6.10St Josephs Cathedral
Back in 1863 the parishioners of St. Mary’s Church in Lacrosse, WI met and decided they needed a church. The German speaking parish had only been established in 1856, but, I guess, they were getting tired of having Catholic services in the local courthouse. Father Henry Tappert headed up this effort.

As part of this effort it was decided that French and English members of the parish would remain parishioners of St. Mary’s and the German speaking members would be members of the new church and parish. The new parish would be German speaking and under the patronage of St. Joseph, husband of Mary. Property was needed to begin new construction so the new parish collected $1500 and purchased the land at Sixth and Main Streets.


The new St. Joseph Parish would have Father C.J.F. Schraudenbach as Pastor. The parishioners wanted instructional lessons for their children so a school was begun in the basement of the church in 1864. Construction on the church did not begin until 1869 and all worshipped at St. Mary’s in the interim.

(I don’t think I’d be comfortable having this over my head!)

In 1868 La Crosse was designated by Pope Pius IX to be a new and separate diocese. The first Bishop of the Diocese would be Michael Heiss. He chose St. Joseph to be the cathedral parish of the diocese.


By 1870 construction had finally begun on the new St. Joseph Cathedral. By 1875 the parishioners had finished construction and had completely paid for the construction of the new church.


Once completed new spires were added and by 1884 a new pipe organ was installed as well as well as the completion of a new school.
Eventually all the buildings and facilities at St. Mary’s Parish were moved into the new cathedral and St. Mary’s would be associated with Lacrosse University.


In 1964 the Holy Cross School would be raised and in 1969 and a new Cathedral School would be constructed.