Finally, a few years later, two of the last surviving Jones sisters donated their home – the 1698 farmhouse across the end of the pond - as the permanent Rectory.

Over the last 170 years, the church has evolved from a Jones family church, to a church for summering New Yorkers with a sparse winter attendance, to its present year-round congregation of 400 families, none of whom is named Jones. Over the last seventy years, St. John's course has been steered by just three Rectors, beginning with The Rev. Lyman Bleecker - who came in the depths of the Depression to lead what was a community church through tremendous growth and expansion into the tumultuous ‘60s - and The Rev. T. Carleton Lee, who preserved tradition and maintained a quiet elegance while launching many of the church's outreach efforts before handing the reins over toThe Rev. Churchill G. Pinder in 1995. To Churchill fell the job of smoothing acceptance of the 1979 Prayer Book, adding Communion to the main service on the first, third and fifth Sunday of every month, and making St. John's the more diverse and active church it is today.

Photography by John C. Stevenson & The Reverend David F. Sellery