The Parish of Holy Family was established in 1908 as the mother church of Italian people in the city.

The first Italian immigrants to Detroit in any sizable numbers were Lombards from a town near Milan in 1880. Larger numbers of immigrants from southern Italy and Sicily followed later and on April 7, 1908, bishop Foley officially established the parish of Holy Family.

They used the chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul as their place of worship first, before they built their own church. The cornerstone for the new structure was laid on December 5, 1909 and the church was completed on November 13, 1910.

Today, Holy Family remains the mother church of the Italian population of Detroit even though most of the parishioners no longer live in the city.