[2] The building, a fine example of Gothic Revival architecture designed by the noted ecclesiastical architect Patrick C. Keely,[3] was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

[1] The original Saint Patrick's church was a wooden structure,[4] built in 1831 to support the Irish workmen who had moved to Lowell, largely to work on the Pawtucket and Merrimack Canals.

In addition to the traditional Irish and French Canadian congregations, the parish, including its school, serves local Southeast Asians, specifically with Vietnamese and Cambodian native-language Masses.

A tower 160 feet (49 m) in height projects from the front facade, with stone buttresses flanking the main church entrance at its base.

The second tower stage houses a belfry with louvered lancet-arch openings, and it is topped by an octagonal steeple ornamented with lancet dormers.