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. It was founded in 1845 by Chicago's first Catholic bishop, William Quarter as the "Log Cabin Mission" and served German Catholic immigrants from Trier, Germany. The first assigned priest, Fr. William Netstraeter, would serve the parish for five decades beginning in 1872, as well as become a Wilmette trustee and help found New Trier High School. In 1873, the church opened a school, taught by nuns from Milwaukee's School Sisters of St. Francis from 1877 until 1981; the Archdiocese of Chicago closed the school in 1986, but parish families reopened it a decade later.[1]

Meanwhile, because masses also were only celebrated in German, English-speaking Catholics opened a second parish in the area. St. Francis Xavier Church began in 1904 and would merge with St. Joseph Parish in 2019.[2] Saint Francis Xavier Church is also located in Wilmette, at the corner of Linden Ave and 9th Street.