History

The first Greek immigrants arrived in the Joliet area in the early years of the twentieth century, settling largely in the Bluff neighborhood along Broadway, where they worshipped alongside Russian and Serbian Orthodox immigrants in a shared congregation. By 1916, the growing Greek community had separated to form its own parish, All Saints Greek Orthodox Church, purchasing a brick home that the community remodeled and used as its church. The congregation has remained at the same Broadway location ever since.

The original 1916 structure was demolished in 1942, and the following year the cornerstone was laid for the building that still stands today. Many parishioners hoped to build the new church using steel, but wartime shortages had made the material scarce, with nearly all available steel reserved for the war effort. Determined not to be turned away, several parishioners traveled to Washington, D.C., to make their case directly to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As the story is told within the parish, Roosevelt told them plainly, "I can't get you steel. We need it to save our troops." The church's representatives replied, "What if we save some souls?" Moved by the appeal, Roosevelt diverted a shipment of steel originally bound for the lights of Wrigley Field to Joliet instead, providing the material that built the All Saints church that stands at the corner of Broadway and Eastern Avenue to this day.

A school building consisting of four classrooms was later erected adjacent to the church to serve the religious and cultural instruction of the parish's children, continuing the work of passing the Greek Orthodox faith and Hellenic heritage to new generations.

All Saints Greek Orthodox Church at 102 North Broadway Street in Joliet serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Joliet area as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community whose very walls carry the memory of a wartime appeal that turned Wrigley Field's lost steel into a house of worship.