Directions to Saint John's Church

From the North...

I-695 Beltway West to I-83 South (exit 23); I-83 South to 28th Street (exit 7): bear left; 28th Street (one way) east eleven traffic lights to Greenmount Avenue; left onto Greenmount Avenue, two blocks north, the church and parking lot will be on the right, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store. Use the north (second) entrance from Greenmount Avenue into the lot, at the point where Old York Road leaves Greenmount Avenue; it will be an obvious hard right.

Alternative From the North...

MD Route 45/York Road south; (York Road becomes Greenmount Avenue around 40th Street) south on Greenmount Avenue to 30th Street; the church and parking lot will be on your left, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store.

From the South...

I-695 (or I-95) Beltway West to I-95 north; I-95 north to I-395 exit; I-395 to Martin Luther King Boulevard; MLK Boulevard north to Howard Street (a little tricky here, keep alert); Howard Street north to 28th Street; right onto 28th Street (one way) east; 28th Street to Greenmount Avenue; left onto Greenmount Avenue, two blocks north, the church and parking lot will be on the right, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store. Use the north (second) entrance from Greenmount Avenue into the lot, at the point where Old York Road leaves Greenmount Avenue; it will be an obvious hard right.

Alternative From the South...

U.S. Route 40 east to Charles Street/MD Route 139; left on Charles Street; Charles Street (one way) north to 28th Street; right onto 28th Street; 28th Street east to Greenmount Avenue; left onto Greenmount Avenue, two blocks north, the church and parking lot will be on the right, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store. Use the north (second) entrance from Greenmount Avenue into the lot, at the point where Old York Road leaves Greenmount Avenue; it will be an obvious hard right.

From the West...

I-695 north to I-83 South (exit 23); I-83 South to 28th Street (exit 7): bear left; 28th Street (one way) east eleven traffic lights to Greenmount Avenue; left on Greenmount Avenue, two blocks north, the church and parking lot will be on the right, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store. Use the north (second) entrance from Greenmount Avenue into the lot, at the point where Old York Road leaves Greenmount Avenue; it will be an obvious hard right.

Alternative From the West...

I-695 north to I-83 South (exit 23); I-83 South to 28th Street (exit 7): bear left; 28th Street (one way) east eleven traffic lights to Greenmount Avenue; left on Greenmount Avenue, two blocks north, the church and parking lot will be on the right, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store. Use the north (second) entrance from Greenmount Avenue into the lot, at the point where Old York Road leaves Greenmount Avenue; it will be an obvious hard right.

From the East...

I-695 north to Harford Road/MD Route 147 south (exit 31); Harford Road south to Cold Spring Lane; right onto Cold Spring Lane; west on Cold Spring Lane to York Road/MD Route 45; left onto York Road; (York Road becomes Greenmount Avenue around 40th Street) south on Greenmount Avenue to 30th Street; the church and parking lot will be on your left, next to the Sudsville Laundry Super Store.

Directions using map...

Click on the Yahoo! image (left) to obtain driving directions and roadmaps using Yahoo! Maps (this link takes you off-site).

Statement of Purpose and Mission

aint John's Church is a congregation of Christians worshipping in the Diocese of Maryland of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America and within the Anglican Communion.  The congregation maintains a full regimen of daily worship in accordance with The Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church. The purpose of Saint John's Church is the worship of Almighty God, the disciplined spiritual formation of its members, and evangelical witness to a new life in Christ Jesus through service to others.  This high calling is attempted through the Holy Eucharist as a covenant of renewal and reconciliation; in the Daily Office of the Church as a sacrifice of praise in prayer; in the offering of our personal time, fortunes, and abilities for God's service in the community; and by engaging in serious study of our rich Christian heritage.  To further these ends and as a witness to all, the congregation supports a liturgical musical program of highest quality to preserve to our use in our day and for generations to come the deep treasury and spiritual well of the Anglican musical heritage.  Our mission is to take up our part in restoring all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

Adopted by the Vestry of Saint John's Church, 27 September 1997.

The purpose of this web-site is a follows:

1. To help communicate the character and quality of St John's Church
2. To provide up-to-date information about Church and community events
3. To help fulfill our primary mission as an instrument for the Lord's work

We hope and pray that it will be successful and welcome any ideas, suggestions or constructive criticism you might have that would help us make this site more effective. Most importantly, we look forward to seeing you in the near future.

