St John’s Anglican Church Jordan, ON

St John’s Anglican Church in Jordan, Ontario was constructed in 1841 but there is no documentation about the architect or builder of the church. This paper attributes the design to the Toronto-based architect John George Howard (1803-1890) on the basis of remarkably close similarities with documented churches by Howard. Specifically, the very distinctive gallery piers at Jordan, with four clustered columns with moulded shaft rings correspond very closely with those in a Howard sketch for a church on Snake Island, and in the interiors of St John’s, York Mills (1843), and Christ Church, Tyendinaga (1843). The Snake Island church was perhaps never built but may have served as a template for future commissions. The piers, along with several characteristic motifs, were used repeatedly by Howard in his ecclesiastical oeuvre.