St. Luke's Episcopal Church, founded in 1868, is one of the oldest parishes in the Diocese of California. St. Luke's first home, as an incorporated parish, was located in a building at 1625 Pacific Avenue. In 1884, this original wooden church was placed on rollers and moved to the parish’s current location at the corner of Van Ness and Clay. During the next decade, the church was expanded twice, and its membership grew to be the largest Episcopal congregation on the Pacific coast and a new church was built. This magnificent church, designed by Albert Sutton, was constructed of brick covered in rough, blue-grey sandstone. It was consecrated in 1900 and seated close to a thousand people.

Unfortunately, this church was utterly destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire. The vestry retained Benjamin Geer McDougall as architect for our beautiful French Gothic sanctuary built in 1910. The worship experience is enhanced by the building’s many stained-glass windows, especially the east window over the altar and those which flank the nave on its north and south sides. The altar window, which depicts the Resurrection, was installed in 1911. The stained-glass windows on the north and south walls of the nave depict the Virgin Mary, various Saints and Biblical scenes.

As an integral part of the community it served, St. Luke's became involved with the American relief effort for French wounded early in World War I. The parish's active participation in this humanitarian effort is commemorated in six stained glass windows commissioned in 1919.

Today, St. Luke's is a beautiful and gracious space for worship. However, as former Rector Spencer Rice stated, "St. Luke's is not just a building in which to worship, it is a place to join a community and find a reflection of our humanity." It is a space that houses a legacy of faith, hope and charity. This legacy is manifested in the stone, wood, steel, and glass that generations of past parishioners have provided for our use today and into the future.