The building we know today as St Luke’s Wadestown was not consecrated until 28 March 1909 but the Anglican Community in the pioneer settlement of Wade’s Town was founded much earlier. The first services were held in the Roscoe Terrace home of Thomas Stanford Roscoe and his wife Elizabeth.
Due to the need for more space and a more formal structure, the St Paul’s Churchroom in Wadestown Road was consecrated on 2 October 1881 by Bishop Octavis Hadfield and this is when St Luke’s dates its history from. Built on a quarter acre site on Blackbridge Road it was a small wooden building that served the district for 28 years. In 1893 it was moved from Blackbridge Road to a site on the corner of Pitt Street and Wadestown Road and was enlarged. The land onto which it was moved was bought for the sum of £219.15.2d. The St Paul’s Churchroom was a branch church of the Cathedral Church of St Paul’s and the clergy of St Paul’s were responsible for services and priestly duties.
In 1900 St Paul’s appointed a curate with special responsibility for Wadestown. Four years later in October 1904 the first meeting of the members of the Parochial district of Wadestown, Northland and Creswick was held.
In April 1908 planning began for a new church building as the old Churchroom was proving too small and had been badly damaged in a severe gale in 1904.
St Luke’s church was consecrated by Bishop Frederick Wallis on 28 March 1909. It had cost about £1100 including furniture and was opened debt-free. In 1912 a vicarage was completed on land in Wadestown Road. A church hall was built on land adjacent to the church in 1929. Not only was this building used for Sunday school and church events but became the venue for many community activities from screening of films to Scouts and Guides and housing the Wadestown – Wilton Horticultural Society.
