St. Francis is one of the more imposing buildings at Kalaupapa. With its impressive steeple, it is the most readily distinguished structure from the topside lookout. The church was reputedly designed by two French priests in the settlement. The third church on the site, this building maintains the Catholic presence on the Kalaupapa side of the peninsula, which started with Father Wendelin Joseph Moellers in the early 1880s. Japanese masons and carpenters constructed the building after its predecessor burned to the ground in 1906.