The Basilica of St. James

Catholics settled in the Jamestown area as early as 1872 but a parish was not established until the late 1870s. The first Catholic church in Jamestown was dedicated by Bishop Martin Marty, OSB on May 13, 1883. On November 10, 1889 Pope Leo XIII established the Diocese of Jamestown and St. James became the cathedral church for the new diocese. This distinction was short lived as the See City was transferred to Fargo on April 6, 1897. Bishop John Shanley was the only bishop to call St. James his cathedral. Bishop James O'Reilly consecrated the present church on November 29, 1914.[2] On October 26, 1988 Blessed John Paul II elevated St. James Church to the rank of a minor basilica. Courtesy of Wikipedia