Monroe already had a Catholic parish when St. Michael's was founded, but because the members of the existing church were predominately Francophone, in 1852 the German-speaking immigrant families asked bishop Peter Paul Lefevre for a new parish and their request was approved.

When the parish was first established, the mayor of Monroe palatial residence was remodeled as a temporary church.

The movement to establish the parish started in 1845 by 14 German immigrants who wanted to hear sermons in their native language (masses were only in Latin prior to the Second Vatican Council ).

The only nearby church was St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception right across the river where St. Michael stands today.

St. Mary only had sermons in French and did preach to the German and Irish population growing in Monroe at that time.

The German and Irish families were forced to move to the second floor of the rectory, named the St. Joseph Chapel, in order to be ministered with the language they were comfortable with.

When the German families were able to acquire land they were “eager” to leave St. Mary to start a parish of their own (though the main reason for establishing this church was for language and cultural reasons, St. Michael would later abandon German all together at the onset of World War I).

The last remaining stained glass window from when the church was first built is the rose widow above the altar.

The three altars were painted, the wall in the middle of the choir loft that covered the stained glass window in the middle of the south end of the church was removed giving off more light, and organ was fixed and replaced.

The original statues were removed in the late 1940s because the altar was leaning forward causing an angel at the top to lose its balance and fall nearly hitting Rev.

From the founding of St. Michael in 1852, two rooms in the Harleston House (the temporary church) were set aside as school rooms for boys and on the first Sunday of Lent, February 25, 1855, Sister Aloysius Walter, I.H.M., began religious instructions for girls.

On Pentecost 2020, Archbishop Allen Vigneron announced a new model for the parishes within the Archdiocese of Detroit.