The following is a short history of St. James Cathedral.  Explore Cathedral history in detail by visiting the history page.  You can also take a thorough virtual tour of the Cathedral, including dozens of full color images, by clicking here.

Early years

An early postcard of the Cathedral shows the great dome

Bishop Edward J. O’Dea was a visionary leader who foresaw that Seattle would surpass Vancouver as the principal city of Washington state. In 1903 he announced that he would build a new Cathedral in Seattle. He purchased property on Seattle’s First Hill and in 1904 he engaged as architects the prestigious New York firm of Heins and LaFarge (who designed the great Episcopal Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City). Bishop O’Dea demanded a Cathedral “that must surpass anything in the West.” The cornerstone ceremony took place on November 12, 1905. The Cathedral was completed in 1907 and solemnly dedicated on December 22, 1907.

The architects of St James Cathedral turned away from the Gothic model popular at the time and took for their inspiration 14th century Italian Renaissance architecture. The graceful twin towers of St. James are 167 feet high. The Cathedral is cruciform in design with exceptionally wide, deep transepts. The steps leading up to the west façade of the Cathedral may have been modeled on those of the great Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, legendary burial place of the Apostle James.

Mother Cabrini, foundress of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart and the first American citizen to be canonized (1946), came to Seattle in 1903. She and her sisters ministered to the many Italian immigrants in Seattle, and established numerous schools, orphanages, and missions. Mother Cabrini also supervised the purchase of the Perry Hotel at Madison Street and Terry Avenue, transforming it into Columbus Hospital (later Cabrini Hospital). Today the Cabrini Medical Tower stands next to the site where the Hospital once stood. While she was in Seattle, Mother Cabrini often worshiped at St. James Cathedral. Relics of Mother Cabrini were sealed beneath the altar at the time of the Cathedral’s rededication in 1994.

On February 2, 1916, a severe winter storm struck Seattle, and two feet of heavy wet snow added their weight to that of the huge dome above the Cathedral’s central crossing, already a strain for the steel girders which supported it. At a quarter past three on a silent Candlemas afternoon, a girder gave way and 400 tons of masonry fell eighty feet, crashing down into the empty Cathedral with a thunderous noise. (Providentially, no one was in the Cathedral at the time.) Every window was shattered, heavy pews were hurled against the walls, and a huge gaping hole in the roof left the Cathedral exposed to the elements.

Bishop O’Dea levied an assessment of $100,000 on the parishes of the diocese to repair the damage. He wrote: “The great calamity which has recently visited us in the destruction of our beautiful Cathedral is, no doubt, a source of intense sorrow to all of you, as well as to the Bishop and clergy of Seattle. And while we feel greatly afflicted, still we must accept it resignedly from the hands of God, Who will, in His own good time, convert our sorrow into joy. Though the material loss is immense, still we feel thankful to God that no human life was destroyed by the disaster.” He added: “we know your loyalty and generosity, and we feel that a more beautiful and a more substantial temple will replace the old.”

The Cathedral reopened on March 18, 1917. “The whole occasion was marked by a feeling of satisfaction much similar to that experienced when the building was first completed, eleven years before,” according to an account written in 1929, the year of the Cathedral’s silver anniversary. “The restored structure was largely as it had been before. The most notable exception was in the matter of the dome which was replaced by a flat roofing.”

The great window at the west entrance to the Cathedral dates from the 1950 renovation The Cathedral, filled with scaffolding during the 1994 restoration

In 1950 in honor of the centenary of the Diocese, the Cathedral was thoroughly refurbished. Archbishop Thomas A Connolly engaged the New York design firm of Harold Rambusch to restore and refurbish the Cathedral. The Cathedral was thoroughly cleaned; the tower cupolas were resheathed in new copper; statues of St Frances Xavier Cabrini, St John Vianney, and St James were commissioned to fill the formerly empty niches on the west façade. Inside, steel beams replaced rotting roof timbers; heating, ventilation, and wiring systems were modernized. The high altar was completely rebuilt; the ceiling was covered with acoustical tiles and the terrazzo floor was carpeted. The Chapel was also redecorated, with images of Our Lady of Lourdes, Our Lady of Fatima, and Our Lady Queen of Heaven surrounding the newly rediscovered Neri di Bicci Renaissance altarpiece.

On Easter Monday, April 8, 1994, work began on a more thorough and significant renovation of the Cathedral. The goal of the renovation was to change the focus of the liturgical action to the midst of the assembly in response to the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council. This was achieved, in large part, by moving the altar to the center of the space. Surprisingly, this may well have been the original intention of Heins and LaFarge in designing the Cathedral. A Seattle Times newspaper article of December 10, 1905, describing the future Cathedral, says: “Under the great center dome will stand the altar.” Though the first high altar of the Cathedral was located at the East apse of the Cathedral, St James is in design uniquely suited to the central altar, the east and west naves are of equal length with the transept at the exact midpoint of the building.

“The placement of the altar at the exact center of the Cathedral speaks of the abiding presence of Christ who is in the midst of the community of believers as servant and Lord, and who nourishes his people at the table of the Eucharist,” writes Father Michael G. Ryan. An oculus Dei (“eye of God”), a circular skylight, was added directly over the central altar, filling the space with natural light. It emphasizes the centrality of the altar and the inscription around its base reads: “I am in your midst as one who serves,” Christ’s words at the last supper (Luke 22). The same principles inspired the placement of the Baptistry at the Cathedral’s main entrance; and the placement of the Tabernacle in a chapel separate from the main body of the church.

The Cathedral was rededicated by Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy on December 22, 1994, on the 87th anniversary of its original dedication. December 22 is observed every year as a solemnity at St James Cathedral.