Welcome to St. Joseph Catholic Church, Alexandria, VA. We have been providing services and programs to the Church for over 95 years.
St Joseph Church 75 Years Ago
St Joseph Church Now - 2010
The Josephites were interested in establishing a parish in Alexandria as early as 1897, but it was not until 1915, that ground was broken for a church,named for St. Joseph, on land proivided by the Richmond diocese. It was historic in that it was the first African-American Catholic parish in Northern Virginia and placed on land a few blocks from Robert E. Lee's boyhood home and just five blocks up the street from the church George Washington attended from his Mt. Vernon home.
There was a saintly mix to the foundations since the now Saint Katharine Drexel agreed to give $8,000 for the building of the chuch which was half the cost of the small, brick English gothic structure. A school was opened in the basement of the church a short time later with two lay ladies as teachers.
Now in its ninety-fifth year, it remains a beautiful and welcoming place for all to worship. Its former school is a child daycare center providing a service to the community and employment for a small staff.
