[3] The church building was constructed in 1859 and catered to many of the Irish Catholics that resided in the surrounding neighborhoods, particularly Swampoodle.

The New York Times reported that President James Buchanan and several Cabinet members were present for the dedication of the church on October 16, 1859.

[4] Jesuit Father Benedict Sestini, a Mathematics teacher at Georgetown University, served as the church's architect.

In 1958, Gibbons and Associates, a renowned church-decorating firm created a new interior scheme that incorporated mauve and teal with silver leaf accents.

By 1964, the area which served the diocese was changing rapidly, with urban development and high rise office buildings destroying the old neighborhood of small houses, with a primarily black population.

Simultaneously with the development of the new housing, an emergency feeding program grew to a formal organization called SOME (So Others Might Eat).

In the mid-1970s with the majority of the neighborhood surrounded blighted and razed for office building construction, the dwindling congregation abandoned the upper sanctuary and retreated to the basement church for more than twenty-five years.

It selected Church Restoration Services as general contractor and decorator under the guidance of architect Duane Cahill.