As early as 1895, about thirty families from Syria (now Lebanon) were residing in northeast Minneapolis and worshipped in Roman Catholic Churches. Desirous of a church of their own where they could practice their Maronite Catholic rite, they purchased a residence in 1903 at 321 Main St. NE that would serve as their first church. As more Lebanese immigrants arrived, the congregation 1919 purchased a larger building from the Italians, Our Lady of Mount Carmel which initially had been St. John’s Lutheran Church. Twenty years later the congregation moved to 6th and University Avenues NE, the old Everett Public School, where they remained until 1948 when that building was torn down and a new edifice was constructed that consists of the church proper, a chapel dedicated to the Maronite Martyrs of the Centuries, recreational facilities in the basement, and a rectory.
