St. John's stands out in part because it is one of the village's few stone buildings, but primarily because of its design. The massive rusticated sanctuary with its steep pyramidal roof emulates H. H. Richardson's 1872 Trinity Church in Boston in form, while the sandstone rubble stonework more closely matches Richardson's 1885 Ames Gate Lodge in North Easton, Massachusetts. New York City architect Jones, who began his career in Philadelphia, gave the church a rounded apse and a gabled side entrance, and added shingle trim, almost a requirement in this community. The Romanesque-styled interior has a cut stone altar embedded with glass from the Lewis glassworks, whose operations stood on the edge of the lake between 1803 and 1829.