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Our Community History
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In 1850, Elk Grove was established as a hotel stop and a transfer stop for the stage. Located about 15 miles south of historic Sutter’s Fort, and the state capitol for California, it became a crossroads for business , entertainment, mail service and agriculture, and acted as home base for gold miners in nearby communities. After playing a role in the early gold rush and statehood history in California, a close-knit community evolved with a distinctly rural and western lifestyle, with a very mixed racial populace. For more information about the history of Elk Grove check out the Elk Grove Historical Society. http://www.elkgrovehistoricalsociety.com/index.html
The Catholic Parish of St. Joseph - On January 11, 1918, Bishop Thomas Grace .purchased a property on Grove Street in Elk Grove for a new Catholic church . It was built and dedicated to “ St. Joseph ” that same year as a mission church of the parish in Galt (St. Christopher’s). Priests of other parishes donated the altar, original organ, and a stained glass window of St. Joseph, which was restored in 1985 and now adorns the north side window of the “new” church since its recent renovation. After forty-two years as a mission of Galt, St. Joseph became its own parish, with its own resident pastor, in 1962, serving the entire town of Elk Grove --- then numbering approximately 1,100 people. In December of 1972, the old church was sold, and a new church was built on six acres, the existing parish site on the Elk Grove-Florin Road across from Elk Grove Regional Park. Bishop Alden Bell dedicated the new church in 1973. With the huge population increases of the last 15 years, a new Catholic parish was created west of St. Joseph Parish in July of 1993 (Good Shepherd Parish). A social hall was dedicated in January of 1997, and the “old” new church was expanded in November of the same year. A mission of St. Joseph was established in Rancho Murieta in 1987, with a new church constructed there in 1999 for the three hundred families of that area.
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