History

Assumption Greek Orthodox Church of St. Louis, Missouri was chartered in 1940, when the Greek Orthodox community on the western side of St. Louis organized a parish of their own, distinct from the established Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church serving the broader St. Louis area. The new community purchased a small existing church at 1605 Euclid Avenue in the city's Central West End, a location ideally situated for the majority of parishioners who lived within walking distance. From those modest beginnings, Assumption grew steadily into a thriving parish.

By 1948, the growing congregation had outgrown the Euclid Avenue church, and a larger facility was purchased at 1212 Academy in St. Louis, a property with a gym and schoolrooms that could accommodate a parish expanding in both membership and programs. As the postwar decades brought Greek Orthodox families westward into the suburbs of St. Louis County, a third relocation became necessary. In 1958 the community purchased the property at 6900 Delmar Boulevard in University City, a building constructed in 1924 for the First Church of Christ, Scientist, whose domed roof had been noted for its architectural excellence at the time of its construction and whose distinctive character appealed to the Greek Orthodox congregation that made it their own. That building was subsequently added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, recognizing both its architectural significance and its role as the home of Assumption Greek Orthodox Church through more than two decades of parish life.

By 1978 the congregation had again followed its members westward, purchasing a property at 1755 Des Peres Road in Town and Country. A new Basilica and community center built from the ground up on that site was completed in 1989, giving Assumption the permanent campus it occupies to this day. The annual Greek Festival, held on Memorial Day Weekend each May, has grown into one of the most beloved Hellenic cultural celebrations in the St. Louis metropolitan area, drawing crowds to the Des Peres Road campus for traditional Greek food, folk dance, entertainment, and the Agora, a Greek market featuring jewelry, art, and books.

Assumption Greek Orthodox Church at 1755 Des Peres Road in Town and Country serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of west St. Louis County as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.