Thank you to Stephen Schweitzer for contributing this great old image of him standing in front of the original Saint Mary's Church. He was in the St. Mary's School kindergarten at the time.

St. Mary's first Mass was celebrated in a wooden structure in a new church building on the west side of NW 2nd Avenue and 75th Street on July 20, 1930. The new parish boundaries were from NW 36th Street north to the Dade-Broward county line and from Biscayne Bay to the Dade-Collier county line. Father William Wilkinson, S.J., of Gesu Church was the celebrant. Monsignor William Barry, P.A., pastor of St. Patrick's Church on Miami Beach, preached the homily.Father Patrick Joseph Roche of County Limerick, Ireland was appointed the first pastor of St. Mary's Parish in October 1930. In 1931, a rectory was constructed on the north side of the church and a parish hall was constructed in 1935 on the north side of the rectory. The church was moved to the east side of NW 2nd Avenue in December 1936. It was then remodeled and enlarged by moving the sanctuary back and adding two wings and the church could now hold 600 attendees. The first ceremony in the renovated church was the Sacrament of Confirmation by Bishop Barry in February 1937. In 1953 Father Patrick J. Donoghue was appointed pastor of St. Mary's when Father Roche retired. In 1955 groundbreaking ceremonies for a new church were held. On January 27, 1957 Cardinal Edward Mooney of Detroit dedicated the new church building. The church dome was seven stories above the altar. A southwest corner tower was twelve stories tall. The two mahogany doors at the entrance were thirty feet high. The ceiling over the altar was seventy-six feet. The nave was one hundred and forty feet long, eighty-two feet wide, and five stories high with a seven foot main aisle and two five-foot side aisle altars. On August 13, 1958, sixteen counties of Southern Florida were detracted from the Diocese of St. Augustine to create the new Diocese of Miami. St. Mary's Church was announced by the Vatican as the new Cathedral. On October 7, 1958, Auxiliary Bishop Coleman F. Carroll of Pittsburgh was installed as the first bishop of Miami. Shortly thereafter, many renovations for the cathedral began including the addition of a bronze bell weighing more than two tons, and the installation of the Cathedral's first pipe organ.