[2] They purchased land and built a small log chapel for the German population of Lancaster, giving the mission church the name of St. John Nepomucene.

The parishioners quickly built a new stone church, the men gathering limestone from the fields and assembling it into a structure and the women mixing mortar.

Work was undertaken on a Gothic Revival brick church,[1] whose cornerstone was laid by the Bishop of Philadelphia, John Neumann.

[3] Another fire broke out in the church in January 1867, caused by a faulty heater, doing extensive damage, though not destroying the brick exterior.

[3] The pastor of the church also invited Italian painter Filippo Costaggini, who was working on the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., to decorate St.