Land was purchased for a church in 1887 on the corner of what was then Cottonwood and Main Streets.

The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in December 1980.

[2] The building is now the Pioneer Church, part of the Antelope County Museum complex.

The St. James church was the first in the U.S. to be built from designs and under the direct supervision of London, England's Cambridge Camden Society.

Other differences are a bell fixture rather than frontal tower and spire, and clipped gables on the end sections of the nave and chancel.