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01/10/15
Catholic Irish Hills
Filed under: Michigan, Unidentified, 1950s
Posted by: Mike @ 7:49 am

According to my mother, these 1957 shots were taken at a Catholic place in the Irish Hills area of Michigan which is west of Detroit. So far I haven’t been able to pinpoint the spot. It could be St. Joseph’s shrine in Brooklyn, MI but I haven’t found any matching photos of these locations.


Statue of St. Joseph (?) with a wishing well in front. That’s my mother pregnant with my brother.


Another statue with flower beds in the shape of a cross.


This is also from 1957. I found a modern photo from St. Joseph’s shrine with a similar sculpture to this one but it’s definitely not the same. Of course they may have replaced it since concrete sculptures are certain to degrade over time. Based on that site, this may have been one of the sculptures created by Dionicio Rodriguez.

If you have any more clues for me, please leave a comment.

2 Responses to “Catholic Irish Hills”

  1. Nataliya | Vim + Vintage Says:
    I’m about 99% sure this is St. Joseph’s Shrine in Irish Hills. They have the Stations of the Cross that go behind the Shrine along by the water with similar sculptures as above. The grounds where the cemetery is (looking east) looks almost identical to the 2nd picture you posted (except there are a lot of gravestones!) And in the 1st picture there is a wishing well in the foreground, and they had one of those as I remember seeing it when I was a kid. (I’m not sure if it still is there today) Hope this helps. You should trek on over there and check it out!
  2. Mike Says:
    Nataliya, thanks a lot for your confirmation. I’ll try to head out there some day.

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