St Joseph's Church
143 Victoria Street, Singapore 188020
In 1825, Father Francisco de Silva Pinto I Maria founded the Portuguese Mission on the site where St Joseph's Church now stands.
The first Church of St Joseph was erected on a site chosen as early as 1822 by Father Vincentre de Santo Catharina but the foundation stone at the present site was laid on 14 December 1851 and the building was completed in 1853. The church lays claim to being the first place of Catholic worship in Singapore.
In 1906 the Church was pulled down and between 1906 and 1912 Swan and MacLaren (architects of Raffles Hotel) rebuilt the church of St. Joseph in Victoria Street dedicated to our Lady of Fatima.
Next to the Church is the Priest' House of St Joseph's Portuguese Mission built in 1912. St Anthony's School was opened in 1889 by Father Jose Pedro Sta Anna da Cunha in a small shop house in Middle Road. Later the school moved to a compound house in Victoria Street near the Church in 1886. In 1893 the girls were separated from the boys who occupied the ground floor of the Parochial House. In 1894 the Society of the Canosianas Sisters in Italy took charge of the Girls' School.
The church is structured in the form of a Latin cross and boasts beautifully crafted stained glass windows and was gazetted as a conservation building in 1993.
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