In the 1830s , French Canadian Catholic employees of the Hudson 's Bay Company petitioned the bishop in their native Quebec to send priests to what was then known as the Oregon Country . François Norbert Blanchet and Modeste Demers were sent to the area and arrived at Fort Vancouver in 1838 . Blanchet and Demers held Masses in various buildings within the fort , and Catholics often had to share worship space with Protestants , an arrangement that did not please either group . In 1845 Blanchet gained the company 's permission to build a new church just outside the fort , and the wooden building was dedicated as St. James Church on May 30 , 1846 . In July 1846 , the Vatican established three Catholic dioceses in the Oregon Country : Oregon City , Vancouver Island , and Walla Walla . Augustin-Magloire Blanchet , François Blanchet 's younger brother , was appointed bishop of Walla Walla . The Walla Walla diocese was abandoned shortly after , in the wake of the Whitman massacre ; however , on May 31 , 1850 , the Vatican under Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Nesqually , with Augustin Blanchet as its bishop . Blanchet chose to have his new diocese headquartered in Vancouver , and chose the existing St. James Church as his cathedral . The church was formally dedicated as St. James Cathedral on January 23 , 1851 . Blanchet retired in 1879 and his successor , Egidius Junger , set out to build a new cathedral in Vancouver . Construction began in 1884 and the - long cathedral was dedicated as St. James Cathedral the following year . The original church , meanwhile , burned down in 1889
Whitman massacre
Whitman massacre
Proto-Cathedral of St. James the Greater