St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall
About this property
St. John's Episcopal Church is a parish church in the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa. It is located in Keokuk, Iowa, United States. It was listed, together with the parish hall, on the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. St. John's Church was begun by the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, Missionary Bishop of the Northwest, on April 20, 1850. The Rev. Otis Hackett served as the first rector of the church from 1850 to 1853. The first frame church for the parish was built under his direction in 1851. The property, on which the present church also stands, was a gift from Josiah Spalding of St. Louis. Services were held in parishioners' homes until it was completed. St. John's was one of five founding parishes that established the Diocese of Iowa in 1853. It also established five Episcopalian missions in and around Keokuk. That number includes St. Barnabas in Montrose and St. Mary the Virgin in Keokuk. The latter was the first black Episcopal Church established in Iowa. None of the missions exist today. During the Civil War several St. John parishioners left to serve in the Union Army. Included in their number were Generals Samuel Ryan Curtis, who was serving as a congressman at the time, Hugh Thompson Reid, James C. Parrott, and William W. Belknap, who was later Secretary of War under President Ulysses S. Grant. Other parishioners included Colonels William H. Worthington and John A. McDowell. "No other city in Iowa furnished as many high ranking officers as did Keokuk, and no other church could boast as many regimental commanders and generals from (its) membership." The present church building was designed by Boston architects Appleton & Stephenson. It was built by F. W. Menke of Quincy, Illinois. The Rev. Robert C. McIlwain was rector at the time. Work was begun on the structure on June 5, 1884, and the first services were held in the church on February 12, 1888. The church was consecrated on January 4, 1891, by Bishop William Stevens Perry. The parish hall was constructed in 1895. It was designed by the same architects and built by the same contractor as the church. It contains space for parish offices, education, and social uses. The rectory, located next to the church, was completed in 1913. It was completed by the Rev. John C. Sage, who would become the bishop of the Diocese of Western Kansas. The church is a combination of Gothic Revival in its style and Richardsonian Romanesque in its form and massing. The building measures 118 feet (36 m) long and 48 feet (15 m) high. The nave is 54 feet (16 m) wide with a transept that measure 82 feet (25 m) in total width. The corner bell tower is 75 feet (23 m) high and contains the bell from the original church. Both the church and the hall are built of Bedford limestone and they have a slate roof.
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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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Questions about this property
When was St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall listed on the National Register?
St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 10, 1989.
What type of historic resource is St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall?
St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall?
The period of significance for St. John's Episcopal Church and Parish Hall is recorded as the industrial era.
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