The first Catholic Mass celebrated in Cheney was on June 12, 1881. Father Pascal Tosi, S.J., from the Coeur d'Alene Indian Mission, celebrated the Mass in a room above A. Blefgren's Furniture Shop. After Mass, a committee was formed to plan and finance a new church. They gathered $200 with little difficulty. After Mass on August 28, 1881, the committee again meet and made plans to build a church 20 feet by 30 feet, and 14 feet high. The lots where the new church was to be constructed were purchased for $25 by Bishop Aegidius Junger of the Nesqually Diocese, sold to him by the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The estimated total cost of the church was around $1,200. The building was completed in 1883, under the guidance of Father Aloysius Jacquet, S.J. It is described as being constructed of boards 10 or 12 inches wide, running up and down. The lumber had been purchased from a small mill operating in town. It was kept white-washed. The church was heated by a pot-bellied stove and the pews were arranged around the stove.

Father F.A. Faust purchased a bell in 1900, which still graces the grounds of the current church. Mrs. C.D. Martin provided music, using a pump organ. Febuary 14, 1902 the church was included in the church directory of The Cheney Sentinel, which listed the pastor as Father Faust. Services were every 3rd Sunday of each month. High Mass was at 8:30 a.m.; Benediction and sermon, 7:30 p.m.; and, instruction for children every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. In 1907 a rectory was added for the cost of $1,400.