Parish History

The new Episcopal parish of St. John’s gathered in its members’ living rooms in 1835. The parish grew and found a home in a Gothic Revival building designed by Richard Upjohn, architect of many churches including Trinity Wall Street in New York City. St. John’s continued to flourish through the 19th century.

Bangor prospered at the same time. Befitting its location in the woods and on the bank of the Penobscot River, Bangor became a center for commerce. Logs were driven down the river, fish were pulled from it, a railroad was built adjacent to it, and a thriving small city grew. Henry David Thoreau visited Bangor on his way to the North Woods. Ralph Waldo Emerson preached from the Unitarian Church at Main and Union Streets. On the opposite corner of the same intersection, the Bangor House provided hospitality to presidents from Ulysses S. Grant to William Howard Taft, and other notable guests from Oscar Wilde to Eleanor Roosevelt. Hannibal Hamlin, Abraham Lincoln’s first Vice President, lived at 5th and Hammond Streets less than a mile away. The University of Maine was established up the river in Orono. Adjacent to Orono in Old Town, the Penobscot Nation maintained its culture and language on its island reservation.

Bangor suffered devastation when a fire consumed its downtown in 1911. Block after block of the wooden buildings housing the city’s commercial and civic life were lost. The fire spread uphill from downtown to French Street, where it utterly destroyed Upjohn’s glorious St. John’s.

Undaunted, the parish commissioned a new church. The renewed St. John’s was designed by Richard Upjohn’s grandson, Hobart Upjohn, also in Gothic Revival style but clad in stone rather than wood. The parish held services in the undercroft of the new building as it was being constructed, then occupied the church fully upon completion. The baptismal font and brass eagle lectern, the only surviving artifacts of the first building, were put into use (where they remain to this day). During World War II, the Bethlehem Chapel was added and its doors kept open around the clock for parishioners seeking respite from the war. More recently, structural challenges with the stone tower led to it being shortened and secured; as a result, Upjohn’s vaulted interior with its resonant acoustics is intact and secure. A history of the buildings by Parishioner and architectural historian Deborah Thompson can be found here.

As St. John’s was reborn, Bangor grew and developed both socially and commercially. The frontier town of Thoreau’s day gave way in the 20th century to a more complex society with distinct ethnic enclaves, the Dow Air Force Base, growing retail activity, three television stations, and expanding educational opportunities. In addition to the University of Maine, Bangor is served by Husson University and other post-secondary institutions lying within its borders. Bangor has two major hospitals that provide medical care within a large geographic area. It serves as the financial and legal center for eastern and northern Maine. The Penobscot River has been reclaimed from the industrial devastation of the twentieth century; its waterfront parks and busy marinas attest to its restoration.

The esthetics of the parish’s two buildings have complemented the liturgical practices and sensibility of St. John’s throughout its existence. Particularly in the last 45 years, worship has been strongly supported by a music program modeled on that of English Cathedrals. Worship has varied from rector to rector through the same period, retaining elements of high church practice while remaining accessible to congregants from other traditions. Before the pandemic, every Sunday featured both a Rite I and a Rite II service.

St. John’s hung on with tenacity during the pandemic. We had regular Zoom services when we had to, outdoor services when we could. Weekday services of Morning and Evening Prayer were adapted to Zoom and have continued uninterrupted. The parish’s charitable efforts were continuous. Once we were able to return to more regular operations, diminished attendance resulted in a single Sunday service being held.

In the last two years, St. John’s has seen a period of renewal. Under the leadership of our priest-in-charge, the Rev. James W. Nutter, we have enjoyed a substantial increase in attendance. New members have joined with returning members to infuse new energy in the parish. The choir program has been revived. Old and new members alike have answered the call to volunteer and serve. Distinctions between them have been effaced and newcomers are easily absorbed. As it has for the last century, St. John’s serves as a church home to African American parishioners—a rarity in Maine—and welcomes members from every corner, stratum, and social group in the community.

We continue to engage with the community. Our Second Saturday meal, our participation in the Salvation Army’s Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen, and our regular contributions to the local homeless shelter and sober houses are established elements of our parish life. So, too, are our programs of poetry, music, commentary, and theology commemorating historical events: World War I in 2018; World War II in 2020 with video; the Harlem Renaissance in 2022 with video; and, in March of this year, “Prisms of Faith,” to commemorate the liberation of the Nazis’ concentration camps, with video.

Our future is bright. We will devote our ingenuity to realizing its promise and our faithful energy to serving in every way we are called.

To learn more about our Parish, click here.