Built in 1807, it is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic church building in New England, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

It is a rectangular brick building, bearing some stylistic resemblance to churches of the period in Virginia.

It has a gabled roof, and a projecting square tower with the main entrance at its base, set in a segmented-arch opening.

The parish was organized in 1796 by James Kavanagh and Matthew Cottrill, and first met without a priest in a wood-frame chapel.

[2] Among the historical artifacts in the church are a bell cast by Paul Revere & Sons and the original altar that Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus used to consecrate the building.