This is the cover to the program given out at the dedication of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in 1953 that was recently donated to the Willamette Heritage Center (WHC 2014.042.0007). The church which now stands at the NW corner of Chemeketa and Winter Streets was dedicated on March 19, 1953 by a Latin Mass and a luncheon at the Marion Hotel in Salem. This building is the third church structure built to house the congregation that was set up in Salem in the 1860s. The first Church was dedicated to St. John the Evangelist on April 10, 1864. The congregation quickly outgrew the church and a new building was built on the NE corner of Chemeketa and Cottage Streets in Salem. This new church was dedicated to St. Joseph.
Although I was only three years old, I was there!!! St. Joe’s was our family’s church and school. 🙂