| St. Luke's Episcopal Church | |
|---|---|
.jpg) St. Luke's Episcopal Church (2019) | |
 St. Luke's Episcopal Church | |
| 33°45′59″N84°23′5″W / 33.76639°N 84.38472°W /33.76639; -84.38472 | |
| Location | 435Peachtree Street NE Atlanta, Georgia 30308 |
| Country | United States |
| Denomination | Episcopal Church |
| Previous denomination | Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America (1864) |
| Website | www |
| History | |
| Former name | St. Stephen's Episcopal Church (1870–1872) |
| Founded | March 28, 1864 |
| Consecrated | April 22, 1864 (first building) 1906 (current building) |
| Architecture | |
| Architect(s) | P. Thornton Marye (current building) A. Ten Eyck Brown (current building) |
| Architectural type | Gothic |
| Completed | 1864 (first building) 1875 (second building) 1883 (third building) 1906 (current building) |
| Construction cost | $12,000 (first building) |
| Administration | |
| Province | Province IV |
| Diocese | Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta |
 | |
St. Luke's Episcopal Church is anEpiscopal church inAtlanta, Georgia. The parish was founded in 1864, with the current building onPeachtree Street constructed in 1906.
Theparish of St. Luke's was organized byCharles Todd Quintard on March 28, 1864, in the midst of theAmerican Civil War.[1] On April 22 of that year,Stephen Elliott,Bishop of theEpiscopal Diocese of Georgia,consecrated the parish's first church building, with Quintard as itsrector.[1][2] Thischurch house, bounded by Broad Street, Walton Street, and Forsyth Street indowntown Atlanta, cost $12,000 to build and held its first church service on April 24.[1][2][3] On June 15, Quintard andReverendJohn W. Beckwith hosted funeral services forConfederatemajor general and former Episcopal BishopLeonidas K. Polk, who had been killed a day prior at theBattle of Kennesaw Mountain.[3] Several days later, a funeral was held at the church for the infant son ofRichard Peters.[3] In August,shells fired byUnion forces severely damaged the building, which was later destroyed during theburning of Atlanta.[4]
The parish would be reformed on June 12, 1870 under the nameSt. Stephen's, in honor of Elliott. The name was reverted to St. Luke's on January 8, 1872.[5][note 1] In 1875, a new building was erected at the intersection of Spring Street and Walton Street.[1] On April 10, 1881, BishopJohn W. Beckwith made St. Luke's hiscathedral, the first building to ever be designated as such in the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia.[1] Financial difficulties facing St. Luke's had prompted the decision to bestow cathedral status on the parish, as Beckwith felt it would help the parish.[5] In 1883, a new cathedral was built at the intersection of Pryor Street and Houston Street, at the present-day location of theGeorgia-Pacific Tower.[1][5] In 1894, the parish lost cathedral status.[1]
In 1906, the church constructed a new building onPeachtree Street, which was consecrated later that year and is currently in use by the church.[1][5] ThisGothic structure was designed byP. Thornton Marye andA. Ten Eyck Brown.[6][7] The move came during a time when many churches in Atlanta were relocating to Peachtree Street, asFirst Methodist Church,St. Mark Methodist Church, andFirst Baptist Church had all relocated to Peachtree Street during the first decade of the 1900s.[8] In 1931,John M. Walker was made the rector of St. Luke's, a position he would hold until being made bishop of theEpiscopal Diocese of Atlanta in 1942.[9]
The church's bell tower is a new addition, being added in 2000, and following the original plans.
It contains a ring of ten bells hung forchange ringing, and tuned to the key ofF. The heaviest eight bells date to 1924 and were cast byMears & Stainbank ofWhitechapel,London[10]- as such they are the oldest set of bells inGeorgia.[11]
From the date of their casting in 1924 until 1996, they were hung in St Helen's Church,Escrick, North Yorkshire. In that year, the church bought the redundant ring of twelve bells fromSt Martin in the Bull Ring,Birmingham, and sold their previous bells.[12] The old ring of eight bells arrived in Atlanta in 2000, and were augmented by two trebles cast byEijsbouts of theNetherlands specially for St. Luke's new tower to form a ring of ten. The bells and their tower were blessed on July 9, and dedicated on October 22 2000.[13] The bells are rung regularly by the parish band of ringers.[14]
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