St. John’s Church was organized “in the Prairie” south of Greensboro in 1834 by the Rev. Caleb Ives, a pioneer missionary to the old Southwest. It was admitted to parish status in 1838 by the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, Provisional Bishop of Alabama. Its first Rector was the Rev. John Avery, D.D. The present building was designed by Richard Upjohn, a renowned American architect and founder of the American Institute of Architects, erected in 1859, and moved across the Warrior River to its present location in 1878.