Construction of St. Joseph's Cathedral cost $150,000 over 11 years, though many parishioners contributed their labor in lieu of financial support. It currently serves as the mother church of the Catholic diocese of Buffalo. Architect Patrick Keeley was a pupil of Augustus Pugin, restorer of famous English Gothic churches. St. Joseph's Cathedral, considered to be Keeley's finest work, features Victorian Gothic architecture and is very similar to the cathedral in Freiburg, Germany (c. 1268-1288). President Millard Fillmore made a sizable donation to the building fund. Many Gothic features are present in the building, including: vast expanse of interior space, verticality, painted arches, ribbed vaulting, clerestory lighting, numerous windows, and clustered piers. Buffalos Bishop John Timon visited King Ludwig I of Bavaria and convinced the King to donate some of his windows to the new Cathedral. These windows, representing the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the resurrection of Christ, won first prize in the Munich Exposition of 1850. They currently highlight the wall above the Bishop's chair. Many of the remaining windows were installed during the Cathedral renovation between 1903-1905. Donors of the windows were allowed to select their subject and, consequently, many are reflective of the immigrant background (German, Austrian, English) of the clergy and parishioners.

The Cathedral's pipe organ was manufactured by Hook & Hastings and won first prize at the 1876 Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia before being purchased for the Cathedral by Bishop Ryan at a cost of $10,000. Nearly 1,000 recitals were given on the instrument during the Celebration in a room 50 times the size of St. Joseph's Cathedral. The Andover (MA) Organ Co. completely refurbished the instrument at a cost of approximately $1 million over an 18-month period beginning in late 1999, and it was re-dedicated in June 2001.

The tower once held a 43-bell carillon, made by the Bollee Brothers of LeMans, France, which won first prize at the Paris Exposition of 1867. It deteriorated over time and was eventually removed. Currently, the tower has two bells. The steeple was restored in the mid-1980s. Behind the Cathedral stands The Lady Chapel, which served as a private chapel for earlier bishops of the diocese. It contains a six-foot statue of the Virgin Mary made in Italy.

Turn around and head one block North on Franklin Street.