History

The Greek Orthodox presence in Charleston, South Carolina began in 1908, when the first service was held at Saint John's Episcopal Church on Hanover Street, the Greek faithful of the city gathering in a borrowed space that a neighboring congregation generously opened to them. In 1909 approximately fifty residents formed the Parthenon Society, followed in 1910 by the Grecian Society, which set its sights on establishing a permanent church. On June 1, 1910, the charter of the Greek Orthodox Community of Holy Trinity of Charleston was formally established, and the following year, in 1911, the first Greek Orthodox church in South Carolina was built at the corner of Saint Philip and Fishburne Streets, the site now occupied by Interstate 26. That original church served the faithful for forty-one years, through the decades when the congregation grew from roughly fifty families in 1923 into a flourishing community.

By the mid-twentieth century the community had outgrown the Fishburne Street church, and plans were made for an entirely new building. Local Charleston architect Harold Tatum, a Penn-educated Presbyterian, was commissioned to design the new church under the personal direction of Archbishop Michael of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America, who specified the traditional Byzantine style. Tatum completed the design in 1950 and personally designed many of the interior elements as well, including the brass light fixtures, the iconostasion, the altar, and the Bishop's throne. Construction was completed by 1952 and the church opened in 1953 at 30 Race Street, giving the Charleston Greek community the permanent and distinguished house of worship it has occupied ever since.

The icons adorning the interior were created by Photios Kontoglou of Athens, the most renowned iconographer of the twentieth century, whose Byzantine Revival work has adorned Orthodox churches across Greece and the diaspora. The central dome was designed and constructed by the Guastavino Company of Woburn, Massachusetts, whose celebrated tile vaulting systems grace some of the most distinguished buildings in America. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004, recognized as an outstanding mid-twentieth century example of Byzantine Revival ecclesiastical architecture and for its extraordinary Kontoglou iconography.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at 30 Race Street in Charleston serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Lowcountry as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community of 450 families and a landmark of Byzantine art and architecture in the heart of one of America's most historic cities.