Under the leadership of Fr William Walsh, an Irish priest, ground was broken on the current church site on February 1, 1888.

Stained-glass windows in the basilica, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, depict significant events in the lives of the parish's patron saints.

The basilica's walls are also adorned with 14 polychrome Stations of the Cross, whose scenes depict the suffering, death, and burial of Jesus Christ.

[2] The Kilgen organ in the church was built in 1936.Saints Peter and Paul was raised to a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI and inaugurated by Bishop Richard Stika of the Diocese of Knoxville on October 22, 2011.

[4] In 2016, the Diocese of Knoxville began a cause of canonization of Fr Patrick Ryan, who served as pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Parish from 1872 to 1878.