St. Joseph Shrine - Photos (exterior)
St. Joseph Shrine
St. Joseph Shrine on a sunny Sep 2023 morning
The original structure was a wooden frame church built at the corner of Gratiot and Orleans, but by 1869 it became clear that it was inadequate for the congregation. The present church, designed by Franz Georg Himpler, was begun in 1870. It is a magnificent and largely unaltered example of Victorian Gothic Revival at its best.
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 finished 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.
A look at the exterior from a distance
A close-up view of St. Joseph Shrine - Photo from May. 10, 2023