Mykola Stefansky arrived in Detroit in 1885, one of the first Ukrainians known to settle in
Michigan. St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church was built on land donated by
Stefansky and first opened in 1908. Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church
on Detroit’s east side, serving Hamtramck, was established in 1914.
St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral acquired a church on 29th Street
near Michigan Avenue in 1951, and a new cathedral was opened in Southfield in 1970.
St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Church was opened in 1959 on Prescott Street.
St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Warren was built in 1964. St. Michael the
Archangel was built in 1964 in Dearborn.
Founded in 1938, the Ukrainian Club of Wayne State University is the oldest club of
Ukrainian college students in the United States. The Ukrainian Cultural Center at 26601
Ryan Road in Warren dates to 1917. The Ukrainian American Archives and Museum
located at 9630 Joseph Campau Street in Hamtramck was founded in 1958. The
museum has over 20,000 books about “the Ukrainian immigration to the United States
and the contributions of Americans of Ukrainian descent to America.”
The Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus was founded in Kharkiv, Ukraine in 1902, before
moving to Kyiv in 1918. In 1949 the chorus relocated to Detroit, from where it tours the
world to this day.
Ukrainians have also left their mark on the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Professor Stefan Tymoshenko (aka Stephen Timoshenko), who is called the “Father of
Theoretical Mechanics,” chaired the Theoretical Mechanics Department at the
University of Michigan until 1936.
The Ukrainian Students’ Club at the University of Michigan was founded on December
11, 1951 by students Mykola Dumyk, Bohdan Nehaniw, and Zenko Melnyk. Even then,
they were active fighting the Russians and in 1956 organized a picket of a visiting
Kremlin delegation.
St. Mary Protectress Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral opened a a heritage school in 1955
called the Lesia Ukrainka Ukrainian Orthodox School of Language and Religion. The
Ridna Shkola heritage school, founded in 1950 runs a Saturday school at the
Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic School in Warren. The school has an
eleven-year curriculum for approximately 100 students. Since the 1980s, two vibrant
Metro-Detroit churches—St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church in Warren and
Immaculate Conception Ukrainian Catholic Church in Hamtramck—have sponsored the
Sunflower Festival, one of Michigan’s largest cultural festivals, with borscht, varenyky,
holubsti, and other food, plus Ukrainian dance and music. More than 25,000 people
attend the August event each year.

Ukrainian Bandurist Choir of Detroit in 1959.