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African American Heritage Trail, Washington DC
St. Luke's Episcopal Church / Alexander Crummell
1514 15th Street, NW
This was the first independent black Episcopal parish church in the city. It was established in 1879 by a breakaway group from a Foggy Bottom mission church, St. Mary's Chapel for Colored People, led by former St. Mary's pastor Alexander Crummell (1819-1898). This new St. Mary's church was renamed St. Luke's in 1880. With a theology degree from Queens College, Cambridge, England, Crummell was one of a handful of scholarly trained black religious leaders in the post-Civil War United States. The church building, designed by local African American architect Calvin T.S. Brent, is a replica of an Anglican Church in Coventry, England. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. |