History of Our Church

St. Luke's origins can be traced back to very founding of Marietta. In 1788, the original Ohio Company settlers carried the Church of England's Book of Common Prayer with them and used it at their first religious service.

A small brick school house served as the Rev. Joseph Willard's church in 1816 and was the same place in which Bishop Philander Chase, first Bishop of the Diocese of Ohio, later confirmed and preached when in Marietta. (At that time, the state of Ohio was a single diocese. By 1875, growth and the modes of transportation available in those days made it difficult to administer the state as a single unit, so it was split in two. The northern half of the state retained the original name, Diocese of Ohio, while the southern half of the state adopted the new name, Diocese of Southern Ohio.)

Arius Nye, the son and grandson of original settlers, played a prominent role in the establishment of St. Luke's parish. Born in Marietta's original Campus Martius stockade in 1792, Nye had moved to Zanesville at an early age. There, he was confirmed by Bishop Chase in St. James Church in 1818 and served as a lay reader. Upon returning to Marietta in 1825, he organized families and individuals interested in forming a parish. On January 1, 1826, Arius Nye, Billy Todd, James English, A.V.D. Joline, Daniel H. Buell, John K. Joline and Enoch Rector signed a handwritten statement organizing St. Luke's as a parish of the Episcopal Church.

Lay readers (primarily Arius Nye) and visiting clergy served the parish until 1833, when the Rev. Dr. John Thomas Wheat was instituted as the first Rector. Construction of the first church building began a few months later. Designed in the Grecian Doric style, it stood at the corner of Fourth and Scammel streets and served St. Luke's for almost 25 years. (A photo of it hangs in our parish hall and a painting in the church library.)

By the early 1850's, St. Luke's had outgrown its original building. After much debate, it was decided to build a new, larger church "closer to town" on Second Street, despite the propensity of that location to flood. The new (current) church was constructed in 1856 at 320 Second Street. Today, it is the oldest church building in Marietta still in use by its original denomination. The old church at Fourth and Scammel was sold to the German Evangelical Protestant St. Lucas Church (now St. Luke's Lutheran Church). It remained in use until the Lutherans razed it and built their new church in 1901.

One of the disadvantages of the new location was that it was lower and, as with the rest of downtown Marietta, subject to periodic flooding until the creation of the modern-day lock and dam system on the Ohio River. In fact, history records that Judge Nye opposed the new location for that very reason. Among the floods noted in the historical records of the church are April 1860, when the water stood 18 inches deep above the floor of the church, February 1884 (7 feet, 6 inches above the floor), and March 1913, when the water stood 13 feet above the floor of St. Luke's!

In 1910, St. Luke's opened a chapel in a storefront at 610 Montgomery Street which later came to be known as St. Andrew's Mission. Founded to serve families on what was then the far side of town, it also provided a sewing school for neighborhood women and children. It was moved to a new, larger building at the corner of Warren and Seventh Streets in 1913. After thriving for a number of years, the Mission declined and was closed in 1920. The building was sold to the John Stewart Memorial M.E. Church. Today, the old mission bell is mounted on the wall of St. Luke's parish hall as a memorial to the Mission and its founders.

Other noteworthy events:

• 1850-1900: The Rev. Dr. John Boyd serves as Rector of St. Luke's for an unprecedented 50 years.
  
  
• 1963: The congregation built a new Parish Hall adjoining the rear of the church, providing multi-purpose space and rooms for Christian education.
  
  
• 1980: The Marietta Child Care Co-operative preschool, which still rents space on the second floor of our Parish Hall, is founded by community members, including the wife of St. Luke's Rector.
  
  
• 1995: The Rev. Faith Perrizo is called as St. Luke's first female Rector.

Rectors of St. Luke's Episcopal Church

1833-1836  The Rev. John T. Wheat
1837-1838  The Rev. Charles L.F. Haensel
1840-1842  The Rev. James Bonnar
1842-1843  The Rev. David W. Tolfard
1843-1847  The Rev. Edward Winthrop
1847-1850  The Rev. David W. Tolfard
1850-1900  The Rev. John Boyd
1902-1905  The Rev. W.H.K. Pendleton
1905-1911  The Rev. George Davidson
1912-1918  The Rev. J. Merritt Hunter
1918-1923  The Rev. Maurice Clarke
1923-1926  The Rev. Edgar L. Tiffany
1926-1931  The Rev. Lyman Howes
1931-1940  The Rev. Lynnley B. Wilson, Jr.
1941-1946  The Rev. Penrose W. Hurst
1947-1951  The Rev. Paul Bankston
1951-1957  The Rev. Robert C. Martin
1958-1969  The Rev. John S. Dilley
1970-1973  The Rev. Eugene TenBrink
1973-1979  The Rev. Roma A. King
1980-1985  The Rev. Thomas Minifie
1986-1992  The Rev. Colin Keys
1995-2004  The Rev. Faith C. Perrizo
2005-         The Rev. Frederick R. Engdahl Jr.