More than twenty years went into the building of St. Joseph Apache Mission. It was mainly the inspiration and work of Father Albert Braun, O.F.M., who first came to Mescalero as a young Franciscan friar in 1916. Soon after he arrived he saw the need for a new church because the old adobe structure was too small and in poor condition.His work here in Mescalero was interrupted in 1918 when he went to Europe as an Army Chaplain. When he returned to Mescalero after the war he was determined to build a church like the grand Cathedrals in Europe to serve the Apache people and as a memorial to those who had died in the war.

Inspired by the dream of Fr. Albert, Mr. William Stanton, a Philadelphia architect, drew the plans as a gift. In 1920 with a couple of volunteers the foundation, which is seven feet deep in places, was dug and construction was underway.

​The Mission is laid out in the form of a cross. It is 64 feet wide and 131 feet long. It is 50 feet to the rafters, and 80 feet to the roof peak. The tip of the cross on the bell tower is 103 feet high. The bell tower walls are four feet thick at the base.

​Father Albert served as a Chaplain in World War II and survived three and a half years as a prisoner of war in the Philippines. After the war, Fr. Albert returned to Mescalero and rededicated St. Joseph Apache Mission to the veterans of both World Wars.

​ In 1947 Fr. Albert was transferred to Phoenix, AZ, where he went on to serve the Mexican-American population with the same zeal he had brought to his ministry among the Apaches. He died in a nursing home in Phoenix on March 6, 1983 at the age of 93. His remains were returned to his beloved Mission, and are buried in the sanctuary.