St Johns History
Founded as an “unorganized Mission” in 1877, St John’s by the Campus grew to
become a parish in 1885 and by 1899 the congregation had built the original church
which was first located on Clark St between 5th and 6th and later moved around the
corner to 5th St between Clark and Burnett (see photo below). Even today, this
building continues to serve a useful function as two houses which are located at the
east end of 6th St. Both houses’ ecclesiastical origin can be easily recognized by the
interested passerby (see the two “half” photos below).
Apparently services during the early years were conducted by neighboring
ministers until 1919 when Father Roy Burroughs arrived and established St. Johns
as one of two national sites for the study of college work in the Episcopal Church.
Fr. Burroughs continued as Rector and established a record for a College Pastorate
of forty-two years. During his long tenure as Rector, a new church was constructed
in 1929-1930 and remains today at its original location on LincolnWay and Stanton
in the campustown area of Ames. The purchase of the lot and the construction of
the church building were made with the generous support of Louis Pammel among
many other well known early figures at Iowa State University. And not just
members of the parish. Fr. Aiton tells the story that he read of the children
throughout the Diocese during the depression who gave their “mite box” pennies for
two years to help pay off the mortgage of the newly constructed St Johns when there
was danger of foreclosure.
Fr. Burroughs retired in 1961 and was succeeded by Fr. Paul Goodland as Rector
and shortly afterwards Fr. Doug Haviland came to Ames to serve as Chaplain to the
Episcopal university community. Fr. Al Aiton has been the Rector since 1991 and
the current Chaplain is Jim Tener who also serves as Music Director.
The parish undertook an extensive and needed renovation of the church building in
1995 resulting in attractive and useful additional space while retaining the original
sanctuary and parlor with only modest changes.
St John’s, by its continuing presence in the same location since 1929 directly across
from the ISU campus, is a witness to the enduring commitment of St John’s
Episcopal church to the longstanding and historic connection between the parish
and the University community.
Information on the early years of the parish was based on the writings in the “Ames
Community History Ames Centennial, Inc. 1864-1964, pps.52-53”.
The two halves of the old church can still be found in east Ames near Bandshell Park
The original St. John’s church completed 1899 (below)