St. Joseph in New Hope traces its history all the way back to 1856, when the community
celebrated the first Mass in a tiny log cabin just off the shores of Medicine Lake. The first
log chapel served the tiny community for twenty years. From the beginning, the members
recognized that they were the church, and ministered to each other with or without a resident
pastor. By 1877, a wood frame church replaced the log chapel. That church still stands and is
now known as the Historic Little Church in Plymouth. In 1917, St. Joseph became a mission of
St. Anne in Hamel until 1935, when it received a resident pastor.
By 1970, the parish had grown to over 1,200 families with 13 Masses every weekend. On
November 22, 1970, frozen ground was broken to begin work on the parish center in New
Hope, and a new sanctuary was added in 2004.
