User:Logicat/St. Luke's Episcopal Church (Forest Hills, New York)

St. Luke's Episcopal Church is located at 85 Greenway South in Forest Hills Gardens in Queens County, New York. Saint Luke's Church is a member of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island. Saint Luke's Church is an integral part of one of the one of the oldest planned communities in America. (Founded in 1908, Forest Hills Gardens is a privately incorporated community consisting of 142 acres with approximately 800 homes and several apartment buildings in a park-like setting designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., son of noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and partner in the Olmsted Brothers firm. 'Not suppposed to quote from other articles, readers can follow the cross-references' dhf (talk) 17:32, 21 February 2013 (UTC) ) The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Queens in November, 2010.

Building History
Saint Luke's began on October 19, 1913, with fifteen people meeting in an upper room on Station Square in Forest Hills Gardens above what was then the local post office. From there the group moved on to Sunday morning services in different people's homes, and then to a temporary wooden chapel on our current site. Its members raised the funds to build the church themselves at a time when Forest Hills Gardens was still being built and the landscape beyond was one of farms and fields.

The cornerstone of the current building was laid on June 1, 1923. Its architecture is a version of 13th century English Gothic style and the façade is constructed of old klinker bricks from an upstate demolition site. Saint Luke's was designed by the architect Robert Tappan, a member of the congregation, who was associated with the firm then building the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York City.

When the church was completed in 1924, it was a narrower building with only the central nave, narthex, and chancel, although an expansion to include the two side aisles was part of the original plan. That first expansion was completed in 1929. Subsequent additions included the baptistry in 1940, the parish hall in 1950, the extended tower in 1955 and in 2011, a resigned front entry-way incorporating an accessibility ramp designed by the architect Byron Bell.

The church’s first organ, made by the Austin Organ Company, was added in 1928, and was replaced in 1975 by a Gress-Miles which was renovated and updated in 2012. The original altar is made from Wisconsin marble, inset with squares of stone from the fabric of Canterbury Cathedral.

The church also contains a fine collection of stained glass windows in the English style, including windows executed by the London firm of James Powell and Sons which created the windows for St. Thomas on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Saint Luke's unique baptismal font is a giant clam shell which a former rector brought home from the South Pacific after duty as a chaplain in World War II.