[1] St. John's parish was organized in 1834 and by 1837 the parishioners had moved into a modest brick sanctuary on the corner of Perry and Jefferson Streets.

After little more than a decade, the church needed to expand after the state capital moved to Montgomery and a rise in cotton production swelled the region's population.

Between 1898 and 1901, St. John's rector was Edgar Gardner Murphy, who played a leading role in organizing first the Alabama and then the National Child Labor Committee, which campaigned to strict limits on employment of children in factories.

In 1901, he left St. John's to take over leadership of the Southern Education Board, an organization devoted to improving education—particularly public education—in the region.

[4] John Trotwood Moore, the State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee, known defender of the KKK, lynching, and segregation was invited to give a speech.