Saint Joseph, colloquially known as Saint Joe, is a city in and the county seat of Berrien County, Michigan. It was incorporated as a village in 1834 and as a city in 1891. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 7,856. It lies on the shore of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the St. Joseph River, about east-northeast of Chicago. The city and adjacent Benton Harbor are known as the "Twin Cities".
History The mouth of the Saint Joseph River at present day Saint Joseph was an important point of Miami and Potawatomi travel and commerce, as it lay along a key water route between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. Both the Miami and Potawatomi used this route and would use the area as a camp. The St. Joseph River also allowed for connection with the Sauk Trail, which was the major land trail through Michigan. In 1669, the mouth of the river was seen by European explorers. French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, built Fort Miami on the bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. In 1678, he waited for the ship Le Griffon, which never returned. Once the ship was deemed lost, La Salle and his men made the first land crossing of the lower peninsula by Europeans.
The next permanent white settler in Saint Joseph was William Burnett, who around 1780 started a trading post at the mouth of the Saint Joseph River. The post traded food, furs and goods with places including Detroit, Mackinac and Chicago. In 1829, Calvin Britain, who had come from Jefferson County, New York, and had taught at the Carey Mission at Niles for two years, came to the site of Saint Joseph. Shortly thereafter, he laid out the plat of the village, then known as Newburyport, named after a coastal city in Massachusetts. Britain was influential in attracting other settlers to the area. Lots sold rapidly and the village flourished.
The Saint Joseph river mouth was straightened through a channel and piers were added later. The first lighthouse in Saint Joseph contends with Chicago's original lighthouse as the first to be built on Lake Michigan. Newburyport changed its name to St. Joseph when it was incorporated on March 7, 1834. The city was incorporated June 5, 1891. It was reported in 2026 that the same year, a merger had been attempted between St. Joseph and Benton Harbor.
The first water route across Lake Michigan between Saint Joseph and Chicago began as a mail route in 1825, but service was sporadic until 1842 when Samuel and Eber Ward began a permanent service. That lasted eleven years. Before the rise of large ship companies on Lake Michigan, service was done primarily by owner-operated boats. With the rise in shipping in Benton Harbor and the rise in tourism in Saint Joseph, permanent and larger operations began operating out of the ports. The creation of the River Yacht Club in 1913 allowed expanded use of sailboats in the area.
The Coast Guard still maintains a station on this site. In 1876 the United States Lifesaving Service built a Lifesaving Station at Saint Joseph, appointing Joseph Napier as the first stationkeeper. After a bitterly fought political contest, Saint Joseph was named the seat of Berrien County in 1894, when Berrien Springs relinquished that status. The three largest towns in the county, Benton Harbor, Saint Joseph, and Niles, each wanted to be the county seat, but none had a majority vote. Once St. Joseph and Benton Harbor voters combined their votes, St. Joseph had enough to win.
On October 11, 1898, Augustus Moore Herring took one of his gliders, fitted with a motor, to Silver Beach in Saint Joseph. Herring's machine lifted ever so slightly off the ground and actually flew for seven seconds. Eleven days later, the inventor made another flight of ten seconds. While Herring had a powered heavier-than-air craft, he did not have a way to control it. It was left to the Wright brothers to perfect controlled flight five years later, and give themselves and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a place in history that might have ended up belonging to Herring and Saint Joseph.
Transportation history Two major shipping companies operated between Saint Joseph and Chicago during the last half of the 19th century, the Goodrich Transportation Company and the local firm of Graham and Morton. They dominated the traffic at St. Joseph for more than 100 years, although other smaller companies did operate during this time.
Starting in 1874, Henry Graham and J. Stanley Morton began operating a steam line out of St. Joseph. Their collaboration would become the Graham and Morton Transportation Company. Through vigorous competition, they won the war to become the major carrier out of Saint Joseph. Goodrich stopped service to the Twin Cities in 1880. The company grew quickly and over the fifty plus years of its existence became the second largest line on Lake Michigan, behind only Goodrich.
In 1924, as graded roads began to line the Lake Michigan shoreline, G & M was forced to merge into Goodrich. Like most other ports along Lake Michigan, Saint Joseph saw a large drop in traffic during the early years of the twentieth century, which was exacerbated further by the Great Depression. The route between Chicago and St. Joseph survived until the 1950s.
