The church of St. John the Evangelist is a direct outgrowth of old St. Joseph's. On St. John's day, 1830, Rev. John Hughes, pastor of St. Joseph's, was given authority to build St. John's in the western part of the city. Ground was secured early in February 1831, a lot on Thirteenth Street between Chestnut and Market streets, which had the advantage of 3 fronts affording sites for the Sisters with their orphans, and a day school for female children. A project also was available for a Catholic school for boys. The church lot selected was approved in March 1831, though many thought the lot to be "too far west." At the time of purchase the lot was used as a marble yard. Local committees were formed to solicit subscriptions for the purchase. On Friday, May 6, 1831, the cornerstone was laid.

In comparison with the plain architecture of St. Joseph's, St. Mary's, St. Augustine's, or Holy Trinity, St. John's was said to be of "almost unparalleled grandeur, and the expense something prodigious."

The dedication of the new church took place on April 8, 1832.

In June 1835 the church, rectory and orphan asylum were saved by firemen and parishioners from a disastrous fire that had broken out on Thirteenth Street above Chestnut.

Before 1837 a number of burials were made in the ground adjoining the church on the north. Vaults were built in 1837, and in December 1837, the existing burials were reinterred in the vaults. Among the burials was Angelo Garibaldi, Sardinian Consul and Italian revolutionist. Some of his countrymen had erected a stone with his profile likeness where he was buried, immediately adjoining the church's north tower. His remains later were removed to Italy, and the stone replaced in the wall of the church. The memorial stone later was removed and now is at the entrance to Holy Cross Cemetery at Yeadon, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.

The first of the newly interred placed in a vault was Andrew James Francis Robbins, aged 5 years, placed in Vault No. 3. Several orphans from the Orphans' Asylum were placed in the vaults but later removed to the Cathedral Cemetery. Vault No. 2 was reserved to the clergy.

In August 1840 the following advertisement was published:

VAULTS, ST. JOHN'S CHURCH.

In order to induce the Catholics of this congregation and of the city at large to purchase and thereby obtain the means to extinguish the debt contracted in the building of them, the vaults attached to this church will be, from and after this date, disposed of in terms the most favorable and easy. The northern row are 18 feet deep and the price of them is $300 each. The other rows are 12 feet deep and the price $225 each. The terms of sale will be one-fifth cash on 1st November, 1840—the balance in four annual installments.

Catholic Herald, Philadelphia. 20 August, 1840.

THE VAULTS IN THE CHURCHYARD

On the north side of St. John the Evangelist's Church are 54 vaults in a double row. Interred here are persons of national fame, and many well-known Catholics. The official vault record is fragmentary though families have supplied some missing entries.

Thirty-two persons buried in the trough adjoining St. John's Church before the vaults were built, were raised and placed in the vaults when the tombs were finished in Fall 1837.

In 1912 the Rev. William J. Lallou published the known names of those interred in each vault.