled. In 1935, Reverend Ross fought the federal government's attempt to raze the church. He succeeded in his fight and this explains the seemingly unusual location of the church within the Brewster Project. In 1937, Ross organized a Junior Church to train the children in running the church as they grew older. Ross would continue to facilitate African-American progress and opportunities well into the 1960s.
Reverend William Crews was called after Ross' passing, and served through 2003. Crews helped triple the number of people who tithed in Shiloh, and engaged in interstate visitation for the first time in its history. In 1977, Crews and the congregation engaged in a massive remodeling of Shiloh, modernizing the building throughout. Reverend Crews engaged in another renovation project, this time to construct the Mary O. Ross Education Building. In 1981, Shiloh celebrated its Centennial Anniversary, with a special banquet and program of events.
In 2003, Reverend Harold Lee Knox was installed as pastor, though he would come into conflict with the congregation and the deacons of the church two years later. Knox resigned as pastor in 2007 after legal proceedings.
The church is a large, redbrick, one-story building resting upon a concrete pod with limestone trim. In the front, a major addition was constructed in 1978. This is a large two-story brick entryway with a flat roof. In the Eric Hill, John Gallagher book AIA Detroit: The American Institute of Architects Guide to Detroit Architecture (Wayne State University Press, 2003) one can find a sketch of the original entrance designed by Carlos Stokes. It is a classical church entrance strongly influenced by traditional European church architecture.
