St. John's Episcopal Church

About this property

St. John's Cathedral is an Episcopal church near downtown Los Angeles that serves as both a parish church and the cathedral church of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, an area covering five and a half counties. Though St. John's was formed in 1890, the current Romanesque Revival architectural style church was built in 1925. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2000. St. John's was founded in 1890. The Los Angeles Times reported on the groundbreaking ceremony in a front-page story: Quite a large number of interested people assembled on foot and in carriages at the corner of Figueroa and Adams streets, at 4 p.m. yesterday, to witness the laying of the cornerstone of St. John's Episcopal Church. The clergy, in their vestments, preceded by the vestry of the parish, came on the grounds in procession, opening the service as they approached the building site. ... St. John's is to be a tasteful Gothic structure of brick, with stone facings, and wood, capable of seating 150 people. It is placed on the lot as to admit of the erection of a larger structure in the near future. The original neo-Gothic church was consecrated in June 1894. In 1913, George Davidson became rector of St. John's, a position he held until 1951. Davidson led the church during a period of growth, as membership rose from 400 to 2,300. He was also a member of the faculty at USC for 14 years, served as president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and was one of the first organizers of the city's Community Chest drives. When Davidson retired in 1951 at age 71, more than 1,000 people attended his final service at St. John's. At the time, he said, "In all humility, I express my gratitude. My prayers are for St. John's and may His blessing be upon all its loyal members who have raised its standard high. ... The joys and sorrows, the achievements and failures, the happiness and loneliness of many people during the years have been so woven into the fabric of my life that it is difficult for me to express adequately the mingling feelings of my heart in this solemn hour." Davidson died in July 1967 in Los Angeles. From 1958 to 1974, the Rev. E. Lawrence Carter was the rector of St. John's. During his tenure, the surrounding area changed from one of white affluence to racially mixed poverty. "Carter led the church in changing with it, moving from an upper-level parish church controlled by businessmen to what he termed a metropolitan church welcoming leaders of many races and economic backgrounds." In 1973, Carter recalled: "There never was a mass exodus, a confrontation, nothing like that. Just a slow ebbing, a dilution socially, economically, racially." He described his concept of a "metropolitan church" as the need for an urban church "to do the social bit". He noted that "Mainline churches cannot be the church unless they pay attention to the community where they are. The church must be involved in all the areas of life." During his tenure as rector, Carter founded the St. John's Well Child Center and also worked to aid the homeless.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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