This imposing, twin-towered, red brick Byzantine-influenced design was built as the cathedral after the Diocese of El Paso was elevated in 1914 by Pope Pius X, outranking the older Immaculate Conception (EP28) and Sacred Heart parishes. Towers of unequal height frame the gabled front of the long nave. The taller west tower is topped by an open arcade, a crenellated parapet, and a tall, green-tiled spire, and the shorter east tower has a smaller arcade and a pyramidal roof. A broad arch spans the facade encompassing triple-arched windows and a triple-arched porch. The St. Louis-based architects, designers of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (1914) and the Adolphus Hotel (DS15) in Dallas, used a deep red brick with contrasting cream-colored stone. Stained glass windows by Emil Frei Art Glass of St. Louis were installed in 1929. Interior alterations were made c. 1988 to adapt the worship space to the requirements of the Second Vatican Council.
Diagonally across the intersection from the cathedral at 1011 N. Mesa is the columned Colonial Revival Frank S. Ainsa House (1913, Gibson and Robertson). Ainsa, who donated the site for the cathedral, was one of the few members of El Paso’s early-twentieth-century elite who was of Mexican origin.