Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church of Dubuque

History

The history of Saint Elias the Prophet Greek Orthodox Church of Dubuque, Iowa had its beginnings in the early 1900s, when the first Greek immigrants arrived in the city on the Mississippi River. True to Greek tradition, these early settlers were entrepreneurs, opening restaurants and small businesses that established a visible Greek presence in Dubuque. By 1930 the total population of Greek Americans and their families in Dubuque was estimated at seventy-five. Those wishing to attend an Orthodox Church were required to travel to Rockford, the Quad Cities, or Waterloo for services, a considerable journey in an era before interstate highways.

In the late 1930s, as the community's desire for local worship could no longer be ignored, a large room was rented on the second floor of a brick building at the northeast corner of 7th and Main Streets. Once a month the Divine Liturgy was celebrated in this hall by priests from Waterloo, and the space also served for organizational meetings of AHEPA, the Daughters of Penelope, and Greek School. By the early 1950s the Greek Americans of Dubuque recognized the importance of formalizing their parish life. In 1954 the first general assembly of the Greek Orthodox Church of Dubuque was held to elect officers and council members, and the AHEPA chapter purchased the lot at 1075 Rockdale Road for $2,500 and donated it to the parish. Pledges of $16,000 were received, and the church was built in 1956 for $51,900, with Charles and Mary Petrakis honoring the church with the name Saint Elias the Prophet as part of their generous donation of $10,000. The first Pontifical Divine Liturgy in the new building was celebrated on January 13, 1957, and the church was consecrated that same year, fulfilling a dream that the Dubuque Greek community had carried for more than thirty years without a building to call its own.

Membership reached its peak in the 1970s at approximately 100 families before Dubuque's severe economic contraction in the 1980s reduced the congregation. The Rockdale Road building ultimately suffered structural damage beyond repair when its roof trusses collapsed, and the community relocated to its present home at 419 North Grandview Avenue, embracing the move as a rebirth of the founders' dream for a living Orthodox community on the bluffs above the Mississippi.

Saint Elias the Prophet Greek Orthodox Church at 419 North Grandview Avenue in Dubuque serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the tri-state Dubuque area as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a small but vibrant community whose ministry to the city of Dubuque has made it a well-known presence in civic and charitable life far beyond its modest size.