second church The Rev. F. Slaney Poole was elected in June 1874 and inducted on 4 September. The parish hall was built by John Wark in 1880 to a design of Daniel Garlick; St John's Grammar School opened there and, with additional classrooms, operated until 1942. Poole was also responsible for building the parsonage in 1884 and replacing the original church building, which had been declared unsafe by the City Surveyor. The adjoining block 582 was purchased and the old building demolished in November 1886. The foundation stone of the new building was laid by Bishop Kennion on 14 May 1887 and the structure erected by Walter Rogers to a design by R. G. Holwell at a cost of £3,000. Kennion consecrated the completed church on 6 October 1887 and the first services were held on 9 October 1887. A mission church, St Mary Magdalene's, was built on nearby Moore Street (between Angas and Carrington streets) using material recovered from the old building and opened in 1887. Canon Poole resigned in 1895, and Canon W. S. Hopcraft, from Port Augusta, was appointed in his place. He found the church's finances in a precarious state, with an annual income barely £500, and the church debt of nearly £2,000. During his thirteen years of rectorship he managed to double the church's income and reduce the church debt by nearly £1,000, while spending nearly £2,000 on improvements, notably an organ by Josiah Dodd, which cost £800. It was renovated in 1996 by George Stephens and is highly regarded by enthusiasts. Society of the Sacred Mission In 1978, the then Rector, the Rev Don Wallace, was approached by the Australian Provincial of the Society of the Sacred Mission with the proposal that the Society take over the parish on Wallace's retirement. The Society had a theological college and priory house in Crafers, St Michael's House, but it moved the students to St John's in the years before 1983, when St Michael's House was destroyed by the Ash Wednesday bushfires. Incumbents James Farrell, 1841-43. Farrell initiated "A Chapel of Ease to St. John's" prior to the erection of the first church building. Church closed 31 December 1843 – June 1846. No services were held, and see T. P. Wilson below. William Woodstock, 1846-49. Matthew Hale, 1849–50 (transferred to Port Lincoln). John Whitelaw Schoales conducted marriages in October and November 1850, and perhaps took Sunday services,