The congregation organized in May 1881 and built a church that fall on Oak Street east of the Harvard Courier building. The first service was held in March 1882, when Bishop Robert Clarkson of the Missionary District of the Platte consecrated the church and five persons were confirmed. In 1895, the church was moved to the southeast corner of Beech Street and Harvard Avenue, where Methodist, Congregational, and Christian churches once also stood. Stained glass windows were given by the P.H. Updike family, and St. John’s is Harvard’s oldest church edifice.