Tours offered of Old St Luke’s Church, burial ground
Old St. Luke’s Church has quite a history.
After all, the Scott Township house of worship is the oldest Episcopal church in Southwestern Pennsylvania and one of the oldest frontier churches west of the Allegheny Mountains.
Visitors can take in some of that history, as tours are available every Sunday at 2 p.m. through Labor Day weekend. The small, weathered stone church on Old Washington Pike is surrounded by a burial ground that dates back to the American Revolution.
Tours are free, and typically a number of people take advantage of the chance to relish in the church’s history.
The church dates back to 1790. The building was originally a log stockade church. The stone frame that exists today has been in existence since 1852.
Brig. Gen. John Neville, inspector of revenue for President George Washington, and Maj. William Lea were prominent members of the congregation in 1790. Neville had extensive land holdings in the Chartiers Valley adjoining those of Lea. It was there where Neville built his mansion.
“He put this church on top of the hill,” said the Very Rev. Scott Quinn, president of the church’s board of directors.
Quinn, who is retired, has been involved with the church for a number of years, going back to his days as a youth minister at a local Presbyterian church.
“I would drive to work, and I would come past this church every time I went there,” Quinn recalled. “Finally, I realized that there was something back there. You could not see it. It was covered by woods.”
As winter came and the leaves fell, he realized it was, indeed, a church. That led him to say a prayer, “God, if you wanted that church to open up again, I’d be glad to be a part of it.”
And now he is and has been since 1984.
The Rev. Brandon Cooper, of Christ Episcopal Church in North Hills, is in his first year of involvement with Old St. Luke’s.
“The former secretary of the board was leaving, and she was a deacon at the church I was at,” said Cooper, who also happens to be a Civil War reenactor. “She said, ‘You like history; you should come and be a part of this,’ so I did.”
The church sat unused and neglected for many years. In 1949, repairs were made to the roof trusses and interior walls. In the 1960s, volunteers from St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon worked to fix deteriorating floors and install restrooms in the basement.
In 1974, Bishop Richard Appleyard gave a small group of interested representatives three choices – donate the building to Scott Township, sell it to another organization for $1 or tear it down. The group instead chose to restore the church and burial ground.
Under the leadership of two dedicated Episcopal clergy, the Rev. Victor Zuck and the Rev. Canon Richard Davies, the church was restored.
More than 90 graves have been identified in the burial ground, including those of French and Indian War veterans marked by the Union Jack and Revolutionary war veterans marked by the American flag. William Lea is buried on the grounds.
In 1976, the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation recognized the church as a historic landmark.
The church is used as a site for a number of religious services. Since April, the church has hosted the Saturday 6 p.m. service for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Mt. Lebanon. Certain holiday services also are held at the church.
It’s also used for funerals and baptisms and is quite popular for weddings.
“In one year, there was 62 weddings,” Cooper said.
Norma Cappello was the church’s wedding coordinator from 2000-2020. On a picture of her in the church’s museum it states that she coordinated 788 weddings during that time.
Among the attractions in the church is an organ that was built in 1823. Legend has it that Zuck helped rebuild the church to have a place to house the organ.
There’s also an old bishop’s chair that bounced around to different locations and was recently returned to the church.
“It’s pretty lively,” Quinn said of the church. “It has a nice kind of feel. People like coming because it feels nice and gives you a real sense of God.”