A house was on the lot, and on December 30, 1821, Bishop England blessed it as a temporary chapel and named it in honor of St. Finbar, the patron saint of Cork.

[1] The cathedral was designed by Patrick Charles Keely (of County Tipperary, Ireland) in the highly ornate Gothic Style, as a 219-foot-tall structure topped with a steeple and bronze cross.

This lack of insurance coverage combined with the realities of the Civil War in Charleston caused the Cathedral ruins to stand for decades unaddressed.

The ruins stood until the major 1886 Charleston earthquake caused the remains of the tower to collapse.

The Right Reverend John England was consecrated in Cork Cathedral prior to coming to Charleston in 1821 and was thus quite familiar with the Irish Saint Finbar.