You might have wondered why the doors to an otherwise stately and imposing church building might have bright red doors. A bit incongruous, to be sure. Some people believe it sprang from an old custom of churches painting their front doors red when the mortgage was paid off.

    However, the generally recognized explanation holds that the red signifies the shedding of Christ’s blood and the path to salvation. Several hundred years ago red doors were symbols of refuge and sanctuary for all who entered. A soldier could not pursue an enemy who had passed through the red doors of a church. Today the red doors symbolize not just physical safety but spiritual refuge as well.

    Situated on the southeast corner of the Quarrier Street and Leo Sullivan Way intersection is the red-doored St. John’s Episcopal Church. Not the first structure to house St. John’s, the original was a brick church completed in 1837 on the northwest corner of McFarland and Virginia Streets.

    By 1884, the congregation needed a larger building to house the growing membership. Ground was broken in 1883 and was completed and consecrated in 1901. The new church was designed by renowned architect Isaac Pursell of Philadelphia. Pursell was a prolific designer of churches located in the eastern United States, many of which reflected the English Gothic Revival style. In West Virginia, Pursell also designed Tygarts Valley Presbyterian Church in Huttonsville. Both it and St. John’s are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

    Pursell’s Late Gothic Revival design was originally to be constructed of brick, but was changed to West Virginia sandstone, both random-coursed rough and smooth-faced. The prominent corner bell tower is a contrast with the church’s Gothic windows and roofline. St. John’s is the only church in Charleston with a stone belfry.

    The corner buttressing, pointed arch windows and doors, and raised entrance under the bell tower all contribute to the Gothic design of St. John’s. The steep slate roof is covered in patterned bands of hexagonal slates.

    St. John’s interior has an open-truss roof structure is a lovely example of a wooden rib-vaulted ceiling. The Gothic pointed arch element is used throughout the interior repeating the shape of the church’s stained-glass windows. The windows were originally geometrically painted glass. They were replaced in the 1970’s with stained glass from Blenko in West Virginia, and from other European glass houses.