History

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Atlanta, Georgia was born on September 5, 1905, the date recognized as the official birthday of the parish. In the late 1800s, the first Greek immigrants had begun arriving in Atlanta, and as their numbers grew, community leaders organized a society called Evangelismos for the purpose of finding a place to worship. On that September day in 1905, the Greek community formally adopted a new Constitution and Charter, taking the name the Annunciation Society. The founding group included Constantine Boutos, Christos Kotsakos, Nicholas Kouloukes, Constantine Verge, Gerasimos Algers, John Stavropoulos, and Constantine Haralambides. Initial services were held in a rented hall on the second floor of a building at 113½ Whitehall Street, which became a modest Greek Orthodox chapel under the name The Annunciation of the Mother of Christ.

By 1906 the founding society had grown to 72 members and relocated above a sporting goods store at 120½ Decatur Street, just south of Five Points in the heart of a neighborhood surrounded by Greek stores and residences. The congregation's aspiration, however, was for a proper sanctuary in the Greek or Byzantine style, complete with a school and community hall. That aspiration was answered when a Presbyterian church at the corner of Garnett Street and Central Avenue became available. Purchased for $9,000 and finalized in July 1906, the building was converted into a Greek Orthodox church and community center, with Greek school classes beginning there in 1914. The first Atlanta parish organization, the Danaos Society, was founded on May 3, 1908, and Atlanta was fast becoming an important center of Greek community life in America.

The Garnett Street location served the parish through World War I and into the 1920s, but growing membership and an expanding Greek school eventually made the space inadequate. In 1928, a large stone Byzantine-styled edifice at the corner of Pryor and Richardson Streets, formerly a Jewish synagogue, was purchased for $35,000 and renovated into a new Greek church, complete with a large cross atop its dome. This Pryor Street location carried the community through the Depression years, when parish volunteers canvassed local Greek businesses to keep the church financially afloat, and on through World War II.

By the 1960s the continued rapid growth of both the community and the city of Atlanta made yet another move necessary. In 1964 the parish launched an ambitious building program that culminated in the dedication of the present Cathedral at 2500 Clairmont Road on December 20, 1970, the day it was also named a Cathedral. Resplendent in Byzantine-style architecture adorned with arches and crowned by a gleaming gold dome, the Cathedral today serves as the seat of the Archbishop of the Metropolis of Atlanta, the governing body for Greek Orthodox parishes across the Southeastern United States.

From a rented hall above a Whitehall Street building to one of the most architecturally distinguished Orthodox cathedrals in America, the Annunciation has grown from 72 founding members into a community of more than 1,200 families, hosting the beloved Atlanta Greek Festival each September since 1974 and standing as a beacon of Hellenic faith and culture in the heart of Atlanta for more than 120 years.