English: St. Philomena Roman Catholic Church, 26 Plymouth Avenue, Franklinville, New York, July 2011. A striking Modernist church building designed by Buffalo-based architect Gerard Zimmermann (whose Southern Tier work also prominently includes St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Holland), the architecture adapts the A-frame design contemporarily popular in residential architecture for ecclesiastical use, where the steel-frame roof swoops in dramatic geometrical forms from the gable atop the main façade (which frames an enormous recessed stained-glass window where the shape of a cross is delimited by redwood slats in a narrow rectangular pattern echoed on the walls flanking the entrance) to the sides, where the exposed ends of the steel beams overhang the concrete piers that make up the exterior wall. The stained glass, Stations of the Cross, and status of St. Philomena in front of the building are all the work of Buffalo-area sculptor Larry Griffis. St. Philomena's got its start as a parish in 1873 and worshiped for many years at a site adjacent to the Free Methodist Church on South Main Street. The move to the present site, overseen by its then-pastor Rev. Henry J. Romanowski (1920-1985), culminated with the new church's dedication in May 1965. Father Romanowski died in 1985 and is buried on the church grounds. The more recent history of the parish includes its 2007 merger with the former Holy Family R.C. Church in Machias as well as its "link" with Holy Name of Mary parish in Ellicottville (with whom they share a priest, currently Rev. F. Patrick Melfi, and financial resources), both as part of the Buffalo Diocese's "Journey in Faith and Grace" parish consolidation program.