The history of St. Gertrude Roman Catholic Church began in October 1826 when Father Pierre Dejean built a church for families in the L'Anse Creuse area. The original log church, dedicated to St. Felicity, was forty feet long by thirty feet wide and stood on the shore of the bay at the end of the Rattell farm. Father Dejean served the area until 1829, and Father Ghislenus J. Boheme, a Belgian priest, served the Catholic families there until 1842. Rising lake levels led to the church's abandonment in 1855, and it sank into the lake in 1856. In 1858, the mission chapel was rebuilt on Jefferson Avenue on land bought from the Vernier family and renamed St. Gertrude. In 1897, the cornerstone of a white wood and stone church was laid, and that church served the parish until it was razed in 1968. In 1900, Father John D. O'Shea became the first resident pastor and built the school, convent, and rectory while purchasing most of the parish's land. The school opened on November 18, 1920, under the care of the Dominican Sisters from Springfield, Illinois, and in 1927 the Sisters of St. Joseph took charge of it. St. Gertrude High School opened in 1947. On December 21, 1969, Archbishop John Cardinal Dearden dedicated the new church and rectory, and Auxiliary Bishop Walter J. Schoenherr blessed the altar. St. Gertrude Elementary and High School closed in 1971 after being cared for by the Sisters of St. Joseph. On July 1, 2009, St. Gertrude Parish merged with St. Germaine Parish to form Our Lady of Hope Parish, and both churches continued to operate under their original names until June 2014. On March 13, 2014, Archbishop Allen Vigneron issued a decree relegating St. Gertrude Church to profane but not sordid use after the Archdiocese of Detroit received an offer of $1.6 million for the campus property, and when the decree took legal effect on June 30 the building ceased to be used as a worship site. As of 2017, Lakeshore Senior Living residential community occupies the site.