The parish of St. John the Baptist was created by the Bishop of the Diocese of Antigonish, John Cameron, on October 24, 1885. Two years later, on November 6, 1887, the completed church was consecrated.
Mounted in the brick wall outside the entrance to the parish hall is a granite plaque which commemorates the centennial of St. John the Baptist Church. The plaque reads thus:
DEDICATED JULY 5, 1987
BY
MOST REVEREND COLIN CAMPBELL, D. D.
BISHOP OF ANTIGONISH
TO COMMEMORATE THE CENTENNIAL
OF
ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST CHURCH
PARISH ESTABLISHED OCTOBER 24, 1885
CHURCH CONSECRATED NOVEMBER 6, 1887
The building stands on a brick and stone foundation, with a stone base, now partially replaced by concrete, then brick with a single course of granite stones atop. The building has an obvious addition at the front, a large entry, or narthex, the full width of the building and several feet deep. Unfortunately, it covers much of the original bell tower. Its height is such that it stops just short of a rose window in the front of the tower. There is a smaller chancel at the rear, the foundation of which appears to be original. The basement, now extended by the addition of the narthex, has been turned into the parish hall.
On October 24, 1885, Bishop [John] Cameron created the New Glasgow (and area) Parish of St. John the Baptist, and assigned to it the Rev. John Shaw of Arisaig. Father Shaw built a church, rectory and convent in 1886, and on November 6, 1887 St. John the Baptist Church was dedicated. Henceforth Catholics on the East Side attended this church, and those on the West Side remained in Lourdes Parish. In 1887 nuns from the Congregation of Notre Dame in Montreal opened a school in the church basement. Five years later a school was erected, and replaced in 1917 during Father John MacLeod's tenure with St. John's Academy, a large brick structure that was enlarged in 1929 and again in 1936.
Rev. D. R. Chisholm, the fifth pastor, erected mission churches, first at Parkdale, St. Gregory's, in 1951. In the same year Father Chisholm began construction of the Church of Christ the King on Forge Street in Trenton, which was formally opened by Most Rev. John R. MacDonald on May 4, 1952. Priests of St. John's Parish served both missions, until the formation of Christ the King Parish at Trenton in 1953, with Rev. Roderick W. MacPherson in charge. A parish school was
opened in 1958 by teachers from the Order of Sisters of St. Martha.
From Pictou County's History, Page 19