Bishop Joseph Rademacher laid St. Ann’s cornerstone on September 12, 1897.  The Wabash Avenue church replaced 1870, two story chapel and school that Father George Hamilton had built for the Holy Cross Brothers to teach boys of the parish, and the Sisters of Providence, girls until 1919 when the Lafayette Franciscan Sisters succeeded them.

St. Mary Church cared for St. Ann Chapel until 1884 when Father John Dempsey became the parish pastor, Father Patrick Roche (1888-1901) arranged for a Catholic chapel at West Lafayette Indiana Soldier’s Home, which the parish priests served from 1896 to 1957.  In 1907, the parish had 25 households of 1,120 persons.  In 1923, Fr. John McCarthy opened St. Ann School, which ran until 1968 and then was used for religious education classes before it was razed.

During 1932, the Franciscan Sisters asked Fr. John Dillon to petition the Sisters of Charity in Montreal, Quebec, for St. Ann’s relic.  Parishioners Emmett Stevenson and his father Albert and 17 helpers built the shrine to display the relic received from St. Anne de Beaupre, Quebec, in 1933.  Since then annual novena has taken place.  On December 13, 1939, the shrine became headquarters of the Pious Association of St. Ann.

Father Leo McHale (1953-1976) introduced a new pipe organ in 1956, erected Bennett Hall, and in the early 1970s renovated the church.  Msgr. John Duncan (1976-1984) repaired the rectory and the church, reorganized the parish's many programs and committees, and built a facility connected to Bennett Hall.  In 1983, the parish Matthew 25 Care & Share Food Program merited Msgr. Duncan the local George Award and national television coverage.

Then the Pastors of St. Ann Church were Father Thomas Fox’s (1984-1995), Father Ambrose Zeigler (1995-1997), Father Michael McKinley (1997-2007), Father Dominic Young (2007-2020), and our present pastor Father Anthony Rowland (2020-present).  The parish has 403 households of 921 persons.