St. luke ame church

For more than a century, inspirational messages and music filled the air during services at the St. Luke African Methodist Episcopal Church, which stood here. The church was organized in 1870 and the building completed in 1882, making it the oldest structure in Kansas City built by Black residents until it was demolished in 2003.

St. Luke became one of two churches serving both Black and white residents of the area known as Steptoe. Its congregation was made up of descendants from the “old” families of Steptoe, many of whom attended the nearby Penn School—the first school west of the Mississippi to solely educate Black children. The church was known for professional-quality musical productions and “Tom Thumb” weddings, a popular mock-wedding ritual enacted by children.

St. Luke fostered a relationship with Western University in Quindaro, Kansas where numerous freedmen from the south migrated north to attend theological seminary. Together they nurtured pastors and enhanced programming in both communities.