St John’s Episcopal Church was organized in 1814 and first met in the Ontario County Court House in Canandaigua New York. The Village of Canandaigua was being formed from the town of Canandaigua in 1815 as the parish of St. John’s was preparing to build its first structure. The name Canandaigua is adapted from an Iroquois word which means “chosen spot.” St. John’s erected a wooden church building on North Main in 1816, which Bishop John Henry Hobart consecrated that year. Steady congregational growth necessitated more space, which led to the razing of the first church and the constructing of a larger stone Gothic building in 1872.