Ocean Springs, Mississippi, lies at the heart of the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast on the eastern shore of Biloxi Bay. It’s known as the City of Discovery in recognition of the French establishment of a settlement here in 1699. Long before the French arrived, however, the area was appreciated for its beauty and natural resources by Native Americans. The attributes that brought these early residents have attracted a diverse stream of people during the past 300 years. Ocean Springs has been flavored by many influences during its rich history, and now in the 21st century, it has a unique character that makes us happy to call it home.

Originally organized as St. Paul’s in 1856, the name was changed to St. John’s Episcopal Church in 1877. Local legend says that the famous architect Louis Sullivan, the teacher of Frank Lloyd Wright and a winter visitor to Ocean Springs, worked with the church’s “Fortnightly Guild” to develop building plans for the church. Actual plans were drawn by the Rev. Nelson Ayers, a prospective minister, from illustrations in the “Churchman” and adopted by the guild on October 11, 1891. According to the book, Historic Churches of Mississippi, which features St. John’s on the cover, the design of the church building was based on the Church of the Ascension in RockvilleCenter, Long Island, New York, designed by Manly N. Cutter, a New York architect.

This is a rectangular wood-frame church, five bays
in length and three bays in width, aligned on an east-west axis, with a
vestibule and porch extending to the east and a chancel extending to the
west. Stylistically it combines High Victorian Gothic composition with detailing
and surface treatments characteristic of the Victorian Queen Anne
and Shingle Styles.
The exterior walls are clad in horizontal lap siding above a dado band of
narrow, beaded-vertical boards. The bays are articulated by buttresses
which are flared and shingle-surfaced above the line of the dado. Each side
bay contains a gothic arched window of etched glass surrounded by colored
glass. On the north and south walls, the second and fourth bays rise into
side gables above the eaves of the roof. The windows in these bays are
wider and taller than the others, extending into their gables.