The origins of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Roman Catholic Church trace to 1830, when German immigrants first arrived in Detroit. Warned away from cholera-stricken Detroit, they built a log church here in 1832 on what was then the outskirts of the city. Redemptorist missionaries served the Kirche im Wald, or Church in the Woods, until Bishop Peter Paul Lefevere designated it a parish in 1847, making it the second-oldest parish in Detroit. Father Amandus Vandendriessche, the first full-time pastor, was assigned in 1852 and immediately began building a permanent structure of brick made on the premises, completed in time for Christmas services that year. To meet the needs of a growing congregation, a new church was begun in 1928. Designed by the Detroit architectural firm Aloys Frank Herman, Incorporated, the limestone-faced, Neo-Gothic, basilica-plan church was dedicated on September 22, 1929. A distinctive feature of the grounds is the grotto, a shrine in the parish cemetery inspired by Father Vandendriessche's 1876 visit to the shrine at Our Lady of Lourdes in France; he created a replica at his parish, and it has attracted visitors since its dedication in June 1881. The church complex, consisting of the church, parish house, rectory, cemetery, and grotto, was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1991.