History

The Church of Prophet Elias in Yonkers, New York traces its roots to the 1920s and 1930s, when Greek immigrants settled in the city and formed the cultural, ethnic, and philanthropic organizations that would eventually sustain a parish of their own. Chief among these was the Ladies Philoptochos, whose efforts laid the groundwork for what was to come. As recorded in the official files of Westchester County, the parish was formally established on March 29, 1940, when the community purchased the building of the First Protestant Church, also known as the Allison Avenue Christian Church, at 15 Leroy Avenue. Three years later, in 1943, the community acquired seven additional lots adjacent to the church, the land where the Community Center would eventually stand.

The wave of Greek immigration in the 1960s brought many new families into Yonkers and the surrounding communities of Riverdale, Hastings, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow, and Ossining. As the congregation grew substantially, the need for a larger church and cultural center became evident. By the late 1960s a Church Center had been built to accommodate the social, ethnic, and cultural life of the parish, with classrooms added for Greek language and religious instruction. Then, in the midst of these efforts, the original 1940 church building burned to the ground. The community was left without a place of worship, and pressed through fundraising to complete the Community Center while also rebuilding the church structure on a temporary basis.

In 1982 additional land adjacent to the church campus became available, and the community raised the funds for its purchase within a matter of weeks. In 1990 yet another parcel of adjacent open land was acquired. On these expanded grounds, the vision for a new permanent church took shape. In 1992 Archbishop Iakovos presided over the groundbreaking ceremony, and construction of the new church and parking lot commenced. The new church was completed by 1998, and on January 3, 1999, Archbishop Spyridon celebrated the Divine Liturgy as the community offered thanks for the fulfillment of a decades-long dream.

Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church at 15 Leroy Avenue in Yonkers serves as the only Greek Orthodox church in the City of Yonkers, ministering to the Orthodox faithful of the western part of Westchester County from the upper Bronx to Ossining as a parish of the Direct Archdiocesan District of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.