St. Luke's Episcopal Church

About this property

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is a historic Carpenter Gothic–style Episcopal church building located at 219 Chunns Cove Road, in the Chunn's Cove neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina. Built in 1894, at a cost of $728, St. Luke’s was designed by E. J. Armstrong, a member of the congregation. Its first service was held September 17, 1894. On September 30, 1997, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 1847, the Reverend Jarvis Buxton came to Asheville, then a community of about 800 people, to become the Rector of Trinity Church. A missionary-minded priest, the Rev. Buxton was responsible for beginning the work of the Episcopal Church in Chunns Cove, Beaverdam, West Asheville, and Waynesville. St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was designed by E. J. Armstrong, a member of the congregation, and it was constructed in 1894, at a cost of $728. The first church service was held on July 9, 1894. Note: In recognition of the building's 125th anniversary, the rector will employ the 1898 Book of Common Prayer to repeat this "first sermon" on the exact day in 2023. For more about this year's special events, browse the St. Luke's website calendar. In the 1940s, the Reverend James B. Sill obtained two, possibly three, stained-glass panels, or “lights,” that had once been installed in St. Chrysostom‘s Chapel in New York City. That chapel, built and maintained by Trinity Chapel, had been demolished in 1929 because it had sustained structural damage from a nearby subway. The distinctive style of the stained glass leads this researcher to conclude that it was designed and manufactured in the late 19th century by Heaton, Butler and Bayne of London. One of the lights is installed in St. Luke‘s but another is broken—perhaps during the initial journey to western North Carolina—and is stored at the church. WINDOW PRESENTED ST. LUKE‘S—The Rev. J. B. Sill, rector of St. Luke‘s Episcopal church, Chunn‘s cove, inspects the stained glass window which was presented the church by the vestry of Trinity church, New York city, in memory of his father, the Rev. Thomas Henry Sill. The window, which was taken from St. Chrysostam's [sic] chapel, owned by Trinity, shows Christ blessing little children. The elder Sill was vicar of St. Chrysostam‘s [sic] for many years before it was torn down. The window will be dedicated at 3 p. m. today by Bishop R. E. Gribbin. The original deed for the land was professionally restored by licensed archivists in 2013, and now hangs in the climate-controlled parish house, to protect the historic document from environmental fluctuations. A framed facsimile hangs in the church’s nave.

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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