History

The story of the Greeks in Akron begins in 1880, when it is believed that Nick Laskaris became the first Greek to settle in the city. Others followed in the years that followed, and by 1912 the Greek community had grown to 150, drawn by Akron's expanding industrial economy. By 1918, some 2,500 Greeks or Greek Americans called the city home, many working in local factories while others opened restaurants, candy stores, fruit markets, and shoe shine stands. More than 800 Akron Greeks served in World War I.

It was in early 1916 that more than 75 men gathered at a coffee house on the second floor of 19 North Howard Street to address the spiritual void in their community. Chaired by Peter Velitsakos, the meeting resolved to apply for an Ohio charter for a Greek Orthodox Church. Five married men were selected to make the application: Markos Kontos, Trifon Chrysanthopoulos, Andrew Konstand, Michael Barkoukis, and George Marketos. The charter was granted on July 26. Minas Konstantinopoulos and Chris Kinnis named the church the Annunciation and donated the first epitaphios. In those earliest years, services were held one Sunday per month above a clothing store at Main and Mill Streets, led by a priest traveling from Cleveland.

It was not until 1926 that the parish had a priest of its own, when Father John D. Kapenekas arrived, the first of only three pastors to lead the parish in its first century. He was a visionary. In 1927 he formed a building committee of seven men, and the following year they purchased property at 129 South Union Street for $15,000. Construction began in August 1929, and on November 16, 1930, the new church was dedicated. The timing was treacherous: the Great Depression had taken hold, the lending bank revoked its loan, and the contractor stepped in to provide financing and restructure payments. The parish did not burn its mortgage until 1943, after sixteen years of trials and perseverance.

Father Kapenekas retired in 1957 after thirty years of service, succeeded by Father George N. Bartz, who would lead the parish for nearly four decades. Under Father Bartz the community grew significantly in spirit, membership, programs, and property. A new Sunday School building was completed in 1963 and dedicated by Archbishop Iakovos. The interior of the church was enlarged and decorated with handwritten Byzantine iconography, completed and consecrated by Archbishop Iakovos in March 1989, one of the most transformative projects in the parish's history. A 12,500-square-foot Greek Community Center was built and dedicated in 1981. Father Bartz also established sixteen organizations and programs and initiated the parish's Greek Festival, now a beloved Akron tradition. He retired in 1994 after 38 years, honored at a banquet attended by more than 700 people at the John S. Knight Convention Center.

In 2001 an atrium was constructed between the church and the Sunday School building, dedicated in January 2002. The parish celebrated its centennial in 2016, marking the occasion by launching a $2 million building campaign that funded a kitchen expansion, new storage facilities, and a new chapel for smaller services and sacraments.

Today, the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church serves more than 600 families at 129 South Union Street in Akron as the city's only Greek Orthodox church and a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh, carrying forward more than a century of faith, sacrifice, and Hellenic heritage in the heart of northeast Ohio.