Reverend Thomas Plassmann, O.F.M., the president of St. Bonaventure University at the time,  went to Rome and talked to Pope Pius XI to get permission for a new seminary.  Pius felt that the seminary should be named Christ the King, the first such seminary with that name.  He felt that there couldn't be a more fitting name for a seminary.

  Architect Cajetan Baumann, O.F.M. designed the new seminary and ground was broken on November 1, 1948.  Classes began October 22, 1951.  Christ the King replaced the previous seminary which burned down in 1930.  The seminary was not completely finished when classes began, but it was inhabitable.  212 seminarians were admitted for the first year with the Very Reverend John Lambert Rowan, O.F.M., serving as rector.  During the years between the old seminary burning down and Christ the King being built, the seminarians were located in the fourth and fifth floors of Devereux Hall.

"After four years of construction, the $2.5 million, 1.6 million cubic foot structure was dedicated on November 9 and 10, 1952.  The Most Reverend Amleto Giovanni Cicognani, apostolic delegate to the United States blessed the seminary's St. John the Evangelist Chapel [now known as the San Damiano Room].  Attendees included prominent clergy from around the country, such as the most Reverend Joseph Burke, a bishop from Buffalo, and priests from China and Puerto Rico." ( BonaVenture February 26, 1999, p. 3)