History

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Chicago was established in 1892 by a group of immigrants who had come to America predominantly from Laconia and the Greek Islands, making it the first Orthodox church in the city of Chicago and one of the oldest Greek Orthodox communities in the United States. The community first rented a hall on Randolph Street near Union, then moved to a Masonic Temple on Kinzie near Clark as the congregation grew. In March 1892 the first Divine Liturgy was celebrated by Father Panagiotis of Ithaca, the community's first priest. The following year, 1893, saw the first archieratical liturgy at the church when Bishop Dionysios Latas of Zakinthos visited Chicago as a representative to the World's Columbian Exposition.

In 1909 the community purchased the lot at its present North LaSalle Boulevard address for $18,000, and by 1910 the current cathedral building was completed at a total cost of approximately $100,000. Built in the Byzantine-Renaissance style, the building faithfully reproduced the architectural character of Orthodox cathedrals of the Eastern Christian tradition and established a landmark presence on the Near North Side of Chicago. In 1927 the parish, under the leadership of Father Niketas Kesses, purchased land on the north side of Chicago to build a Greek school and chapel, a project that eventually became Saint Demetrios Church. During the Great Depression the two communities rallied together to save their churches through extraordinary fundraising efforts, and in 1930 the cathedral building itself was lifted off its foundation and moved back to accommodate the widening of La Salle Boulevard. In 1940 the two communities were united under the name United Greek Orthodox Churches of Chicago, the Annunciation and Saint Demetrios. In 1942 Archbishop Athenagoras, who would later become the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, named the Annunciation as the Cathedral of the Second Archdiocesan District, elevating it to the position it has held ever since. In 1951 the first national conference of the youth of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese was held in Chicago, with Archbishop Michael celebrating the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral.

Renovation of the Cathedral began in 1977, and the iconography of the dome was completed in 1981 by the celebrated iconographer Stathis Trahanatzis, who returned in 1990 to complete the four Evangelists on the pendentives and the Platytera in the apse of the sanctuary, giving the interior its full Byzantine iconographic program.

The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 1017 North LaSalle Boulevard in Chicago serves as the mother church and episcopal seat of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the spiritual center for fifty-eight parishes and two monastic communities across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin, and a living witness to the ancient Orthodox Christian faith in the heart of one of America's greatest cities.