The Church of St. Joseph is a historic Roman Catholic church building in
St. Joseph, Minnesota
St. Joseph is a city in Stearns County, Minnesota, Stearns County, Minnesota, United States. The population was 6,534 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census and according to 2019 census estimates is now 7,351. It is home to the College of S ...
, United States. It is part of the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud. It was constructed in a
German immigrant community in 1869, though the tower wasn't completed until 1884.
[ With ] A
rectory
A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage.
Function
A clergy house is typically ow ...
stands east of the church. Both buildings were listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1982 for their state-level significance in the themes of architecture, exploration/settlement, and religion. The property was nominated for reflecting the settlement of rural
Stearns County
Stearns County is a county in the U.S. state of Minnesota. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,292. Its county seat and largest city is St. Cloud. The county was founded in 1855. It was originally named for Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the ...
by Catholic immigrant groups clustered in small, ethnic hamlets dominated by a central church.
History
The first Mass in the community was celebrated by
Francis Xavier Pierz on October 22, 1854, when the town was still named Clinton. The first church building was completed a year later, and a small log school building was attached in 1860. The parish decided to build a more spacious building, measuring , with the lower half consisting of native fieldstones and the upper half of granite brick from a nearby quarry. Construction began in 1869, and on June 29, 1871, Bishop
Thomas Grace consecrated the building. This was the first consecrated church in Minnesota made of permanent materials.
The rectory was built in 1874 using similar fieldstone construction. Ten years later the church tower was completed. Four years after that, in 1888, the church and rectory were connected by a stylistically consistent passageway.
See also
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List of Catholic churches in the United States
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References
External links
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Church of Saint Joseph
{{DEFAULTSORT:Church Of Saint Joseph (Saint Joseph, Minnesota)
1869 establishments in Minnesota
Churches in Stearns County, Minnesota
Churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud
German-American culture in Minnesota
Gothic Revival church buildings in Minnesota
National Register of Historic Places in Stearns County, Minnesota
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1869
Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United States