The story of St. Joseph Parish began in 1855, when the Rev. Edward Franz van Campenhout, an assistant at St. Mary's (in today's Greektown neighborhood), left that church to found a new German parish. In October of that year, construction was begun on a frame church at the corner of Gratiot and Orleans. The parish's first recorded function, a baptism, took place in January 1856. In 1863, after several short-term pastors, the Rev. Johann Ferdinand Friedland was assigned to St. Joseph. Born in Germany and educated at Louvain, Belgium, for the "missions" in America, Fr. Friedland became pastor a short time after his arrival in the parish. When be died in 1896, the parish had been completed in the physical sense. The present church was surrounded by the rectory, built in 1896; the school, built in 1867; the Commercial College, started in 1889; and also the sister's convent -- originally built as the rectory in 1865. Education was provided from first grade through adulthood; besides the grade school, St. Joseph Academy offered a high school for girls and the commercial college - later called St. Joseph High School - a business-oriented high school for boys. Today, this impressive educational plant is gone, but the church built by Fr. Friedland remains to remind us of what has gone before.

     By 1869, it became clear that the frame church was inadequate for the congregation. On October 23, 1870, the bishop laid the cornerstone for a new Church, to be the largest in the city. Francis G. Himpler of New York was the architect; German born and educated in Munich and at the Royal Academy in Berlin, he seemed ideal to design a church for a German congregation. He did his work well, for to this day the church seems transplanted from Germany.

On the exterior, the church is compact and soaring. The walls are of Trenton limestone with sandstone trim, the roof of slate and copper. The height of the church itself, some eighty-five feet, is dwarfed by the tower and spire, about two hundred feet tall. The exterior as we see it now was not completed until 1911. The tower was completed only as high as the roof of the church in 1873; the octagonal portion of the tower was built in 1883 and the spire in 1892. Finally, in 1911, the pinnacles which surmount the walls were installed.

Inside, the church gives an impression of a single, soaring, space. Himpler chose as his model the "hall-church" of southern Germany, with all three naves of almost equal height. No one church seems to have provided the basis, but such churches as the Cathedral of Freiburg or the Minster in Ulm are brought to mind.

At the liturgical east end of the church, the chancel is enclosed with five tall, slender, stained glass windows; these are the most important cultural objects in the church, internationally known for their position in the history of European and American stained glass. Beneath the figures of Christ and Peter in the central window is the signature of Mayer of Munich, the world-famous stained glass makers. These windows, dating from 1873, are the oldest known Mayer glass in America. But the windows are not entirely by Mayer; only the figures with their pedestals and bases came from Munich. The geometric designs in red, yellow and blue above and below the figures were made by Friederichs & Staffin of Detroit. The design for that geometric pattern, a color rendering by architect Himpler, still survives. This is the earliest documented involvement of an American architect in the design of stained glass, and it must be assumed that Himpler was also in contact with Mayer, for the Mayer glass fits perfectly into the pattern Himpler designed.

The fittings of the church are especially noteworthy. In a period when much decoration was done by molding plaster, St. Joseph was built with carved wood ornament. The altars, statues, confessionals, and pulpit are all of wood, without cast ornament. Many of the decorations were imported from Germany: the high altar, almost all the statues, and the stations of the cross. Other decorative items were made in Detroit, partly by a craftsman named Anthony Osebald, who belonged to St. Joseph. Other furnishings, such as the St. Joseph Altar, were made by the Belgian-American inventor Charles Van den Poele, who later became "the father of the streetcar." Stained glass was bought in Detroit, from the firm of Friederichs & Staffin, whose owners were parishioners. The rose window is the Friederichs family gift; the firm also made the window over the side door and the geometric windows in the body of the church. The "Death of St. Joseph" window was imported from Innsbruck, Austria. Across from it is the Good Shepherd window, a memorial to Fr. Friedland made by Friederichs & Staffin, with both the old and the present St. Joseph shown in the lower panels.

     The music of St. Joseph has always been of importance; the church was dedicated on November 16, 1873, with a Mass by Haydn presented by the Opera House Orchestra; The original organ was built in 1873 by J.H, & C.S. Odell of New York. The case, however, was built in Detroit by William Mayer; it is the last 19th century case in Detroit to remain unaltered. The organ itself went through many unfortunate changes. In honor of the centennial of the church building, a new instrument was installed using many pipes from the Odell.

     The last important furnishings were installed between 1900 and 1915, when the floor of marble mosaic was laid, the brass-light fixtures installed, and the two side windows in the chancel purchased from the successor firm to Friedericks and Staffin, the Detroit Stained Glass Works. These lovely windows, showing Bethlehem and Jerusalem, face interior space and so are seldom lit.

     Finally, mention should be made of the peal of six bells. Cast in Baltimore in 1883 for installation in the newly-built section of the tower, they form one of the finest sets of bells in the city. During installation, the largest bell was dropped from the bell platform and fell to the basement of the tower. Hopelessly broken, it was returned to Baltimore and recast into a 5000 pound bell, the largest of the set, and then reputed to be the largest swinging bell in the United States.

     St. Joseph, then, is a magnificent and largely unaltered example of Victorian Gothic Revival at its best. The building's historic and architectural interest has been recognized, and it is a protected structure under the City of Detroit's Historic District Ordinance, and is listed on the Michigan Register of Historic Sites. While many churches in Detroit are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, St. Joseph is the only one listed as "of national importance".