English: St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 616 Cayuga Drive, Niagara Falls, New York, December 2022. A 1957 work of the Buffalo-based architecture practice of Shelgren & Whitman, local press coverage of the design's unveiling describes its aesthetic as "traditional", a puzzling adjective given its Modernistic preponderance of right angles, simple repetitive forms (note the fenestration on the side elevation), smooth-textured surfaces, and austere ornamentation. The copper-roofed openwork belfry, partly obscured in this photo behind a large pine tree, is a common trope in the firm's '50s-era output. St. Stephen's was founded in 1917 as a mission parish serving the Episcopalian residents of LaSalle, which was then an independent village rapidly growing into a "streetcar suburb" of nearby Niagara Falls. The fledgling congregation met initially in the Odd Fellows' Hall at the corner of what are today called Buffalo Avenue and South 87th Street, but later purchased the parcel seen here and, in April 1923, commenced the seven-month construction process of their first purpose-built home. Seen at far left in this photo, it was initially a multipurpose structure with the pastor's residence on the upper floor and the ground floor temporarily used, in the words of a contemporaneous Niagara Falls Gazette article, "for church services and public entertainments during the period preceding the erection of a church edifice planned for a future time when the growth of the village and the local mission will warrant such a move". Both did indeed continue to grow as projected, at least initially - by February 1925, membership at St. Stephen's had increased to a point where Western New York Episcopal Bishop Charles H. Brent approved its elevation in status from mission to full-fledged independent parish, and just two years later, the Village of LaSalle was annexed by the adjacent City of Niagara Falls - but the onset of the Great Depression and World War II would scuttle for some time the aforementioned plans for a proper church building. Efforts in that direction were reinitiated in November 1954, when the newly constituted Building Committee was presented to the parish by Edward A. Belmore for a question-and-answer session. Groundbreaking for the $170,000 edifice followed in very early 1956, the cornerstone was laid in October of the same year, and dedication ceremonies occurred the following Palm Sunday.