archie
Sign in Get the app

St. John's Church, Philadelphia

Architect
William Strickland
Year
1815
Style
Neoclassical
City
Philadelphia, PA
St. John's Church, Philadelphia
Photo: Eli Pousson, CC BY-SA 2.0
See it on the map

Built in 1815 as St. John's Church, Northern Liberties, this Colonial Revival church at 220-230 Brown Street is one of architect William Strickland's oldest surviving designs -- the same year he also designed the Second Bank of the United States. It ranks as the seventh oldest surviving church in Pennsylvania, not counting Quaker meetinghouses. In 1931 the congregation became Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Church, and the Episcopalian parish sold the building to the Romanian community in 1972.

the building

The steeple. A wooden steeple was added above the entrance sometime before 1931, a later addition to Strickland's original design.

the style

Strickland designed the church in a Colonial Revival vein early in his career, the same year he took on the Second Bank of the United States -- placing this modest parish church alongside one of his most consequential commissions.

More on Neoclassical

the architect

William Strickland designed St. John's in 1815, among his oldest surviving works, the same year he designed the Second Bank of the United States, one of the defining commissions of early American civic architecture.

significance

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Since 1999, the building has undergone a series of restoration projects, with work ongoing as of 2020.

nearby

All 127 buildings in Philadelphia