St. Joseph Catholic Church will celebrate its 75th anniversary in Lake Orion with a Mass and reception on Nov. 8.
The history of the parish begins in the early 1900s. Reverend Thomas Gorman began offering Mass on the porch of the Pat Slavin home on Lake Orion in 1922. Some people would follow services from rowboats anchored near the shore. Later that summer, people used a dance hall at the west end of Flint Street for Mass.
In 1925, Unger Hall became too small. At a cost of $5,000, St. Thomas Chapel was built and dedicated on Pentecost Sunday. The 450-seat church was located at Shadbolt and Beebe Street. Today, a Baptist congregation uses the facility. St. Thomas, together with St. Elizabeth Parish of Oxford, held a joint picnic every summer. This event continued until 1979.
Reverend Joseph Ording became pastor of the 76 families at St. Elizabeth Parish in Oxford in 1928. The parish began as a mission church in Oxford in 1901, with seats for 195 parishioners, at the site where the McDonald’s Restaurant sits now.
Reverend Ording also had Mass for St. Thomas Chapel in Lake Orion. More than 1,000 people attended during the summer months. He occasionally traveled to Romeo to minister to 61 families at St. Clement Church. St. Joseph’s was established as a permanent parish.
From the 1920s to the 1930s, The Great Depression brought financial problems to everyone. To help their church, local residents resorted to serving home-cooked chicken dinners at 35 cents a piece. As the economy improved and more parishioners returned to the area, a new centrally located church was planned.
The site location for the proposed church was the topic of many heated debates, but Father Ording ended the discussion by choosing the 12-acre site on top of a hill between the two towns.
The site overlooked Lake Orion, Long Lake and Lake Mari, now called Lake Manitou, and St. Joseph’s Pond. As a sign of unity, the cornerstones of both St. Elizabeth’s and St. Thomas Chapel were installed in the foundation of the church on Christmas Eve at the midnight Mass that same year.
From 1938-1940, Father Ording traveled to Europe. On his return, he asked Arthur Desroziers, an architect, to draw up plans for a church like one he had seen in Italy. It was Norman style structure, and he next sought a builder who had erected a stone municipal building in West Branch.
His name was Dennis O’Connor, who made a bid of $47, 100 for the projected Oxford-Lake Orion Church (Dennis married Aileen Chisholm during the construction and she always told people “This was my husband’s first church…and of all of the buildings he put up, none meant as much to him as St. Joseph Church.”).
During construction, expert stone masons and bricklayers were brought from West Branch and various other parts of the country.
Local farmers and others gathered stones from nearby fields and abandoned homes. The masons fashioned them for walls and arches. One split stone revealed a cross and was installed in the southeast corner of the church.
Nearly 32 years after its dedication, Dennis O’Connor had his funeral celebrated in the church he had built “with love.”
The modern history of St. Joseph church began in 1941, when Reverend George E. Ging became the new pastor. He served 17 years in that capacity, and in 1942 O’Connor built the present rectory. In 1952, the Parish School was dedicated on Aug. 24, and five nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph in Nazareth, Michigan, arrived to teach the 170 students enrolled in grades one through seven.
The enrollment quickly increased, and for the first three years, the Sisters lived in a portion of the school. In 1955 the convent, St. Elizabeth’s, was erected. The enrollment then reached 374.
In September 1957, St. Joseph Parish sponsored the establishment of St. Anne’s in Ortonville. In 1959, Reverend Vincent Myrick became the pastor of St. Joseph, and built a “cry room” in the church and had a local artist, Gino Testaguzza, build a huge statue of Christ in front of the church. The 24-foot statue was dedicated on the Feast of Christ the King in October 1958.
The entire community was shocked in 1965, when during the celebration of the Easter Vigil, vandals set the statue on fire. To replace the original, the artist created the Holy Family statue, which still stands in front of the church facing M-24.
Father Myrick died suddenly of a heart attack at the rectory in 1964. Monsignor Art Kary became pastor and he enlarged the rectory with offices and more living area. In 1968, Reverend Harold Boyce replaced the Monsignor. During his tenure, the Parish Hall was erected and named in honor of Father Myrick.
Reverend George Cronin became the new pastor in 1970, and established the first Parish Council in 1971 with Larry DeRycke serving as its president. Reverend Frank Pollie was named pastor in 1976, and by then, St. Joseph had 1,700 families registered.
Father Henry Roodbeen was the assistant priest during that time, and a new parish was established in 1978 in the Gingellville area and Father Pollie became the pastor there. The church was named Christ the Redeemer.
In 1978, Reverend Donald MacLennon became the pastor and served until 1987. During his tenure at St. Joseph, the interior of the church was modernized. Chairs replaced the pews and a small altar replaced the large decorative altar. The wood carved communion rail and the altar canopy were also removed from the church. The renovation was done rather quickly, and the parish council desisted. Father Thomas Johnson was the associate priest.
In 1987, Reverend Lawrence Ventline became the pastor. Parishioners numbered more than 2,000. Father Paul Panaretos was assigned as the associate priest. Other weekend associates through the years have been Fathers: George Miller, Earl Boyea, Mike Green, Dan Homan and Ed Maher.
In 1988, Permanent Deacon Tom Yezak was ordained and assigned at St. Joseph until Easter of 1999. In the summer of 1990, Reverend John Leo Phalen was assigned as pastor, and Reverend Ronald Borg as associate pastor. Father Borg also served as chaplain and teacher at Oakland Catholic High School in Pontiac.
In 1992, Father Joseph Mallia joined the parish as associate pastor. Father Mallia served as chaplain and teacher at Oakland Catholic High School. In 1994, Father Bernard J. Mullen joined the parish as full-time associate pastor.
In 1996, the church was enlarged to seat 900, a gathering hall and new offices were added to connect the church and school. In 2002, an addition to the school was completed and St. Elizabeth Center was torn down.
In 2003, Father Michael Verschaeve was assigned pastor and Father Stanley Obloj as associate pastor. Census records are updated and reveal the church now has 3,000 families and 10,000 individual members in the community and continue to grow weekly.
A Mass, with reception to follow, will be held to celebrate the 75th anniversary at St. Joseph Catholic Church on Nov. 8. Mass begins at 4:30 p.m. and will be attended by Bishop Hurley. For more information, contact St. Joe’s at 693-0440.