During that summer a crude frame building was hurriedly built on a lot donated by a non-Catholic friend, Mr. Euclid Covington, a member of a prominent Warren County family. This small temporary mission sat north of the present church office building on the corner of what is now the intersection of Church Avenue and Barry Street.. It served as a school building during the week and was converted to a church for Mass on Sundays. That same summer, Francis Leopold Kister, a master builder from Germany whom Fr. DeVries had met at New Haven, KY, began work on a brick church. Mr. Kister was living in New Haven while working on the chapel of the Trappist monastery of Gethsemane. Mass was first celebrated in the brick church on Easter Sunday, 1860. Complete construction was delayed, however, due to the outbreak of the Civil War. The first brick structure was finished and dedicated to St. Joseph in 1862.

St. Joseph Church as it is today rose in stages from this small 1860 brick building, first through an 1870 addition at the east end. This included higher and wider walls containing the semi-circular apse with the sanctuary and three altars. This served until 1884 when further enlargement became imperative. The higher walls were extended to the street, completely surrounding the original church, which was then torn down from the inside. This final enlargement of the structure took five years to complete. It was consecrated May 4, 1889.