The original St. Paul Church was dedicated in 1833.
When the diocese was established in 1843 St. Paul Church was chosen as the cathedral. It burnt down in 1851, but was replaced with a larger building in 1855. The first two St. Paul Cathedrals were located on Grant Street downtown.[4] As the downtown area was claimed by industries, the residential areas shifted to other areas of the city. St. Paul's property was sold to the industrialist Henry Clay Frick.
Andrew Carnegie provided the cathedral's first pipe organ, originally a circa 1895 W. W. Kimball, which served into the 1950s. Under organist and choirmaster Paul Koch's leadership, the cathedral contracted with Aeolian-Skinner to build a new large four-manual organ. This contract fell through upon the death of Aeolian-Skinner's president G. Donald Harrison, and after a tour of European organ manufacturers Koch selected Beckerath to manufacture the cathedral's new organ. Named "one of the monument organs of the continent", it was completed in 1962, and has undergone several major refurbishment projects since.[6][7]