The site chosen for the cathedral was in part that of the Bishop's residence, located on a rise just outside the central city, at the southwestern end of the inner suburb of Fortitude Valley, bounded by Gotha and Gipps, Ann and Wickham Streets.

A house called "Dara" had been built on that site in 1850, and in 1859 it became the residence of the first Catholic Bishop of Brisbane, James Quinn (1859–1881).

[8] This would have in fact been slightly smaller than Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal, Canada, which is 105 by 65 metres (344 by 213 ft), which had just begun construction in 1924.

St Joseph's was a modified version of the original design of 1914,[9] which bears strong similarities with the Holy Name Cathedral.

Duhig obtained a licence from America and opened the Benedict Stone works at Bowen Hills on 9 August 1929.

In February 1930 Colonial Mutual Life (CML) advanced Duhig an £70,000 mortgage on his properties which included the stone works.

CML used Benedict stone to build a number of their Australian offices, ensuring some of their mortgage was repaid, and employed Hennessey and Concrete Constructions (Qld) Ltd, who were Duhig's architect and contractor for the Holy Name Cathedral.

In 1985 the Archdiocese sold the site to property developers and an apartment complex called "Cathedral Place" was subsequently built.