Immaculate Conception Of Blessed Virgin Mary /Immaculate Conception Of Blessed Virgin Mary

In the 1830s, numerous Catholic settlers immigrated to the Anchor Bay area. Having no formal church, the settlers were intermittently pastored by missionary clergymen. In 1847, Etienne (Stephen) Rose and his two sons constructed a wooden church on this property. Two years later, the Roses deeded a portion of their land to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Detroit for the purpose of developing a parish. In 1853 the diocese sent the Reverend Charles A. Chambille to be the first official pastor, and the Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary was founded. In addition to an ornate wooden church, the parish constructed a school, a cemetery and a rectory. Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary thrived under a number of pastors until 1917, when fire destroyed the original wooden church, the school, and the rectory. The pastor at that time, Father James Downey, oversaw the reconstruction of all three buildings. Albert Rose, Etienne (Stephen) Rose’s great-grandson, was the contractor. By 1918 the present church and the school were in use. The new brick church featured a cruciform floor plan. In 1921 the church bell was cast and engraved with the names of seventy donors. In 1953 church members hauled stones from local farms to build a grotto, to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the parish’s founding.