Originally Greek Revival in appearance, the church was transformed into an Italianate design in the mid-1870s. Lambdin based his new facade upon that of a Venetian church, San Zaccaria (c. 1458 and c. 1490), which incorporates a lower story by Antonio Gambello and an upper story, with curvilinear pediments, added by Marco Codussi. Lambdin, who came to Alexandria from Baltimore, chose to reproduce this unique and disjunctive Venetian facade with its brackets and arches.