he cornerstone of St. James Chapel of Archbishop  Quigley Seminary was laid in 1917. St. James Chapel is a replica inspired by Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, the famous mid-13th-century Gothic structure built at the command of King Louis IX of France, crusader and saint, to house to his recent acquisition of the Crown of Thorns.

 Although St. James is Gothic in appearance, it is not a direct copy of Sainte-Chapelle; instead, it is a superb example of an architectural vogue known as Neo-Gothic, or Gothic-Revival. For much of the 19th and early 20th centuries there flourished, especially in England, France,  Germany, and  the United States a general revival of Medieval styles, primarily Romanesque and Gothic. This revival of historical styles was part of a broader feeling of the loss of innocence and  beauty in the face of industrialization. The use of historical parts to make a new whole is a key element of Gothic Revival, and St. James Chapel represents an important American interpretation of this trend. 

Inside St. James Chapel, the windows dominate. These glorious interpretations of the windows of Sainte-Chapelle are on English Antique Glass and were designed by Robert Giles and his wife in the studio of John J. Kinsella Co., of Chicago, the firm that cut, assembled and installed them. The pictorial scheme comprises 245 events of scriptural and Church history - the most comprehensive in existence in the United States and Europe.

 Starting in 1919 and continuing through the course of several years, more than 700,000 pieces of glass were framed and installed. From the time of installation, these precious windows were protected from the elements by a layer of storm glass, one of the earliest documented examples of this technique in the United States.