Saint John's rectory continued to house the diocesan chancery until 1968, and served as the metropolitan tribunal for the diocese until 1982.

[4] The parish's origins date to 1837, when Father Vincent Bacquelin held the first regularly celebrated mass in Indianapolis at a local tavern.

)[3][10] Father Bacquelin's successor, Augustus Bessonies, served as pastor at Saint Johns from 1857 to 1890, when the parish expanded to include a new church, rectory, and school buildings on Georgia Street.

It remained at the site until Saint Johns Academy for Girls opened at 135 West Maryland Street in January 1874.

[12][13] In 1863 the parish built a new rectory adjacent to Saint Johns Church, and in 1867 a three-story brick school for boys.

In the early 1870s, when the Bishop of Vincennes, Jacques Maurice de St. Palais, visited Indianapolis, he resided at Saint Johns rectory and used the church as his proto-cathedral.

[16][17] Although the bishop considered making Indianapolis the episcopal see of the Diocese of Vincennes, he deferred the decision to Silas Chatard, his successor.

After Chatard's consecration as Bishop of Vincennes on May 12, 1878, in Rome, Italy, he traveled to Indiana and arrived in Indianapolis on August 17, 1878.

[21] Within a month after his arrival in the city, Bishop Chatard commissioned noted Indianapolis architect Diedrich A. Bohlen, principal and founder of the architectural firm of D. A. Bohlen and Son, to design an addition to Saint Johns rectory that would service as the bishop's residence and house the diocesan chancery.

[23][24] When Bishop Chatard moved to Indianapolis in 1878, many considered Saint Johns as a diocesan cathedral, but it was never officially named as such.

[20][30] Father Bessonies's successor, Monsignor Francis H. Gavisk became vicar general for the Diocese of Indianapolis and was Saint Johns pastor from 1890 to 1932.

On May 12, 1903, Bishop Chatard celebrated his Silver Episcopal Jubilee with a Pontifical High Mass at Saint Johns.

[32] Saint Johns Church is the main structure in a cluster of parish buildings on the southwest corner of Georgia Street and Capitol Avenue.

Diedrich A. Bohlen designed the rectory (1863), the present-day Saint Johns Church (1867–71), and bishop's residence/rectory addition (1878).

Bohlen's son, Oscar, designed the twin spires on the two towers that flank the main facade and supervised their construction.

The Bohlen-designed red-brick, two-story rectory (1863), which predates the present-day church, faces south on Georgia Street.

Funds from private donors and parish fund-raising efforts paid for construction of the church, which cost an estimated $120,000 at the time it was built.

[3][16][17] Saint Johns was closed from February 1893 to September 14, 1893, to construct the spires, install a pipe organ, and decorate the interior.

The facade's two tower sections, topped with identical copper spires on the left and right, include an additional entrance with wooden doors.

[43] Stonecarver Henry R. Sanders made the interior capitals and pillars in staff (plaster of Paris and manila fiber cast in a gelato mold)[40] The four coats of arms, also in staff, of Pope Pius IX, Bishop St. Palais, Pope Leo XIII, and Bishop Chatard, who were the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Diocese of Vincennes when construction of the church began and when it was completed, were installed on the sanctuary's walls in 1893.

The Emil Frei Art Glass Company designed its replacement, which depicts Saint John on the island of Patmos; it was installed in 1924.

The stained-glass window in the center of the apse was a gift from Bishop St. Palais; it depicts Saint John's vision in the Apocalypse.

[48] Alterations to the original interior when it was refurbished in 1971 included repositioning the altar to face the congregation, moving the baptismal font to the left transept, and removal of communion rails.

Both buildings face Georgia Street and are constructed of red brick laid in Flemish bond and trimmed in limestone.

The rectory's façade has a Flemish gable and a Tudor-Gothic arch that shelters the entrance door, sidelights, and transom.

[41] Membership declined for several decades after the turn of the century, when local families began to leave the downtown area and move to the city's suburbs.