In 1872, Father Nicholas J. Walsh was appointed pastor. Under Father Walsh the congregation began to meet to discuss the building of a new church as the present church building had been condemned as unsafe and unfit for worship. The congregation had outgrown the building. The last Mass was said in the original building on September 15, 1873. A temporary chapel was built on the site of the present school building and the original church building was torn down. “A plan was provided for a stone structure of ample dimensions, of Gothic style, and having a basement and main stor(e)y.” The cost of the new church building was $90,000 and was planned by Edwin Forrest Durang and assisted by a fellow Frankford resident Frank Watson. The funds raised for the new church building even included donations by non-Catholics. In June 1874, the cornerstone was laid. The work again went slowly and was not complete by the time Father Walsh’s duties as pastor were completed. In 1877, he was transferred to St. Charles Borromeo and was succeeded by Father John P. Byrne, who was an assistant in Pottsville, Pennsylvania.