St. Joseph's Church is located at 44 Benvenue Avenue in West Orange, New Jersey.

(973) 669-3221

From Newark and New York City - 280 West to Exit 10 "West Orange/Northfield Ave." Turn left off exit onto Northfield Avenue. At the 4th light (top of the hill) make a right onto Prospect Avenue. Make the first left turn onto Benvenue Avenue. The school and church are on the left. The parking lot is just past the church.

From North Jersey - Garden State Parkway South to Exit 145 "Route 280." Take 280 West approx. 3 miles to Exit 10 "West Orange/Northfield Ave." Turn left off exit onto Northfield Avenue. At the 4th light (top of the hill) make a right onto Prospect Avenue. Make the first left turn onto Benvenue Avenue. The school and church are on the left. The parking lot is just past the church.

From South Jersey - Garden State Parkway North to Exit 145 "Route 280." Take 280 West approx. 3 miles to Exit 10 "West Orange/Northfield Ave." Turn left off exit onto Northfield Avenue. At the 4th light (top of the hill) make a right onto Prospect Avenue. Make the first left turn onto Benvenue Avenue. The school and church are on the left. The parking lot is just past the church.

From Delaware Water Gap - Take Route 80 East to Route 280 East. Take exit 8A "Prospect Ave/West Orange." Turn right off exit onto Prospect Ave., straight through 3 lights. Make 3rd right onto Benvenue Avenue. The school and church are on the left. The parking lot is just past the church.

From Livingston Circle - Take Northfield Avenue through Livingston and into West Orange. Continue past South Mountain Skating Arena. Make left turn at light at top of long and gradual hill onto Prospect Avenue. Make the first left turn onto Benvenue Avenue. The school and church are on the left. The parking lot is just past the church.

Church History:

In 1931, a local census in the area found 65 Catholic families from many national backgrounds in the rural "St. Cloud" area of West Orange. There was a strong desire by these families for a local church in this neighborhood to alleviate the inconvenience of traveling great distances to Mass. A local group came together to establish St. Joseph’s Church.

The decisive event in establishing the church was a land contribution by Josephine Schweinler of Ridgeway Avenue. She owned a home on a wooded land fronting Benvenue Avenue. When her husband Charles died in 1927, she gave two acres of land and paid for construction of a church on it as a memorial to her husband. Bishop Thomas Walsh of the Newark Diocese formally established St. Joseph’s Parish in September 1931.

The first Masses were celebrated on Christmas Day in 1931 in a former stable that was converted to a carriage house by the Schweinler family. It became a garage when automobiles hit the scene.

Joseph Stanford Shanley served as architect for the church. Because of the sparsely settled character of the area and the plan to set the church in the midst of large trees, giving it a rustic air, Mrs. Schweinler suggested using the style of an English country church. Mr. Shanley drew on both this tradition and that of the Norwegian stave churches. One feature characteristic of the English tradition is the rood screen, overhead at the front of St. Joseph’s Church. Its wooden statues, as well as carvings on the panels over the alter and other items, were done by woodcutters of Oberammergau, Germany, the Bavarian village that produces the world’s most famous Passion Play every ten years. Anton Lang, Sr., who once played the role of Christ, carved the statues on the rood screen and a statue of St. Jude. Another unusual feature of the design was inclusion of large pieces of wood in the shape of acorns, located at certain points where the roof beams come close to the ground. This is a tradition going back to German construction of the distant past, when these inclusions were thought to protect a structure from lightening and other supposed acts of gods of German mythology. Both in exterior treatment of the church and in all details pertaining to the interior, furnishings and fittings, the idea of the simple country church was followed.