St. Joseph

Antoine Janis and other French Canadian fur traders and trappers first settled in the Fort Collins area, naming the Cache la Poudre River for several hundred pounds of gunpowder buried there by the American Fur Trade Company in 1836. Antoine's settlement at Laporte was later eclipsed by an Army post, Camp Collins, established five miles downriver in 1862.

Delighted at the prospect of visiting some fellow Frenchmen, Father Machebeuf ventured northward from Denver in 1866 to conduct the first non-Indian religious rites in Larimer County. After the Army abandoned Camp Collins in 1867, it became a townsite, promoted by boosters as Fort Collins. Bishop Machebeuf and other missionary priests continued to visit Fort Collins, which replaced Laporte as the Larimer County seat in 1868. On an 1878 visit, Bishop Machebeuf said Mass in the old Grout Building at Linden and Jefferson streets and helped organize a local parish. The bishop authorized Frank Michaud to pay $400, which was raised by subscription, to buy the first public schoolhouse in Fort Collins and convert it to St. Joseph Church. This little frame house built in 1870 still stands.

Father Anthony J. Abel, the pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus in Boulder, was reassigned as the founding pastor of St. Joseph's in 1878. Father Abel was called elsewhere in 1880, and the tiny Fort Collins congregation was tended as a mission. The resident pastorate was reestablished in 1883 by J. J. LePage, who purchased lots next to the church and built a small brick rectory in 1883-1984. Between 1884 and 1898, fathers Gleason, Emblem, R. P. Robinet, Edward Downey, and Volpe presided at St. Joseph's and tended missions at Greeley, Longmont, and Loveland.

Guillaume J. LaJeunesse, a French Canadian, became pastor in 1898 and purchased a more central site, catercorner from the Larimer County Courthouse at Mountain Avenue and Howes Street. In 1900, Father LaJeunesse and his parishioners started a $12,000 church of rusticated stone, which Bishop Matz dedicated on August 4, 1901. The buff and grey sandstone, according to parishioner Art Brookman who worked on the 1960 renovation, came from the Stout, Noney Frye, and Lamb quarries. Gothic portals and the single soaring spire distinguish this landmark at the beginning of the Mountain Avenue parkway. Father LaJeunesse lived in the sacristy with his cat, a feline famous for responding only to the French language. Fort Collins, which did not grow past the 10,000 mark until the 1920s, lacked a Catholic school until the parishioners of St. Joseph's began building again in 1925. Denver architect Leo Desjardins designed a Spanish colonial revival edifice of wire-cut, rusticated tan-face brick with red sandstone trim and a red tile roof. This elegant school, with its concrete foundation and steel frame construction, is distinguished by its curvilinear parapets, balconettes, grand baroque double-staircase entry beneath an oriel window, and a colored tile bas relief of the lamp of learning.

St. Joseph School, a lesson in fine design, occupies spacious landscaped grounds north of the church on Howes Street. It is part of the historic block that includes the 1879 Victorian house of town founder Franklin C. Avery, a stone landmark now housing the Fort Collins Council for the Arts and Humanities. The 1985 revival of the Fort Collins Municipal Railway trolley on Mountain Avenue further enhanced the historical charm of St. Joseph's neighborhood.

Bishop Tihen, on August 26, 1926, blessed the $66,000 school, which the Sisters of Loretto opened that fall. When the Great Depression struck, both the church and school suffered financially. Card parties and other fund-raisers staged by the Altar and Rosary Society rescued both when even Easter Sunday collections brought in as little as $456.65. After guiding St. Joseph's through tough times, Father LaJeunesse died May 5, 1937, with the deathbed quip, "Someone just say three `Hail Mary's' and mean them."

Monsignor Eugene O'Sullivan, the pastor from 1935 until 1948, supervised a 1948 renovation and enlargement of the church interior. In 1945, Monsignor O'Sullivan added a ninth grade to the school program, where he taught Latin and religion. He was followed by Monsignor Richard Duffy, a Denver native trained at St. Thomas Seminary, who helped the Sisters of Loretto construct a $100,000 convent between the church and the school in 1955. This showcase convent, complete with a sun deck and music rooms, was designed by Denver architect John K. Monroe.

In order to double the church's capacity, it was remodeled at a cost of $350,000 in 1960. Architect William V. Robb added 10,000 square feet to raise the seating from 300 to 700. The basement was excavated for an auditorium, rest rooms, kitchen, and furnace room. St. Joseph's stone exterior was repaired and restored, but the Gothic interior was modernized less faithfully. New stone crosses, carved by Art Brookman and Lon Ingram, were installed on the roof gables; the old steeple was repaired, and secondary steeples installed on the east and west sides of the addition.

New interior furnishings by the Santa Fe Studios of Church Art in New Mexico include a thirteen-foot high statue of St. Joseph. Bishop Hubert Newell of Cheyenne presided at the 1960 cornerstone laying, staging a reenactment of Bishop Matz's 1900 ceremony.

Monsignor Duffy was succeeded in 1967 by Monsignor John B. Cavanagh, former editor of the Denver Catholic Register. The new pastor, who enjoyed horseback riding and the great outdoors, opened a summer mission at Red Feather Lakes, a resort area thirty miles west of Fort Collins. In 1975, the church's diamond jubilee, Father Robert J. Reycraft, assistant pastor at St. Joseph's, compiled a parish history.

Monsignor Cavanagh was followed as pastor by Thomas J. Woerth (1981-1984), Anthony Bliss, who died shortly after becoming pastor, and by a priest who grew up in the parish, Father Thomas H. Coyte, the pastor since January 1985. Father Coyte focused on the elderly, launching such programs as "Young at Heart," monthly potluck dinners, a clinic, and tax preparation assistance.

Fort Collins has grown far faster in recent decades than Lieutenant Colonel William Collins, the namesake of the old military post, ever envisoned. By 1980, Fort Collins had 65,092 residents. St. Joseph's, with over 1,800 families, has also flourished. The parish school at 127 North Howes has well over 200 pupils, and the popular Sunday nursery program indicates that more students are on their way. Well into its second century, St. Joseph's is thriving. The French folk who founded the parish now share pews with Anglos, Hispanics, and Vietnamese in this elegantly restored stone church.