In 1957 President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated the site a National Shrine in concert with the 350th anniversary of Jamestown.

Once known as "Old Brick Church", St. Luke's is described by College of William & Mary professor and Colonial Williamsburg Foundation architectural historian Carl Lounsbury as an Artisan Mannerism style in which masons and other builders both designed and built without the guiding hand of an architect.

[4] Other examples of such architecture include Bacon's Castle in nearby Surry County, Virginia and exhibit Cavalier or Royalist sensibilities.

[citation needed] St. Peter's Church in New Kent, Virginia is a later, less ornate style reflecting the Glorious Revolution of Dutch-English monarchs William & Mary.

At both the east and west end of the church are crow-stepped gables, while unadorned turrets, corbelled slightly at their bases, decorate the corners of the building.

In the case of Newport Parish, a simplified form of a rood screen, as in several extant English room churches, separates the nave from the chancel.

Unlike any other standing Virginia colonial church, there are two water tables each nine bricks high.

[12] Three buttresses with three ramps each support the north and south sides of the church, separating the walls into three bays and a chancel, each of which contains a Y-tracery window.

[16] The ends of the east gable consist of a corbelled turret on the outside corners with eight crow steps rising to the middle.

The third story, presumably added some time after the rest of the tower,[20] is surmounted by a slate shingled, hipped roof with a modern weather vane at the crest.

The west façade is identical except that the lower story contains a round bricked arch with a simple, whitewashed tympanum above it.

[26] The southern entrance is a square-headed, battened door with decorative, molded bricks in the shape of an ovolo surrounding it.

The images from the Library of Congress site are worth study, for they show in the late 1950s a compass headed door at this entrance that is evidenced by brick repairs above the doorway.

[27] The rood screen is based on footings discovered in the 1950s while the sounding board, that is 17th-century in origin, was found in 1894 in a barn at Macclesfield, a nearby plantation.

[29] The main aisle is T-shaped and paved with square bricks whose pattern is derived from the original floor.

The present restoration, according to architectural historians, leaves much to be desired in its fanciful and poorly documented elements: Burials in the church cemetery include those of Virginia Lieutenant Governor Allie Edward Stakes Stephens and his wife; the couple were active in the movement to preserve the church.

The dating of this church with Gothic elements is a matter of disagreement between local traditions and academic researchers.

[35] The basic argument that the current brick church (rather than an earlier building on the same site) was built in 1632 had been: Other evidence calls into doubt the accuracy of these assertions: General historical data militate against the establishment of such an elaborate edifice in 1632 and generally agree with a date in the 1680s: It is unlikely that one of these stylistically related buildings predates the others so significantly.

The 100-acre historic site and museum provide guided tours for individuals and groups seven days per week between February and December – only closed in January.

An independent board of directors administers ultimate oversight of annual operations, budgets, and fund raising projects.

This $500,000 capital project is designed to restore the ponds, bridge, roadway, approaches, and landscaping and will provide responsible grounds management and access for decades to come.