The church was established at the county seat in 1862 as a mission of St. Joseph's, Rossville, becoming the fifth Catholic church on Staten Island.[1] Prior to construction of the church, the Catholic community in the area was served by the founding pastor John Barry, a priest from Rossville, as well as by James Roosevelt Bayley, a future archbishop.[2] The early Romanesque Revival-style building was built in 1862, and a steeple was added in 1898.[2][3]