English: St. John Lutheran Church, 420 Lockport Street, Youngstown, New York, January 2023. Completed in 1969 to a design by Roger Patterson of the Buffalo architectural firm of Shelgren, Patterson & Marzec, this striking brick church is among the firm's most unusual and innovative designs. The sanctuary, seen at left, has a cruciform footprint and an enormous roof that overhangs the exterior walls and, on the side elevations, slopes almost all the way to ground level: a profusion of dramatic diagonal lines that points to a Neo-Expressionist influence. The central portion of the façade recessed underneath a particularly wide overhang, contains a simple cross, and is flanked by a pair of riblike pilasters with tall columns of stained glass windows on either side. An east wing, seen at right, held Sunday school classroom space. The congregation of St. John's was founded in 1900 and, in its first years, met in a white clapboard church that was originally located at the corner of Creek and Balmer Roads (St. John's Cemetery still occupies the site today) but was later moved to the corner of Third and Oak Streets in the village center, where it still stands and has been repurposed as a private residence. By 1966, that building was "bursting at the seams", to quote the words of Pastor Elvin J. Riemer in a Niagara Falls Gazette article which also noted that the church's most recent membership count was nearly thrice as large as the building's seating capacity. Thus, Rev. Riemer set out on the task of shepherding his congregation through a three-year planning and construction process. The five-acre plot on which the present church is located was purchased in September 1966, at which time the firm of Highland & Highland was contracted to draw up blueprints for a "contemporary style" building. However, at some point in time before the August 1968 groundbreaking ceremony, their plans had been scrapped in favor of the present $300,000, 275-seat church which was dedicated fifteen months later.