Among the earliest of the Anglican churches of the Philadelphia diocese, St. James was rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth-century canal and industrial boom. It is one of a group of similar midcentury Episcopal churches by Sloan located within a short distance of each other at Holmesburg (Emmanuel Church) and Frankford (St. Mark's). With their central bell-cote at the top of the gable, they each reflect the continuing importance of St. James the Less in Philadelphia (
PH136) as a model for rural parish churches.