St. Luke’s Church Still Echoes the Prayers of Its Founders

Excelsior Springs, Mo. – Worship in Excelsior Springs has been an integral part of the community since the mid-1800s. One such church, St. Likes Episcopal, constructed in 1933, stands out with its Gothic style features reminiscent of Bletchingley, Surrey, in England. 

The building’s history dates back to 1890, as shown in a pamphlet titled ‘History of The Church of St. Luke The Beloved Physician,’ which is available at the Excelsior Springs Museum and Archives. 

During the late 1800s, Rt. Reverend Richard R. Atwill became the Bishop of West Missouri as he took on leadership of thirty parishes and missions. At the time, “Excelsior Springs was not among them but became one of eight congregations that were organized during his twenty-one years as a Bishop,” read the pamphlet.

However, the community was only 10 years old when a small group of Episcopalians began holding services in a Methodist church. By 1905, the church group had grown enough to establish a mission, with services becoming a regular occurrence at various locations. Some of these gatherings took place at the library, in storerooms on Broadway, at the McCleary clinic, and at the Elks Club.

At that time, Mrs. E.L. Morse provided two “wrought iron candelabra from her home, and Dr. Eugene B. Robichaux served as the first acolyte,” read the historical pamphlet, for the various local gatherings. 

Later, Reverend Sidney C. Partridge, the Bishop, took over the small mission within Excelsior Springs, as several women from the group urged Mrs. Morse to start a Guild. She then voted for Mrs. S. McCorkle to become vice president of the group they had formed. As other women began to flock to the mission they had established, they started raising funds to build a place of worship. 

Documented at the Excelsior Museum and Archives within an 1880 Centennial, the women made quilts, prepared dinners for various organizations throughout the community, hosted ice cream socials and card parties, and also organized a rummage sale that raised $5,000 in 1929. 

By the 1930s, Rt. Reverend Robert Nelson Spencer became Bishop of the mission and began searching for “just the right spot, “for the church to be erected, the pamphlet noted, “as the lot already owned was too far from the center of town.” 

The perfect location was eventually discovered along Regent Avenue across the street from the Elms Hotel. However, the lot was owned by a man named Major W.A.J. Bell of Belchingly, England. 

Reverend Spencer contacted Major Bell, who, “very generously gave the lots opposite the Elms Hotel and the native stone” to the mission as construction began with the notion that the site would resemble Bell’s home parish church in England. 

In 1933, the church began to take shape with the hope that it would be completed on St. Luke’s Day, but it was ultimately delayed until November 12, 1933. The local newspaper documented the day with the headline “Corner Stone Will Be Laid Here Today.” 

The news article went on to state that “Bishop Robert Nelson Spencer of Kansas City, bishop of the Western Missouri diocese, will have charge of the religious ceremony.” Along with him, other members of the Kansas City Clergy include Reverend R.M. Treelease, St. Paul’s Reverend Tyner, St. Georges’s Reverend Chownley, St. John’s Reverend Sprouse Grace, and Holy Trinity. 

In accompaniment, the paper noted Judge W. G. Holt, chancellor of the diocese, made the principal address as Carl P. Hinn, “of this city, will represent the local congregation,” as an adult choir from Kansas City area churches sang. 

According to Missouri Historical property records, Excelsior Springs has housed and continues to have various religious representations due to the community’s historical reliance on visitors. 

Nonetheless, the St. Luke Episcopal Church is one that represents Gothic Revival features built into its design, with a T-plan shape and “quarry-faced, random ashlar rubble limestone,” as noted in the Elms’ National Register documentation.