St. Luke's Episcopal Church

St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is located on Route 100 in Somers, NY. The main church building was completed on July 9, 1841 and has been in continuous use. It is a historically significant site because the congregation is one of the earliest for the Episcopal Church in the United States. St. Luke's Episcopal Church is included in the Somers Hamlet Historic District, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 21, 2004.

The congregation that formed the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church originally worshiped at St. James' Episcopal Church in North Salem. They moved to Somers, and while still continuing to be associated with St. James, they began holding services at the Union Meeting House, also known as the Union Church, which had been erected in 1799 in Somers. By November of 1834, there was a movement to solidify a separate Episcopalian congregations in Somers, prompting the congregation to build the current St. Luke's Episcopal Church in 1841.

St. Luke’s congregation has never been large, and throughout the decades it has faced challenges. During the Civil War, Reverend William Murphy of St. Luke’s sympathized with the Confederate cause and refused to read the bishop’s prayers for those serving in both the Union and Confederate forces. This attracted the attention of John Jay, who wrote an open letter to the church that was printed in The New York Daily Tribune on November 25, 1863. 

St. Luke’s is also known for its architecture. When St. Luke’s Episcopal Church was built it was described as “a plain substantial edifice of wood, standing on a basement of dressed stone….The front of the building presents a fine portico, with dressed stone floor and steps, and roof supported by four lofty ionic columns. Upon the top is a square belfrey.” Inside the church there is a large stained glass sanctuary window that was presented by Elizabeth Vail. There are tablets on either side of the sanctuary window that were presented in memory of Willie Crane, a young parishioner who drowned while attending school in Connecticut. The two tablets have painted molding trims: one of The Lord’s Prayer and the other with the bible verse from Matthew 22:37. The crystal chandelier was allegedly given to St. Luke’s Church in 1881 in honor of Mary Ferguson's marriage to H. Hobart Keeler.

In 1984, St. Luke’s Church was presented with the Historic Religious Properties Award by the Preservation League of New York State.

1. "Saint Luke's Church." Westchester County Historic Society Library.
2. Rafferty, Patrick. "St. Luke's Church: A history of the Church." Westchester County Historical Society Library. 4-49.
3. Saint Luke's Episcopal Church of Somers homepage, Saint Luke's Episcopal Church of Somers. https://slcsomers.org. Accessed December 25th 2021.