Built in 1887, this church is home to a small Catholic parish, and it has been declared a historic site because of its well-preserved Gothic Revival architecture.

An unsubstantiated claim by a former preacher of St. Josephs Catholic Church suggests that Egypt was named by German immigrants in the early-1830s after a settler described the swampy area back then as being “made by a dab of mud that fell from the wheelbarrow of God.” However, the town name is actually derived from the hometown of the mother of a couple of the earliest pioneers in the area.

[4] Because of the swampy character of the land, wheeled transit was nearly impossible; the men of the community could only travel to St. Augustine's on horseback, and the women and children were almost never able to worship at all.

The archbishop granted permission for the erection of the parish in that year; it was dedicated to St. Joseph, and subscriptions[a] soon raised $800 for the construction of a church.

[2]: 336 Once the members had agreed on the basic architectural elements of their church, they summoned multiple contractors for the bidding process.

After four years, a rectory and a female convent were built near the church, and the parish obtained a resident pastor for the first time.

Under the leadership of their elderly priest, John van den Brock, the parish erected a new church in 1887 at a cost of $5,000,[2]: 336  according to a design by Anton Goehr.

This building's walls are built of brick, supported by a stone foundation with a basement and topped with a gabled roof of asphalt.

Inside, the church is ornamented with frescoes on the walls and a heavily decorated ceiling, and the altars are built in a revivalistic form of the Gothic style.

Many other Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati built rectories around this time, due to a directive from the archbishop; like the one at Egypt, they are typically square brick houses with wrap-around porches.