It was built in 1913 by the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad as a bonus to settlers the company had recruited to buy its surplus land.

The property was nominated for illustrating the corporate efforts to settle northern Minnesota once it had been cleared of valuable timber.

[2] To encourage development of northern Minnesota's transportation infrastructure, the state legislature granted the Duluth and Iron Range Railroad 10 sections of land for every mile of track laid.

The railroad profited by leasing the land for logging, but sought to dispose of it once it was cut over by enticing settlers to buy and farm it.

One of the railroad's land agents recruited 25 Roman Catholic Austro-Hungarian immigrants from Chicago to settle what the company marketed as "St. Joseph's Colony", with this church as its nucleus.