St. Luke's Episcopal Church is a historic Episcopal church located at 1514 15th Street, N.W., in Washington, D.C. Completed in 1879, it is home to the oldest African-American Episcopal congregation in the city. It was designated a U.S.

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1976 for its association with Rev.

Alexander Crummell Alexander Crummell (March 3, 1819 – September 10, 1898) was a pioneering African-American minister, academic and African nationalist. Ordained as an Episcopal priest in the United States, Crummell went to England in the late 1840s to raise money ...

(1819–1898), a leading figure advocating black self-sufficiency and civil rights in the mid-19th century. and St. Luke's continues as an active parish in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. As of 2022, the Rector is the Rev. Kim Turner Baker.

Architecture

St. Luke's Episcopal Church is located west of Washington's Logan Circle, on the west side of 15th Street at its junction with Church Street. It is a masonry structure, built mainly out of Chesapeake bluestone with an

ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitr ...

finish and laid in random courses. It is covered by a steeply pitched slate roof. The main facade is symmetrical, with a large central entry portico consisting of two pairs of double doors set in a Gothic-arch surround, with a large Gothic-arched window in the gable above. Flank lower wings each have smaller but still substantial Gothic windows. The interior is finished in dark aok, and has a barrel vaulted ceiling with posts of iron and wood supporting the roof trusses.

History

In 1875, some members of St. Mary's Chapel for Colored People in

Foggy Bottom Foggy Bottom is one of the oldest late 18th- and 19th-century neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., located west of the White House and downtown Washington, in the Northwest quadrant. It is bounded roughly by 17th Street NW to the east, Rock C ...

and their rector, the Rev.

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

and

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to its northwest, Guinea to its north, Ivory Coast to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and southwest. It ...

(where he worked for 20 years), left St. Mary's to found St. Luke's as the first independent black Episcopal church in Washington. St. Luke's was chartered as a

Colored Episcopal Mission {{short description, Obsolete Anglican term used by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America Colored Episcopal Mission is an obsolete Anglican term used by the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.The term was coined in the ...

. Its neighborhood of Columbia Heights had numerous black families. Calvin Brent, generally considered to be Washington's first black architect, designed the church after an Anglican church in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge beca ...

, England. Construction on the church began in 1876 and was completed in 1880. The first service was held on

Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Philippines. It is also observed in the Netherlander town of Leiden ...

1879. Alexander Crummell served as rector until his retirement in 1894."St. Luke's Episcopal Church"
African American Heritage Trail

References

External links

St. Luke's website

Diocesan Listing for St. Luke's Episcopal Church

1994 Episcopal Calendar

African American Heritage Trail Register of Historic Places {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Luke's Episcopal Church, Washington, D.C. Churches on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. Episcopal churches in Washington, D.C. National Historic Landmarks in Washington, D.C. Gothic Revival church buildings in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. Churches completed in 1879 1875 establishments in Washington, D.C. Religious organizations established in 1875 Dupont Circle

Architecture

History

See also

References

External links