Mission
The mission of St. Luke’s Home is to provide for low-income Elders a high-quality-of-life assisted living community built on innovative models of health and wellness that ensures independence, aging with dignity, respect and self-empowerment for all.
Vision
We believe in the right of all Elders to have the option of living in a community that focuses on learning, growing, natural beauty and friendships with people of all ages. St. Luke’s provides this through a long tradition of volunteerism and community involvement that has been a tradition of St. Luke’s in the Desert for nearly 100 years.
History
St. Luke’s Home was originally founded by the Episcopal Church Mission of Arizona, and through the Board of Trustees and the Board of Visitors Committee, has been providing services to the Tucson community since 1917. With a beautiful Joesler-designed chapel as a central gathering place, the structure and grounds of St. Luke’s are rooted in natural beauty and a rich history.
St. Luke’s in the Desert was founded as a tubercular sanatorium in 1918 by the Right Reverend Julius W. Atwood, D.D., Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Missionary District of Arizona. Bishop Atwood recognized a need to provide affordable convalescent care for men of limited means and needing an opportunity to regain their health.
As tuberculosis declined as a prevalent disease in the 1940’s, St. Luke’s transitioned to a residential space for those suffering from heart disease and respiratory ailments under the name St. Luke’s-in-the-Desert Chest Disease Center. (The Center is now part of the Banner University Medical Center Tucson housed at the University of Arizona).
The property was closed for several years but reopened as St. Luke’s Home through a collaborative effort by St. Luke’s in the Desert, Inc., and the Junior League of Tucson, who determined there was an urgent need for a facility to house older, independent women of limited financial means. The Home re-opened in July 1980 with four Elders but was soon filled to maximum capacity of 27 elders.
Today, St. Luke’s Home, which was renovated in 2000 and expanded to offering housing for men, women and couples, stands as a 64-unit assisted living community that is the only Eden Model registry assisted living facility in Arizona for limited income individuals. As an Eden Home, life at St. Luke’s centers on live plants, animals, children and young adults and abundant opportunities to grow and learn.