St. Mary's Church

In 1668, the first permanent wooden structure in what is now the state of Michigan was built on this site as St. Mary's Church, erected by the French Jesuit fathers Jacques Marquette and Louis Nicholas to minister to the Ojibwe community. Father Marquette named the church, the city, and the river rapids Sainte Marie du Sault in honor of the blessed Virgin Mary. A century later, the French fort stood here, and sometime later old Fort Brady followed, then the federal building, and now the city hall of Sault Sainte Marie. The present St. Mary's Church on Portage Avenue is the fifth building to house St. Mary's parish, the third oldest Catholic congregation in the United States of America. It was also the first site of what is now the diocese of Marquette, established by the saintly snowshoe priest Bishop Frederic Baraga in 1857. Sault Sainte Marie is the first non native American settlement in what has become the present state of Michigan.

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan · United States