The Early History of Saint John’s Episcopal Church

The history of Saint John’s Episcopal Church goes back over 115 years to a meeting of seven Episcopalians in a room over the old College Park Post Office.   There, they held church services, with an orange crate for an altar, and a tiny wooden cross, their only altar decoration.  According to available records, this was in the summer of 1906, on the 14th Sunday after Trinity.  The seven charter members were Mrs. Benjamin Neely, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Ravenal, a Mr. and Mrs. Cross, and Mr. and Mrs. Charles K. Weller.  Mr. Weller served as our Lay Reader, and a few years later, became the first Rector of Saint John’s.

 These seven original communicants had a lot of faith in the future.  They expected to grow, and realized that a church building was needed.  After accumulating $8.00 in cash, they purchased the land on which to build a new church.  This property is now our parking lot across Hardin Avenue from our current church.  The lot cost $800.00.  Working quickly, the communicates sold refreshments at the Georgia State Fair that fall, and raised $250.00.  These funds, accompanied by pledge funds, paid for the foundation and floor joists of the new church.  According to a letter written to the late Reverend Mr. Weller in 1936, “How we raised the rest of the money is a dream to me.”  The first services were held in the new Church building on December 16th.  (Rose Sunday) the third Sunday of Advent.

At this time, several new members joined the church.  Among them were Mr. and Mrs. Preston Hunter, Mr. George Findley, and a Miss. Levans.  The following year, 1907, Mr. W.J. Mills, Mr. Benjamin Neely, and a “large class of boys from Georgia Military Academy” (now Woodward Academy) joined the church.

 Saint John’s Episcopal Church was the fifth church to be built in College park, preceded by the Presbyterians in 1904, the Christians in 1899, the Baptists in 1898, and the Methodists in 1893.  At the time of our church’s founding, the population of College Park was between 1,300 and 1.400 souls.

In 1947, after being delayed by World War II, a capital campaign was reinstituted to raise the funds to build our current church.  In that timeframe, membership had grown to 465 members.  The campaign took several years, and construction began in 1953.  A picture from 1956 shows the congregation processing from the old church building to the new church.

At that time all of our windows contained multicolored glass similar to that still in the Narthex screen.  In the 1960’s a campaign was initiated to raise money to install the masterpieces depicting the life of Jesus Christ that we enjoy today.  The campaign was successful, and the windows, executed and installed by J. Whipple and Company of Exeter, England, were dedicated on August 29th 1971.