Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew ARCHITECT: John Welch DATE: 1888-91 STYLE: Romanesque, Northern Italian The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew on Clinton Avenue (once the “Gold Coast” of Brooklyn) is the masterpiece of Brooklyn architect John Welch, who established himself as a church architect, designing a number of notable Greek Revival and Gothic Revival churches. Welch’s designs for the church are loosely based on twelfth-century Romanesque churches of Northern Italy but adapted for use by a nineteenth-century urban congregation in America.

Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew ca. 1914 The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew is the largest Episcopal Church building in the Diocese of Long Island. Architect John Welch was commissioned to design the church after a fire in 1887 destroyed much of the structure. Welch drew inspiration from the churches built during the Italian Renaissance, particularly those in Modena and Verona. The current interior decoration is the fourth reworking of the inside of the church. The romanesque design and elaborate plaster work were completed in 1915. Almost all of the stained glass was produced for the church by the Tiffany Studios of New York. The first pair of lancet windows were installed in 1897. Our Rose Window was given by the children of the Sunday School at the time of the rebuilding in 1890. It is 28 feet in diameter and one of the larger windows of this type in Brooklyn. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission considers the Church to be "one of the grandest 19th century ecclesiastical buildings in Brooklyn" and in 1981 designated it as a landmark.

The Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew is the largest Episcopal Church building in the Diocese of Long Island.