St Luke’s History

St. Luke’s Church-Simeon is located in Albemarle county, Virginia on Route 53 at it’s intersection with Route 732, about 1.2 miles east of Monticello.  It is one of six missions, which were established by Christ Episcopal Church of Charlottesville in the late nineteenth century in Charlottesville, and the surrounding rural areas of Albemarle County. 

Henry L. Lyman and Caroline Williams owned the site for the chapel at this time.  Mr Lyman was a Trustee of Christ Church.  On November 27, 1891, Henry L. Lyman and Caroline Williams sold 1.125 acres to Henry L. Lyman, Henry C Marchant and George Oliver, Trustees of Colle Mission (and Christ Church) for one dollar and the stipulation that “said tract of land shall be held and used for the purpose of erecting thereon a church or chapel building for the worship of God after the manner of the Protestant Episcopal faith and to use the residue of the land as a church lot and burying ground”. 

The chapel was built in 1892 and has been known by several names.  It was first called the Colle Mission Chapel, in reference to the large estate named Colle located to the east of the chapel.  The first reference to St. Luke’s Chapel is found in the Vestry Minutes of Christ Church in 1894.  All Albemarle County records still refer to it as Colle Mission.  The building is said to be a fine example of the carpenter gothic style of the late nineteenth century. The “Declaration”, a student weekly newspaper at the University of Virginia, published an interesting first person account of a visit to St Luke’s in March 1978. (Read Article)

In 1981, a project undertaken by the School of Architecture of the University of Virginia under the direction of K. Edward Lay, Professor of Architecture, documented a architectural description of St. Luke’s. The records were prepared during the Spring Semester, 1981, by Sallie Smith.  The documentation was donated to the Historic American Buildings Survey and transcribed here, as written.  [Accompanying Architectural Drawings have been recently posted.]

We celebrated our One-hundredth Anniversary on July 12, 1992, which was attended by over 100 members, former members and visitors from Christ Church.  In late 1993, we were successful in drilling a well and engaging an architect to design a small addition that provided space for a sacristy, storage, a small Sunday school room and indoor plumbing. [Photos] This gradually attracted young families and in the late 1990’s the one room Sunday School frequently had 10-15 children.  In 1999, a Building fund for a parish hall was established.

Early in 2000, the Vestry of Christ Church requested the Diocese of Virginia to assume the pastoral care of St. Luke’s. In February 2002, a temporary modular structure “Berberich Hall’ was added behind the main church building to provide Sunday School and Parish Hall Space.