St. Luke’s Church in Isle of Wight County, originally known as Newport Parish Church, is America’s purest expression of authentic Gothic architecture. Although simple in design, the buttressed walls, lancet side windows, and traceried east window of this venerable house of worship have for more than three centuries formed one of the New World’s most direct links with the architecture of the Middle Ages. The construction date is controversial. Most likely it was built with its tower near the end of the 17th century, when the colonists began to undertake more substantial architectural works. St. Luke’s fell into disrepair after the disestablishment and was more or less ruinous for most of the 19th century. A series of repairs, begun in 1894, culminated in a thorough and meticulous restoration completed in 1957. No longer a parish church, St. Luke’s Church is an official historic shrine of the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia.