History

The journey toward what would become the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England began around 1890, when a group of Greek immigrants in Boston organized the Plato Society to help the growing Hellenic community gather for fellowship, education, and worship, celebrating the first Liturgy that same year. For a decade these early pioneers held services in rented halls whenever possible, until a concerted effort was undertaken in 1899 to establish a more permanent religious community with regular services. In 1903 the Hellenic Association of New England was formally organized, and the congregation established itself in Boston's South End with a church built for worship on Winchester Street that opened in 1906.

As the congregation grew and Boston was designated as a diocese for the Greek Orthodox Church in 1923, the community sought space for a new cathedral to serve as the seat of its bishop. The magnificent Byzantine-style cathedral at 514 Parker Street was completed that year, its design featuring a large central dome and four smaller domes, soaring arches supported by immense pillars, radiant stained glass windows, and large crystal chandeliers, creating one of the most distinguished Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical interiors in New England. From its opening the Cathedral served not only as the seat of the Boston Diocese but as the mother church of all Greek Orthodox communities across New England, the anchor of an expanding network of parishes from Maine to Connecticut.

The Cathedral carries a distinction of extraordinary historical weight: it was the first Cathedral of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Western Hemisphere. That distinction is recognized in its designation as an official Boston landmark and its listing on the National Register of Historic Places, which was granted in 1988. The Cathedral has also served as a hub of campus ministry for the many universities that surround it in the Mission Hill and Roxbury neighborhoods, welcoming students from across Boston's academic community into the Orthodox Christian faith.

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of New England at 514 Parker Street in Boston serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Greater Boston and all of New England as the Cathedral and seat of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the mother church of Greek Orthodoxy in New England for more than a century and one of the most historically significant Orthodox Christian institutions in the United States.