St. John's Church has a fine collection of religious and historic artifacts. A small sampling of the donations given during the past 250 plus years are pictured below.
This chalice and paten are assumed to have been part of the original silver of an earlier Henrico parish church. The maker's marks on the pieces are identified as London with the dates of 1718-1719. There is no evidence to refute the claim that this chalice and paten traveled from the earlier church to St. John's after it was built in 1741.
This bell, which is thought to have hung originally at Henrico Parish Church (St. John's Church), was the one that rang during the Second Virginia Convention in 1775 when Patrick Henry delivered his "Liberty or Death" speech. It was removed from the bell tower in 1828 after sustaining damage and was sold by Miss Elizabeth Van Lew's father or brother to James M. Smith, Sr., of Martinsville, Virginia. Mr. Smith used it at a hotel he had recently built. The property was sold at public auction in 1870, and Colonel and Mrs. C. B. Bryant purchased the bell. Mrs. Bryant presented the bell to the Virginia Historical Society on December 25, 1900, where it remains as part of their collection.
The Gorham Company designed this beautiful brass lectern. It was purchased by the church for $350.00 to celebrate its 150th anniversary in 1891. The vestry records detail the trip taken to New York by the rector, the Reverend Lewis W. Burton, and Captain John F. Mayer to select the lectern. An appropriate inscription was engraved onto the lectern to commemorate the June 10, 1891 anniversary.
In 1904 a memorial gift of $2,000.00 was given for an organ to replace the failing organ, built in 1842. Adam Stein of Baltimore, Maryland was contracted to build the new organ. Since there was no room in the church for this larger instrument, a chancel was added to the building, which also provided more space for the choir, along with vesting rooms for the choir and clergy.
In November 1905, the organ was installed in the east wall of the new chancel. The two manual, mechanical (tracker) action instrument had 752 pipes with a facade of 37 pipes decorated with Victorian stenciling. It was hand-pumped by the assistant sexton. An electric blower was added in 1909, paid for with funds from the sale of the old organ. In the early 1960s, there were two unsuccessful electrification attempts, and the organ was shut down in 1963, silent for twenty years.
In 1983 the firm of Lewis & Hitchcock was engaged to restore the organ. Workmen found the windchests and 95% of the pipework intact, but the console and mechanical linkages had long since been destroyed. Lewis & Hitchcock happened to have in storage an Adam Stein organ, built in 1899. The firm purchased the 1899 organ from its owner, and over the course of one year, used those parts to restore the 1905 organ in St. John's Church.
In 1984 twelve bass pipes of the oboe (originally prepared for) were installed; and in 1985 a trumpet was added, which plays in the great and pedal divisions.
King George VI gave the Book of Common Prayer, printed during the reign of William and Mary and bound for Queen Anne, to St. John's Church in honor of its 200th anniversary. The book was presented to the church by U.S. Representative D. E. Satterfield, Jr. during a special ceremony in June 1941. The card presented with the Book of Common Prayer was signed by King George VI.
By 1944 it was apparent that few visitors to the church were able to see the Book of Common Prayer, because an appropriate case was not available. The case in which the book in now located was graciously donated by John B. Welsh and his family in memory of their parents.