The church building was constructed in 1850-55 and was designed by architect Richard Upjohn in English Gothic Revival style. At the time it was known as Trinity Chapel which was one of several uptown chapels of the Trinity Church parish.
Celebrated American writer Edith Wharton (Jones) married socialite Edward Wharton in 1885 in Trinity Chapel; she was later to immortalize the church in her famous novel of Victorian New York, The Age of Innocence. Trinity Chapel was an active Episcopal Church community for a number of decades until 1915, when the area became commercial and parishioners began to relocate farther north.
The chapel was sold to the Serbian Eastern Orthodox parish in 1942, re-opening as the Cathedral of St. Sava in 1944. The entire church complex with furnishings was purchased in 1942 for $30,000. The Deed, signed on March 15, 1943, did not include a park on the southwest side of the church (present-day parking lot), speculated to have been sold at a later date.
Following the end of World War II, the Cathedral reached out to huge waves of refugees and immigrants from Yugoslavia. It was the only place where Serbs could meet, where they could preserve their faith and national identity, simultaneously a place to learn English and enter into their new, alien society and culture.
In the 1960’s, a powerful explosion from across 26th Street destroyed the original stained glass altar windows, which were subsequently replaced with stained glass windows in a Byzantine style motif. The Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava was declared a national landmark building by the National Register of Historic Places, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. On April 18, 1968, the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission stated that the Cathedral’s “striking appearance commands special attention,” and that “its special character, historic significance, and aesthetic interest and value of the development, heritage, and cultural characteristics of New York make it irreplaceable”.