The Leaders of Saint John's Church

A Brief History of Saint John's Church

The congregation of Saint John's Church - part of the Episcopal (or, Anglican) Church - has worshipped together on the same site since 1843.

At that time the area now known as the Waverly and Charles Villages - the neighbourhood in northeastern Baltimore city ministered to by Saint John's Church - was actually the small village of Huntingdon, Maryland, a collection of about seventeen great estates and houses, and the more modest homes of a new and emerging middle class. (The estate names of Huntingdon are synonymous with old Baltimore: Montebello, Clover Hill, Homewood, Guilford, Greenmount, and Homestead.)

The village, which extended from Huntingdon Avenue (in the present day neighbourhood of Remington) on the West to the Harford Road on the east; from Huntingdon Avenue (now 25th Street) on the south to Boundary Avenue (42nd Street) in the north, was annexed to Baltimore City in 1888 and the post office was renamed Waverly, after Sir Walter Scott's Waverley novels. Charles Village was created out of this area approximately one decade later.

In November 1843 the Reverend W. A. Hewitt was sent to the village of Huntingdon by Bishop Whittingham at the request of one Mr Thomas Hart who wished to have some of his grandchildren baptised without making the journey to the parish church, Saint Paul's, in Baltimore.

The bishop was eager to establish new congregations in Maryland which would embody the ideals of the "Oxford Movement," (also called the Tractarian Movement) a spiritual renewal movement making itself strongly felt throughout the Anglican Church in England and elsewhere.

Saint John's Church was born with those baptisms and that spiritual renewal.

The first services were held in an old revolutionary war barracks located some thirty yards southwest of the present church building; on 10 July 1844, Saint John's Church was legally incorporated as a diocesan mission chrch within the bounds of Saint Paul's parish and by 1845 it was an independent congregation.

The congregaton laid the cornerstone for its first church in April of 1846 and saw its consecration by Bishop Whittingham on 11 November 1847 and it was determined that the church should be a "free" church - there were to be no pew rents, ever.

For the first two years the rector returned his stipend to the treasurer as his offering toward the building expenses (he also installed the furnace at his own expense, assuring the warm devotion and gratitude of his flock). However, in 15 May 1858, just eleven years after its consecration this lovely new building was gutted by fire and burned to the ground.

The congregation was poorer, but undaunted, and the cornerstone of a new building, the present church, was laid on 11 September 1858 by their faithful father in God, Bishop Whittingham.

The first service in this building was held on 22 May 1859, and its consecration was on All Saints' Day, 1 November 1860.

The congregation prospered, as did its parishioners, and a Parish House (1866) and a Rectory (1868) were added, all in matching 'gothick' style.

The church, and for the most part the other buildings, were built according to the principles of the Cambridge, England, Ecclesiological Society which devoted itself to the revival of the 'gothick style' in architecture, and all the appurtenances appropriate to the style and dignity of that setting.

The Oxford Movement brought with it a matching revival of dignity and ceremonial in the worship of the church and the interior decoration reflected this.

The original church on this site, patterned after Saint Michael's, Long Stanton, in England, was a pure example of English 'country gothick' and this design involved a long nave, lancet windows, thick low medieval walls, and a high, steep-pitched roof. There was a south porch and relatively small sanctuary at the east end.

The present building preserved most of those features, and was enlarged in 1875 adding transepts (to create the classic cruciform shape evident today), a baptistry (the present Lady Chapel), sacristy, enlarged sanctuary, and a rather glorious bell tower and spire. The interior decoration was finally completed in 1895 in the same Victorian gothic revival style.

After several "modernisations" of the decor, neglect, and eventual whitewash(!), the restoration of much of the origianl decoration was begun in 1983-85 by the Reverend R. Douglas Pitt, the eleventh rector.

This work was resumed in 1994 under the Reverend Jesse L. A. Parker, twelfth rector, and continues as of this writing (2004).

All of the restoration work has been accomplished by the well-known decorative artist Janet Pope, of J. Pope Studios, Baltimore, which specialises in historic decorative restoration.