St. James began as a mission of Our Lady Star of the Sea in Atlantic City in 1914. The site of the mission, on Ventnor Avenue and Wissahickon, was a small chapel of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Before many years, a small church was erected on Atlantic Avenue, the site of the present church; and in the Spring of 1922, the new parish was established with Father (later Monsignor) Gregory F. Moran as pastor. Before 1946, St. James served the Catholic people of Margate and Longport, at which time, Blessed Sacrament, Margate, was created as parish.