The cathedral is known as being the church where the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Samuel Seabury was ordained in 1784. Bishop Seabury was consecrated to the episcopate in "an upper room" of the home of John Skinner, then leader of the St. Andrew's congregation, approx 500 meters from the present building. The approximate site of the house used to be marked by a polished granite tablet on the wall of the former Marischal College.. This has, in recent years, been moved. The original building was designed in the perpendicular Gothic style by the architectArchibald Simpson, one of Simpson's many commissions in the city. While three sides of the Cathedral were built out of the usual local granite, for which Aberdeen is famous, the facade of the structure, facing King Street, was built from sandstone for economical reasons despite Simpson's opposition. The church opened in 1817 as St Andrew's Chapel and was raised to Cathedral status in 1914. During the 1930s, the cathedral was renovated to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Seabury's consecration. There had been a plan to build an elaborate, cruciform cathedral with central tower, commemorating Bishop Seabury's consecration on the site currently occupied by Aberdeen City Council's headquarters. This was to have been a gift of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, however, the Wall Street Crash halted this plan due to lack of money. Instead, the existing church was enlarged and embellished by Sir Ninian Comper. The memorial was dedicated with a ceremony attended by the then U.S. ambassador to the UK, Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Future president John F. Kennedy is believed to have been in attendance. The Cathedral has always offered dignified liturgical worship and, until the late 1970s and early 1980s, was Anglo-Catholic in tradition. In 1982, the Cathedral Provost of the time, Very Revd Donald Howard, declared in a sermon the cathedral would remove the large crucifix and four of the six candles on the High Altar for Lent so that the altar could be free-standing to permit a 'westward' celebration of the Eucharist, celebrant facing the congregation rather than back to the people. The candles were never returned to the High Altar. Two candle sticks on free-standing altars are the norm also in Roman Catholic and other Protestant communities. Worship has since become more "broad" in nature, whilst retaining the dignity of cathedral worship. St Andrew's Cathedral Aberdeen has a long musical and choral heritage and is now the only Episcopalian cathedral in Scotland to maintain a traditional choir of men and boys. In recent years, the cathedral has also formed a girls' choir and a ladies choir; both of which are joined by the Lay Clerks of the cathedral choir. Over the last thirty years, the Cathedral Choir has sung in most of the UK's major cathedrals and has also toured overseas.
The Cathedral, which has a splendid acoustic, houses one of the finest three manual pipe organs in Scotland, and has been served by a number of distinguished Organists & Masters of the Choristers including:
