Our congregation was originally organized in 1857 and occupied a building located at 8th & Walnut under the name St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. In 1879, the church’s name was changed to St. Mary’s.

The parish has practiced the principles of the Oxford Movement for more than a century: worship characterized by classical liturgy and a commitment to serve the poor and persons in need in our neighborhood. In the late 19th century, St. Mary’s sponsored the philanthropic effort that led to the founding of All Saints Hospital which later became St. Luke’s Hospital. For the past 30 years, the parish has sponsored a food bank which operates to this day every Saturday, along with a soup kitchen serving a free hot lunch.

Mary Gillis Troost provided land and funds for construction of the current building at 13th and Holmes. The building was designed by William Halsey Wood and built by local builders Remick and Stone, who built several homes on Kansas City’s Quality Hill and constructed the City Market. Total cost for the construction was $75,000. Work began in 1886. The building opened in June, 1888. In November, 1978, it was entered into the National Register of Historic Places.

Local legend describes a who inhabits the church building. The ghost is identified as that of the Rev’d. Henry David Jardine, who served the parish as its third Rector from 1879 to 1885. He died under mysterious and tragic circumstances in January 1886.

The building features late gothic revival architecture. It is constructed of locally fabricated brick laid with red mortar and capped with Warrensburg limestone. A total of 89 arches along the sides of the nave and the galleries support the 60-foot-high roof.

The ministry of St. Mary’s has continued uninterrupted since its founding. During the Civil War, services were held less frequently, partly due to border warfare along the Missouri-Kansas state line and partly due to the absence of available clergy.

In the 1920s, the residential population in the vicinity of the church began to decline. The parish continued to serve residents in the area, many of whom were much poorer than parishioners of previous generations. Membership of the parish rose and fell throughout the middle of the 20th century.

The urban renewal movement of the 1950’s resulted in dramatic changes in the church’s neighborhood. Many residential and commercial buildings were demolished to make way for the new downtown freeway and new federal and state office buildings. St. Mary’s had been struggling financial for years prior to that time with the result that the church building had fallen into severe disrepair. The tower was determined to be structurally unsound and the church was slated for demolition along with nearly all the other buildings in its immediate vicinity.

The David Woods Kemper Foundation responded with a generous grant for repair of the tower and restoration of the exterior masonry of the building. These improvements restored the structural integrity of the building and it remained intact through the freeway demolition.

In 2005, the parish undertook a partnership with the Diocese of West Missouri. The goals of the partnership included growth in the membership of St. Mary’s and its financial independence. The renaissance of Kansas City’s downtown and the subsequent growth of the residential population were motivating factors in developing the partnership. Since that time, St. Mary’s has experienced significant growth in membership.

In December 2008 the parish began the Third Century Capital Campaign to raise $2 million for restoration and improvements of the church building. That campaign has raised approximately $700,000 to date. To learn more about the restoration project click here.