St. Joseph was founded in 1896 as a German parish. At that time, the town was known as Germantown or Dutchtown because most of the inhabitants were German immigrants who came there to work in the local coal mines. Even before the parish was established, the Church had a presence in Duquesne. In 1869, a chapel, called St. Dominic, was built in the town. A priest from St. Agnes, West Mifflin, visited the chapel once a week. At some point, the chapel was also used as a school.
In 1895, the local German Catholics began organizing to form their own parish. In that year, they purchased a local school and remodeled it into a combined church and school. The upper floor was used as the school, and the first floor as the church. In 1896 a pastor was assigned to the parish and the first Mass in the new church was celebrated on Christmas Day, 1896.
In 1899, the pastor purchased two acres of ground next to St. Dominic Chapel for a cemetery. St. Dominic Chapel then became the cemetery chapel. This building was torn down in the 1960's.
By the turn of the century, the congregation had outgrown its original church. The building was physically moved to make room for a new church. The cornerstone of the new church was laid in 1903 and the completed building was dedicated on August 26, 1904. The original church was then converted to a school. When a new school was built in 1909, the first church building was remodeled into two dwellings. These were eventually torn down in the late 1950's or early 1960's.
The church was enlarged in 1915 and renovated in 1947 and again in 1962.
With the turn of the century, trends in the Diocese of Pittsburgh began to reveal a decline in Mass attendance and sacramental participation. At the same time, the number of priests available for parish ministry also began to decline.
To address these challenges, Bishop David Zubik announced on April 12, 2015 a new diocesan initiative, On Mission for The Church Alive!, a consultative strategic planning process designed to foster viable, sustainable and vibrant parishes. As part of this process, the Bishop, in consultation with the faithful, began to consider new models of parish life based on pastoral needs, financial and temporal resources and available clergy.
In 2018, following the period of consultation, parishes were grouped together and served by a single clergy team to eventually form one new parish.
During this transition period, St. Joseph Parish remained an independent parish while sharing clergy and staff and eventually publishing a joint bulletin with the other parishes. This ended on July 1, 2020 when St. Joseph Parish merged with the parishes of St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish, Homestead/Munhall; Christ the Light of the World Parish, Duquesne; the West Mifflin parishes of Resurrection, Holy Trinity and St. Agnes; and the Munhall parishes of St. Rita and St. Therese of Lisieux to form the new St. Thomas the Apostle Parish. As part of the merger St. Joseph Church remained open as part of the new parish.