History

The Assumption Greek Orthodox Church of Pocatello, Idaho stands as the oldest Greek Orthodox church in the state, a distinction it has held since its consecration on August 15, 1915. Its origins are inseparable from the story of Greek immigration to the American West. Because of employment opportunities in the railroad and livestock industries, Pocatello drew Greek workers in remarkable numbers. By 1910, 641 Greek immigrants, fully 35 percent of the entire Greek population of Idaho, lived in Bannock County, most of them in Pocatello, making it the largest Greek community in the state.

As the community grew, so did the desire for a permanent house of worship. Alex Katsilometes, a Greek immigrant who had arrived in the United States in 1907 at the age of seventeen, became one of the major donors to the church building fund and was honored with the role of church godfather. He chose the name: the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, celebrated on August 15, the very day the new church was consecrated. Pocatello architect Charles B. Onderdonk designed the building, which was constructed by the North Pacific Construction Company in the Byzantine Revival style, featuring a red brick exterior, round-arched stained glass windows, a square bell tower above the main entrance, and a round tower at the center of the roof.

From the day it opened, the Church of the Assumption served not only as a house of worship but as the educational, social, and cultural center of Pocatello's Greek community, a place where religious and national holidays, name days, and Easter were celebrated in the traditional style, and where Greek language and culture have been passed down through generations. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 in recognition of its architectural and historical significance.

Today, the Assumption Greek Orthodox Church continues its ministry at 528 North 5th Avenue in Pocatello as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco, hosting its beloved annual Greek Festival and preserving the Hellenic Orthodox heritage that its immigrant founders planted in the high desert of southeastern Idaho more than a century ago.