Until that time, smaller Episcopal churches had served as seats of the bishop. The "cathedral idea"—the concept that a bishop's main church is more than a parish church, and is the "Mother church"—had not yet taken hold in the United States. It is sometimes called the "Pioneer Cathedral" because of that. Doane and the congregation planned a cathedral complex, to include convent, cloister, hospital and school. He established the girls' school in 1870, and the convent and hospital in 1874. Much of the building was paid for in a gift by his friend, J. Pierpont Morgan. The church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.