History

Greek immigrants began arriving in the Spokane area in the early years of the twentieth century, coming from all parts of Greece, Europe, and Asia Minor to build new lives in the Inland Northwest. The Greek ethos they transplanted to America was built on three pillars: family, church, and community. For decades these early settlers observed their Orthodox faith as best they could, gathering five or six times a year when a visiting priest could be brought to Spokane from elsewhere to celebrate the Divine Liturgy.

In 1932, enough of the community had established itself to erect the Holy Trinity Parish Hall at 1703 North Washington Street, a building that served an all-purpose function as chapel and community center for the Spokane Greek community throughout the Great Depression. That same year the parish also launched what would become the Annual Greek Dinner Festival, a culinary and cultural tradition that has run continuously ever since, celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2010, and is recognized as the longest continuously running Greek festival in the United States.

Plans for a proper church building were drawn up in 1947, and on March 28, 1948, the cornerstone was laid for a new church patterned after the Byzantine architecture of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. Construction was completed and the first service celebrated in August 1948, giving the community the domed Byzantine-style sanctuary that has stood on North Washington Street as one of the most distinctive religious landmarks in the Spokane skyline ever since. For decades Holy Trinity was the only Orthodox church between Seattle and Butte, Montana, serving the spiritual needs of Orthodox Christians across the vast interior of the Pacific Northwest.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 1703 North Washington Street in Spokane serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of eastern Washington and northern Idaho as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a diverse community whose members trace their roots to Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Eritrea, Greece, Lebanon, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, and America itself, united in the ancient Orthodox Christian faith that Greek immigrants first brought to the Inland Northwest more than a century ago.