On January 29, 1870, the Chicago and Michigan Lake Shore Railroad extended a rail line from New Buffalo to St. Joseph. This railroad connected Saint Joseph to Grand Rapids, Muskegon, Detroit and Chicago. (Prior to this, the only connection Saint Joseph had to these other cities was by water.) The line was reorganized as the Chicago and West Michigan Railway and then was incorporated into the Pere Marquette Railroad. Nowadays it is recognized as the CSX Grand Rapids Subdivision which runs from Chicago, IL to Grand Rapids, MI along the former Pere Marquette Railroad. Passenger Rail Service is provided by Amtrak's "Pere Marquette" service running from Chicago, IL to Grand Rapids, MI, with stops in St. Joseph, Bangor, Holland, and Grand Rapids. Service is offered with one daily round trip.
Business and industry history In 1892, Truscott Boat Manufacturing Co moved to Saint Joseph from Grand Rapids. In the early 20th Century, the company was the largest employer in St. Joseph with 700 employees and built 600 wooden boats per year. The company built boats for the government in World War I, struggled during the Depression, was sold in 1940, revived during World War II to build ships for the Navy and went bankrupt in 1948.Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Maritime Industry By Kenneth J. Blume 2012
In 1911, Louis, Emory, and Frederick Upton began a business that produced household washing machines. The business soon became a boom and has continued to grow to this day. In 1929, Upton Machine Company merged with Nineteen Hundred Corp., taking the latter name. The company began marketing a line of appliances known as the "Whirlpool" brand in 1948. Within the next decade, Nineteen Hundred changed its name to Whirlpool. Today, Whirlpool Corporation is the largest manufacturer of major home appliances and maintains a large presence in Benton Harbor and nearby Saint Joseph. Whirlpool has its world headquarters in Benton Harbor.
In 1891 the Silver Beach Amusement Park was opened on land between the lake and mouth of the river in Saint Joseph. Logan Drake and Louis Wallace bought the land from the Pere Marquette Railroad and added cottages to lure tourists to the lake front. As the park aged and grew in popularity, the pair added many attractions, including concessions, games, pool, a boardwalk and different rides. The first roller coaster was built in 1904 and was called the Chase Through the Clouds, which was replaced by the Velvet roller coaster (renamed the Comet). Among the most popular attractions were the carousel and the Shadowland Ballroom, built in 1927. During the 1960s and 1970s, the buildings decayed and the crowds decreased. Finally, crime in the park led police to shut it down in 1970.
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is based in St. Joseph.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Saint Joseph city, Michigan – Racial and ethnic compositionRace / Ethnicity (NH = Non-Hispanic)Pop 2000Pop 2010% 2000% 2010White alone (NH)7,8797,2276,53389.65%86.40%83.16%Black or African American alone (NH)4484442725.10%5.31%3.46%Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH)3324200.38%0.29%0.25%Asian alone (NH)2062813202.34%3.36%4.07%Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander alone (NH)2020.02%0.00%0.03%Other race alone (NH)517360.06%0.20%0.46%Mixed race or Multiracial (NH)1031373371.17%1.64%4.29%Hispanic or Latino (any race)1132353361.29%2.81%4.28%Total8,7898,3657,856100.00%100.00%100.00%
2020 census As of the 2020 census, St. Joseph had a population of 7,856. The median age was 42.6 years. 15.9% of residents were under the age of 18 and 21.2% of residents were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 90.8 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 90.0 males age 18 and over.
99.8% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.2% lived in rural areas.
There were 4,088 households in St. Joseph, of which 18.4% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 37.3% were married-couple households, 22.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 33.2% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 45.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 15.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 4,884 housing units, of which 16.3% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 2.3% and the rental vacancy rate was 11.0%.
2010 census As of the census of 2010, there were 8,365 people, 3,933 households, and 1,941 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 4,795 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 88.1% White, 5.3% African American, 0.3% Native American, 3.4% Asian, 0.9% from other races, and 1.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 2.8% of the population.
There were 3,933 households, of which 20.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.5% were married couples living together, 8.9% had a female householder with no husband present, 2.9% had a male householder with no wife present, and 50.6% were non-families. 43.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 13.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.97 and the average family size was 2.74.
The median age in the city was 41.6 years. 16.4% of residents were under the age of 18; 9.2% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 28.6% were from 25 to 44; 27.2% were from 45 to 64; and 18.6% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 48.8% male and 51.2% female.
2000 census As of the census of 2000, there were 8,789 people, 4,117 households, and 2,058 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 4,594 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 90.31% White, 5.11% African American, 0.41% Native American, 2.39% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.46% from other races, and 1.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 1.29% of the population.
There were 4,117 households, out of which 22.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.6% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 50.0% were non-families. 44.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 14.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.99 and the average family size was 2.77.