Saint Patrick's celebrates 150th anniversary in 2005.  The following are some notes on the history of Saint Patrick's, from the early years to the present.

• In the years before the parish was established, the English-speaking Catholics of what is now downtown Ottawa, frequented mass in a brewery and later in an apartment on Wellington Street.
• Bishop Joseph-Eugene Guigues, the first Catholic bishop of Ottawa, acquired a small Methodist church on Sparks Street in 1852 at a cost of $200.  There the parish was founded under the title of Saint Andrew’s in May 1855.  In the autumn of that year, Father Aeneas McDonnell Dawson was appointed the first pastor.
• The second pastor, Father James McGrath, an Oblate, purchased seven large lots from the heirs of Colonel By, which became the site of the present church.  Construction began in 1866.  The next year the name of the parish was changed to Saint Patrick’s. 
• The architects designed the building in the neo-Gothic style.  The cornerstone was blessed in 1872 by Bishop Guigues and laid by Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada. In 1875, the still incomplete church was blessed.
• Father Matthew Whelan was appointed parish priest in 1881 and served for some 40 years.  Father Whelan’s tenure as pastor witnessed the expansion of the church premises with the construction of the baptistery and chancel as well as the addition of a steeple to the tower of the church.
• The original parish boundaries were large and even included the English Catholics of Hull until 1882.  The boundaries have steadily contracted as the city expanded and other parishes were founded.  The present boundaries of the parish are from the Ottawa River south to Catherine Street and from Elgin and O’Connor Streets west to Bronson Avenue.
• In 1871, Saint Patrick’s Home was built at Kent Street and Laurier Avenue to accommodate orphans and the elderly.  The children’s residence was closed in 1961 and the seniors’ residence moved to Riverside Drive in 1964.
• In 1900, there were six Catholic schools in the parish.  With the shrinking of the parish boundaries and shift in downtown demographics, the last elementary school in the parish (built in 1955), has since closed.
• A parish hall was built in 1914 behind the church on Gloucester Street. It was used for decades until 2003 when declining use and the need for costly repairs resulted in demolition.   A plaque at the entrance of the church commemorates the sixty men from the parish who gave their lives in the First World War and another one pays tribute to the countless men who went overseas in the Second World War.
• In 1995, the church building was raised to the status of a minor basilica.  (There are only four major basilicas, all located in Rome: Saint Peter's, Saint John Lateran, Saint Mary Major and Saint Paul -outside the walls).  The pope grants the designation of minor basilica to churches of historical, spiritual and architectural prominence in their community.  It is one of twenty such churches in Canada, of which only four are in Ontario.
• Saint Patrick's is a place of prayer in the downtown for the Catholic residents, workers and visitors. Its doors are open about 12 hours a day (16 hours on Sunday) for this purpose.  It also serves them by providing frequent opportunities to attend mass or go to confession.
• Mondays to Fridays there are four masses a day, with confessions before each.  Many of those who frequent weekday masses actually attend other parishes on Sundays. The building holds about 1,000 people.
• Our weekend parishioners include those who live in the parish boundaries as well as many more who travel from other areas of the city. As is now common in the Catholic Church, we have a Saturday afternoon mass of anticipation for Sunday.  On Sunday itself, we have four masses in the morning and early afternoon and one at nine in the evening.
• The church is a poplular location for weddings and many former parishioners request their funeral services to be held here.