St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary was established in 1954 as a personal parish with Fr. Yeronides Fernandez Crespo, S.J. as the first parish priest. To begin with a new Filipino-Chinese community, he rented a large room which served as their chapel located at the second floor of the Don German Wee Sit building located at the corner of Magno and La Purisima streets. Two years later in 1956, a Chinese priest succeeded Fr. Yeronides by the name of Fr. Paul Lee. He was endorsed and appointed by Bishop Juan B. Velasco O.P. who was the vicar general for the Filipino-Chinese Apostolate in the Philippines that time. In 1959, Fr. Paul Lee was able to purchase a land at Nuñez St. that would serve as the new place for a nascent parish to be built. In 1960, the church was built and it was named after St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary as their patron. Earlier the parish was named as Mary, Help of Christians parish before it had its current patron's name. Three Chinese priests were assigned in that parish: Fr. Joseph Li (1956-1958), Fr. John Chang (1959-1962), Fr. Thomas Chao (1966-1969). Fr. Thomas Chao became the parish priest in 1969 with Fr. Joseph Wang as the parochial vicar. Fr. Joseph was serving both the parish and the newly St. Joseph School that was established at that time.

St. Joseph School

The advent of St. Joseph School was due to the desire of the Chinese community to have a school for the younger generations. The school was realized also because of the inspiration of Bishop Juan B. Velasco who was the vicar general for the Filipino-Chinese communities in the Philippines. The school began July 1965 with 77 pupils in the Kindergarten and Grade 1 levels. The humble beginnings of the school were seen through the historical four rooms as annex to the parish church at Nuñez street. In the following year, with the grades 2 and 3 there was an increase of student population to 145. A house owned by Mrs. Josefina Javier was rented to accommodate the influx of students. Besides, in 1969, with the increase of students, a warehouse owned by Mr. Wee Bin was rented in order to add 7 more classrooms.

It was on December 30, 1970 that the blessing and the laying of the corner stone for a new school to be built. The place for its building was at Moret Canelar. When the building was already completed in 1973, around 489 students together with 29 Chinese and English teachers and the whole elementary department comprised the population of the school. It was only on April 8, 1973 that the entire 3-storey building was blessed. In 1976, an annex building was constructed to accommodate more students and the building was blessed on March 18, 1979. In 1980, a chapel was constructed and was blessed on December 27, 1981.