It was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its architectural and religious significance in 1979.

The congregation was founded on April 17, 1840, by Jackson Kemper, the first missionary bishop of the US Episcopal Church.

The church attempted to expand in the 1850s, but lost the money they raised in the Panic of 1857.

St. Matthew's was designed by A. H. Ellwood, an Aurora, Illinois, architect who specialized in public buildings and churches.

The nave features a steeply gabled roof with stone copings as caps.