In 1904 the Albion Malleable Iron Company began recruiting workers for its foundry, and the arrival of six Russians from New York City marked the beginning of Albion's "Foreign Colony." By 1915 the Foreign Colony had grown to around 600 people of several Eastern European nationalities, most of whom were Orthodox Christians. At first, a visiting priest from Detroit conducted Orthodox services in Albion, but by 1915 permission had been granted to build an Orthodox church. A fund drive within the city raised $5,000, the cornerstone was laid on April 30, 1916, and the church was consecrated on Thanksgiving Day of that year. Holy Ascension Church was the only non-Greek Orthodox parish in south-central Michigan until the late 1950s.