History

The first known Greek settlers arrived in Wilmington, Delaware at the end of the nineteenth century, and by the 1920s the early manifestations of a Greek community had begun to take root. Regular informal gatherings were held, first at Saint John's Episcopal Cathedral and later on the third floor of the Law Building at 9th and Market Streets. In 1926, Wilmington's Greek Americans formed AHEPA Chapter 95, reflecting the national movement to integrate Greek immigrants into American life while preserving their heritage and combating discrimination.

The church was formally organized under a Parish Council in 1934, making Holy Trinity the first Greek Orthodox entity in the State of Delaware. On November 30, 1939, the community launched a fundraising drive for the proposed church at a property on North Broom Street, purchased from the Trustees of the T. Coleman and Alice duPont Estate. The kickoff event was held at the Hotel duPont with more than 200 attendees, including Archbishop Athenagoras, the Greek Minister to the United States Demetrios Sicilianos, Delaware Governor Richard McMullen, and Wilmington Mayor Walter Bacon. That evening $35,000 was pledged toward a goal of $150,000.

The cornerstone of the new church was laid in 1948, and the building was completed between 1949 and 1952, designed by Chicago engineer Ernest K. Eugene, who specialized in Byzantine church design, in the shape of a Greek cross with a lead-covered central dome and two spires rising forty and seventy-five feet. The original terrazzo floors featured an embedded double-eagle design reflecting the Byzantine heritage of the Orthodox Church. Thirty stained glass windows were added in 1954 by Llorens Stained Glass Studios of Atlanta, and between 1957 and 1958 Newark, Delaware artist Leo Laskaris painted 2,000 square feet of murals on canvas throughout the interior. Those murals were later replaced in 2003 by George Filippakis, a Crete-born painter based in New York City, who incorporated gold leaf and vibrant colors on the dome and installed a raised sacramental platform in the sanctuary of yellowish Brazilian granite.

On November 2, 2024, during celebrations marking the community's 90th anniversary, His Eminence Metropolitan Apostolos of New Jersey elevated Holy Trinity to the rank of Cathedral, recognizing its enduring centrality to Orthodox Christian life across the region.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 808 North Broom Street in Wilmington serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Delaware, southern New Jersey, northeastern Maryland, and southeastern Pennsylvania as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the only Greek Orthodox cathedral in the State of Delaware and a regional spiritual home for nearly a century.