St. John's Episcopal Church (Montgomery, Alabama)

St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic Gothic Revival

Gothic Revival architecture

The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...

Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

, Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. It was designed by the New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

architectural firm of Frank Wills

Frank Wills (architect)

Frank Wills was a British-born architect who is associated with the design of early Gothic Revival churches in North America.-Biography:Frank Wills was born in Exeter, Devon England in 1822, where he started working under John Hayward, he was a member of the Exeter Architectural Society, and his...

and Henry Dudley

Henry Dudley

Henry C. Dudley , known also as Henry Dudley, was an English-born North American architect, known for his Gothic Revival churches...

. The church was placed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

on 24 February 1975.

History

St. John's parish was organized in 1834 and by 1837 the parishioners had moved into a modest brick sanctuary on the corner of Perry and Jefferson Streets. After little more than a decade, the church needed to expand after the state capital moved to Montgomery and a rise in cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

production swelled the region's population. The current building was completed in 1855, in the same city block as the old, but facing Madison Street.

St. John's Episcopal Church was involved in several historic events around the time of the American Civil War

American Civil War

The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

. It hosted the Secession Convention of Southern Churches in 1861, which had helped fuel the South's

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

secession

Secession

Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...

movement. St. John's was also the church attended by the Confederate President, Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Davis

Jefferson Finis Davis , also known as Jeff Davis, was an American statesman and leader of the Confederacy during the American Civil War, serving as President for its entire history. He was born in Kentucky to Samuel and Jane Davis...

, when Montgomery was the capitol of the Confederate States of America

Confederate States of America

The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...

. The church was forced to close its doors in 1865 under Union Army

Union Army

The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...

orders, it would reopen for services in 1866.

The old building from the 1830s was torn down in 1869 and its bricks were used to construct an addition to the main structure. The building was expanded again in 1906. The church hosted many Army

United States Army

The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

recruits from the nearby "Camp Sheridan" tent city during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, until an outbreak of the Spanish Flu

Spanish flu

The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...

forced the church to temporarily close its doors. The church was renovated in the 1950s and again in the 2006.

History

See also