by Becky R. Dethero

Those who cherish the familiarity of the traditional may have experienced something resembling growing pains as St. Luke’s Episcopal Church undertook the nearly half-million dollar restoration of its church. Built in 1872, it is the second oldest church in downtown Cleveland. Now the building almost glistens in its newly restored state.

“We forwent the St. Luke’s Day celebration that this church so much enjoys each October because we had moved out of the church and services were held in the Parish Hall beginning last September,” the Rev. Craig Morgan, Rector of the church, said.

Cornerstone Reset
A part of that celebration will be the resetting of the cornerstone, and a very special item going into that cornerstone was a picture of the communicants of St. Luke’s. On Sunday, January 24, immediately following the service, there was a procession to reset the cornerstone. The original was opened during a celebration of 120 years of consecutive services in the building.
Local artisan Larry Epperson created a special stainless steel vault to house the items. Going into the box in addition to the picture will be a copy of The History of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church 1867-1967. Katharine Trewhitt and the late Frank Cummings wrote the book for the church’s centennial celebration. This particular copy is signed by the Rev. Gordon Bernard, and Bishop William Sanders who presided at the time of its publication.

Other items included were a copy of The Book of Common Prayer signed by Bishops Robert Tharp, the Rev. Charles vonRosenberg (Bishop-Elect at the time), and Father Morgan; a 1998 parish financial statement and the proposed budget for 1999, a list of members of the church, the replacement of some of the items taken from the original cornerstone, and copies of area newspapers, just to name a few.

“One never knows just what those newspapers will contain,” Morgan said. “The 1872 Cleveland newspaper which was removed from the original cornerstone told of the death of poet Edgar Allen Poe.”

Faithful Restoration
“We have undergone a restoration of the outside fabric of this historic building,” Morgan said. “It is one of three examples in Tennessee of an Oxford Movement Gothic Episcopal Church.”
“During this project we made two major additions. We added a vestibule and a memorial wall, being very faithful to the architecture of the church. The brick was reproduced to match the original brick,” Morgan continued.

“We replaced the slate roof with some specially quarried in Vermont in order to get the particular colors to put the pattern of the crosses back in the roof and to be faithful to the original roof and design. Every effort was made to be faithful in detail to the original 1872 church design,” he said.

The roof is drained by all-new, all-copper, half-round gutters reproduced authentically to the appropriate period. The new limestone is cut to match the old limestone. In building the addition, master craftsmen reproduced the beams in the same pattern of the old scissored beams found in the rest of the church.. The new doors to the vestibule are in the same pattern as the original of 1872. An elevation of the ground leading to the vestibule makes the church handicap accessible.

Trees and shrubbery were removed to allow elevation of the ground for the drainage system necessary to preserve the church’s foundation. Now the grass goes up to the edge of the building in the mode of English Gothic Churches. An outdoor lighting system was added to make the church more visible at night.

The church invites everyone to view the improvements and worship at services held on Sundays at 8 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. A Thursday noonday service begins at 12:10 p.m.

The writer is a communicant of St. Luke’s, Cleveland.