By Mary O’KEEFE

Members of the St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church are inviting everyone to this Sunday’s Bring A Friend to Church Day. The historic church will have a gathering at 9:30 a.m. with light snacks; services begin at 10 a.m.

The church’s cornerstone was laid on Easter 1924. Artist S. Seymour Thomas had moved to the Crescenta Valley for his health and wanted to establish an Episcopal church in the area and was instrumental in the formation of St. Luke’s.

He was a well-known artist. His portrait of President Woodrow Wilson is still displayed at the White House. He and his wife were residents of La Crescenta, living in a home on Rosemont Avenue they called Cuddle Doon. Then-local resident Madame Louise Janvier had donated the property at the corner of Rosemont Avenue and Foothill Boulevard for the church. The story goes that one day after an afternoon tea at his home, Thomas went to the southwest corner of the intersection, looked toward the donated property and began to paint. The result was a plan in the form of a painting for a stone church whose architecture was influenced heavily by the artist’s time in France.

Ever since the first rock was laid there has been a strong connection between Crescenta Valley and the “stone church.”

All are welcomed at St. Luke’s, 2563 Foothill Blvd. at the corner of Rosemont.