The Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto was erected in 1925-26 by Mrs. Margaret Liska in memory of her late husband, Joseph Liska, at a cost of $18,000. The 80-foot stone portion is made of Tufa stone, a rock formation formed by ossified plants, vegetation and marine life found at the bottom of Lake Erie.
The Our Lady of Lourdes statue is six feet tall made of Peninsula stone. It took two years for it to be carved in Italy. The original altar platform was also Peninsula stone, but it broke during transportation. It was replaced with Tennessee marble by the Deprato Company in Chicago. The original cross was three and a half feet tall and made of Peninsula stone. After some years, it was broken and replaced with Carrara marble.
The body of the alter features carvings of roses and ferns. Near the tabernacle and elsewhere on the altar and sides are shells and jewels donated by friends.
The stained-glass windows are from Germany. Above the altar on the north is a picture of St. Gertrude and on the south, St. Therese, the Little Flower. A statue of St. Anthony sits above the altar on the north; and on the south, St. Francis Xavier. These statues are in memory of Rev. Fr. Anthony Kroeger, first spiritual director, and of Mother M. Xavier Donahue, second mother general, of the Sisters of St. Joseph. To the north and a little to the front is a statue of St. Bernadette in a kneeling position holding a long candle in her hand. The transom window above the door is stained glass with a rose and rose vine twined and leading down toward the same pattern in the door. The door is bronze with a stained-glass center with the trailing vine and roses.
Originally the Grotto had both electricity and water. The chandelier and brass side lights glowed with electric light, as did the halos over the saint's heads, St. Bernadette's candle and the Blessed Mother. Water flowed in the back of the statue into a basin; however, the pipes froze, and it was never replaced. Electric light was removed as well.
A grotto is a natural or artificial cave used by humans in both modern times and in antiquity as a place of prayer. Grottos are usually associated with miraculous apparitions.