Our History

Early church history sources: Pictorial Church Directory, 1971 and Rev. Richard T. Loring’s “St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Chelsea, Massachusetts 150 Years 1841-1991.”

St. Luke’s church was established on September 7th, 1841, with the name of “Mount Zion Church.” The original clergy leadership came from Old North Church, Boston. On March 8th, 1844 the church’s name was officially changed to “St. Luke’s Church, Chelsea.” Services were held in hired halls until 1844-1845, when a church was built on what is today 275-275a Broadway, Chelsea, just north of what is now Centro Latino.

This first building served until 1864 when St. Luke’s bought the building of the other Episcopal church in Chelsea (St. Andrews’s, founded in 1858, and located on the southern half of the present Shurtleef School property on Hawthorne Street).

The second building served until 1907 when de present church was completed on the site of the old Bossom Farm on Washington Avenue at Spruce Street. The old church, sold in 1907, was destroyed in the Chelsea fire of April 12, 1908.

The church was enlarged with the construction of a parish hall in 1914 and with a church school building in 1965-1966, and a new rectory was built in 1968-1969 on the back of the church property facing Franklin Avenue.

From 1968 to 1995 Father Richard Tuttle Loring served as Rector of this church. During this time the Church welcomed the first Spanish-speaking members who found their niche at St. Luke’s as a separate congregation, the congregation of San Lucas.

In 1999 the church’s status changed to Mission, and Fr. Tom Callard became the first Vicar, serving until the end of 2006. In August of 2007, with Fr. Edgar Gutiérrez-Duarte as the second Vicar of the church, the congregations of St. Luke’s and San Lucas officially merged, becoming one single congregation with two languages.

The members of this church historically have considered St. Luke’s Chelsea as a daughter of Chelsea Old Church, London, England.