Globe-Gazette
Mason City, Cerro Gordo County, Iowa
Mason City Centennial Issue
Monday, June 01, 1953, Section 7, Pages 8 & 38

Among the early churches in the city was the St. John's Episcopal, which was organized in 1871 and incorporated in 1877 by the following vestrymen: T. B. McNider, grandfather of Gen. Hanford MacNider; J. H. Valentine, W. W. Cameron, M. S. Schermerhorn, J. F. Bush and William Barnard.

In 1882 the parish purchased a lot on the corner where the YMCA now [1953] stands and built a church, which served the congregation until the present structure was built in 1930.

St. John's Episcopal Church, erected in 1930 at a cost of $75,000 along with the Charles H. McNider Memorial Guild Hall, the gift of the McNider family. The burning of the mortgage on the church took place Nov. 16, 1943. Especially honored on this occasion were Mr. and Mrs. B. C. Way, who presented the canceled mortgage to the church.

The building is of Gothic architecture constructed after the pattern of the early English village church. This parish has been a part of the religious life of Mason City since 1871.

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2011; updated December of2014