In 1856 a school and parsonage were commenced on 1½ acres of land "at present in a state of bush" and abutting on the Lake Macquarie Road (later to become Darby Street).

This land was donated by the Australian Agricultural Company (AA Coy), and the new parish was founded on 1 March 1856 by Bishop Tyrrell.

He held a master's degree in Arts at Oxford and came to Newcastle in 1856 direct from England for what Bishop Tyrrell described as "real missionary work".

Although a William White is credited as the architect of St Paul's, West Maitland, it is possible that he worked from the design or made construction drawings.

[1] The Church walls are hand pressed sandstock bricks, rendered inside and out, on mudstone foundations with stone windows and door surrounds.

The high pitched timber roof trusses have hammer beams and support purlins, rafters and boarding under the present aluminium sheeting which replaced at least two previous coverings.

[1] The Church dimensionally is as it was when built, the hall was extended in 1904, and some Georgian features lost at that time were restored when it was worked over before its reopening in 1985.

[1] St John's Anglican Church, Newcastle was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.

A pleasant and complementary group of buildings set in a comparatively open space amongst later housing developments in the historic Cooks Hill precinct.

A fine example of a large and imposing town church built in the 1850s in the Newcastle area, worthy of architectural study.