St. John's Episcopal Church is a historic

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

church in Montgomery,

Alabama Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It was designed by the

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architectural firm of Frank Wills and Henry Dudley. The church was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

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 (), first recorded in ancient India, is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus '' Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure ...

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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

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

secession Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

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

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

, when Montgomery was the capital of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), also known as the Confederate States (C.S.), the Confederacy, or Dixieland, was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United State ...

. The church was forced to close its doors in 1865 under Union 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 An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

recruits from the nearby "Camp Sheridan" tent city during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, until the 1918

Spanish flu The 1918–1920 flu pandemic, also known as the Great Influenza epidemic or by the common misnomer Spanish flu, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 subtype of the influenza A virus. The earliest docum ...

pandemic forced the church to temporarily close its doors. Between 1898 and 1901, St. John's rector was Edgar Gardner Murphy, who played a leading role in organizing first the Alabama and then the National Child Labor Committee, which campaigned to strict limits on employment of children in factories. In 1901, he left St. John's to take over leadership of the Southern Education Board, an organization devoted to improving education—particularly public education—in the region. In May 1925, a bronze plaque in honor of President Jefferson Davis was dedicated.

John Trotwood Moore John Trotwood Moore (1858–1929) was an American journalist, writer and local historian. He was the author of many poems, short stories and novels. He served as the State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee from 1919 to 1929. He created Moor ...

, the State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee, known defender of the KKK, lynching, and segregation was invited to give a speech. In 2019, after further researching the political context and motivations surrounding the dedication of the plaque (and later a pew dedicated to Davis in 1931) the vestry of St. John's voted to have the plaque and pew removed from the sanctuary and moved to the parish archives. The church was renovated in the 1950s and again in 2006.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Johns Episcopal Church, Montgomery, Alabama Churches completed in 1855 Towers completed in 1855 National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery, Alabama Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Episcopal church buildings in Alabama Gothic Revival church buildings in Alabama Towers in Alabama Bell towers in the United States Churches in Montgomery, Alabama 19th-century Episcopal church buildings

History

See also

References