St. Joseph Catholic Church (Wilmette, Illinois)

St. Joseph Catholic Church is a parish of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Chicago. The church is located in Wilmette, Illinois, United States, at the corner of Lake Ave and Ridge Road. It is listed on the Wilmette Register of Historic Properties and on the National Register of Historic Places.

History

St. Joseph Parish begins on November 21, 1845 when Fr. Gerhard Plathe of Boston was appointed as the first pastor. Fr. Plathe arrived at what would become Ridge Rd. and Lake Ave. by stagecoach or horseback in November 1845. This was even before there was a railroad to serve the area. His first official act was to celebrate mass in a little log chapel just north of Lake Ave. and Ridge Rd. The parish flourished and the first St. Joseph Parish School was organized under the direction of lay teachers in the mid-1850s. In September 1877, the School Sisters of St. Francis came from Milwaukee to staff the school. They remained for more than one hundred years. The parish grew incredibly over the first twenty-five years of its existence.

In 1872, a young priest of the diocese, who had been born in Germany, was sent to St. Joseph to rescue the parish from its building and financial disasters. His name was Fr. William Netstraeter. He was German speaking, which was essential since most of the parishioners still spoke the language. The bishop promised him that if he stayed for two years and did a good job, he would be made pastor of a coveted city parish. Fr. Netstraeter did an excellent job, but he did not want to leave.

In 1899, he and two other respected leaders created a local community high school. It was called New Trier High School. There was no local cemetery for non-Catholics in the area and the St. Joseph Cemetery was rapidly filling up. Fr. Netstraeter started a cemetery to respond to this need. Today, it is known as Memorial Park at Ridge Rd. and Old Orchard Rd. In 1916 he encouraged the Sisters of Christian Charity to utilize the land to build their motherhouse and novitiate. It became known as Mallinckrodt College. When he died in 1923, he had what amounted to a respectable fortune of $300,000. In his will, he left it all to St. Joseph with the stipulation that the money be used to build a new church to replace the church building he had come to rescue fifty years before.

Since 1993, much has transpired. The parish marked its 150th anniversary with great celebration in 1995. The school, which had been shuttered for ten years, has reopened. It began as a preschool in 1996. Then in 1998, the school was completely renovated and updated to serve children in preschool through eighth grade. The school population has already reached over 300 students and continues to grow. The Religious Education Program has also experienced a tremendous growth. It has more than doubled in size since 1998. The convent was also reopened in 1997 to house the Sisters of Christian Charity. Current Pastor is Bishop Francis J. Kane.^[1]

References

1. Kane, Francis. "History of Wilmette's Saint Joseph Church".

External links