St. John's origins date to the 1830s, when Nicholas H. Cobbs, a reverend of the Bedford parish, came to the Roanoke Valley to preach.[3] Cobbs was also responsible for the establishment of St. Mark's in Fincastle, and would eventually become the first Bishop of Alabama.[4] St. John's grew until, by 1850, it became an independent parish.[3] Its first church building was built in Gainesborough (later Gainsboro), and in 1876 moved to the neighboring town of Big Lick.[3]
In 1881 it was announced that Big Lick would be the location of the junction of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad and the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W), with both companies moving their headquarters to the small town.[5] Three years and a population boom later, the town became the City of Roanoke.[6] St. John's membership grew along with the new city. A popular residential area developed south of the city center, and when a lot came available there at the corner of Jefferson Street and Elm Avenue in 1891, a parishioner purchased it for the purpose of moving the church.[3] The decision to relocate the church was not unanimous, and a number of congregants left to form Christ Episcopal Church.[6]
The new St. John's building was completed on the site in 1892.[3] It was designed by Charles M. Burns, a Philadelphia-based architect who was a prolific builder of Episcopal churches in Pennsylvania.[3] Burns was likely influenced in his design by Philadelphia's Church of St. James the Less, which he had worked on early in his career.[3] St. John's was built in the late Gothic Revival style and constructed with blue-gray limestone ashlar.[3] The building was designed as a clerestory church, utilizing a low roof over the church's aisles and a high roof over the nave.[7] This design allowed for a long row of high windows in the church, increasing light and ventilation, while also removing the need for exterior buttressing.[7] A contemporary news account described this style of church as being unique in Virginia at the time.[7] The nave has a hammerbeam roof with arcading and features many stained glass windows, including one signed by Louis C. Tiffany.[3] A three-story bell tower stands to the northeast of the nave, though a bell was not added until 1989.[3] The church also includes a sanctuary, two-story sacristy, and a gable-roofed chapel.[3] The chapel, initially a large one-story room, was subdivided into Sunday School rooms and expanded with a second story in 1907.[3] A Tudor Revival parish house was added to the property in 1923, and connected to the main building via a 1958 addition.[3] At the time of its construction the parish house included a 500-seat auditorium as well as a gymnasium, choir room, and offices.[3]
When it opened in 1892, St. John's was the largest church in Roanoke, having been constructed with a seating capacity of 600 though having fewer than 250 members at the time.[3] The church grew steadily along with the rapid development of Roanoke as a boomtown; it had around 425 members by 1903,[8] and had more than doubled that number by 1923.[3] An early warden of the church was George Plater Tayloe, a prominent businessman and one of the first trustees of the Valley Union Seminary which became Hollins University.[9][6] Other members have included city councilmen, members of the Virginia General Assembly, and at least one U.S. Senator.[3] Six presidents of N&W have also been members.[3] The congregation's influence in the city was exercised in 1925 when the church was able to defeat a proposal to widen Jefferson Street and force the removal of St. John's altar.[6]
In 1919, Southwest Virginia was granted its own diocese.[3] As St. John's was the largest of the then 82 churches in the diocese, it was chosen as its home and the site of its offices.[3] The offices were housed in the church until a new building was established nearby in 1949.[3] The new office was funded by a grant from Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans, a member of Coca-Cola's board of directors and a prominent Episcopalian from Hot Springs, Virginia.[10] The building was named Evans House in her honor.[11]
