[3] The interior of the church includes altars and communion rails of Italian marble and stained glass windows illustrating scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and the saints.

A parish cemetery with a variety of monuments spanning from the early 19th century to the present lies east, to the rear of the church.

[3] Avoiding the city, they traveled north along Gratiot, settling among a handful of French Roman Catholics families that were descendants of the earliest trappers and pioneers.

[2] The parish history is through the Greiner family, a name recognized from monuments in the cemetery and from the street which intersects Gratiot Avenue near the church.

[3] They called the building Kirchen Wald (Church in the Woods), and Redemptionist missionaries offered Roman Catholic services in the structure.

[3][4] In 1876, Vandendriessche visited France, and was so impressed by the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes that he had a replica of the grotto, designed by Peter Dederichs,[2] created at the church.

[3] On April 30, 1882, Pope Leo XIII signed a proclamation granting partial and plenary indulgences for anyone who visited the Grotto and prayed for the propagation of the faith.