St. James Cathedral is the motherchurch of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Diocese of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The cathedral stands at the corner of Huron and Wabash streets. It is the oldest church of the Anglican Communion and Episcopal tradition in the Chicago area, having been founded in 1834. Originally built as a parish church, that building was mostly destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire. Only the bell tower survived, and this was incorporated into the rebuilt church, including the soot-stained stones around the top of the tower which remain black today. St. James received the status of cathedral in 1928 after the Cathedral Church of St. Peter and St. Paul was destroyed in a fire in 1921, but the arrangement was terminated in 1931. On May 3, 1955, St.