History

Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church of Chicago occupies one of the most architecturally distinguished buildings in the history of Greek Orthodoxy in the Midwest, a Greek Revival temple at 733 South Ashland Avenue on Chicago's Near West Side whose layers of history connect the immigrant experience of two faith communities across a century.

The building was constructed in 1910 as the Anshe Sholom Synagogue, designed by architect Alexander Levy and described at the time as housing the intelligentsia of West Side Orthodox Jewry. By the 1920s the Jewish congregation had followed its members westward to the Lawndale neighborhood, and the building was available. A fledgling Greek Orthodox community, eager to establish a parish in the neighborhood then known as Greektown, rallied together to purchase the Greek Revival temple and transform it into an Orthodox church. Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church was dedicated on April 9, 1927, with the Greek newspaper Saloniki reporting that more than two thousand Greeks participated and that hundreds had to stand in the aisles, a measure of the excitement that greeted the new parish. Bishop Philaretos, the first bishop of Chicago, designated Saint Basil as the first Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Chicago, a distinction of considerable historical weight. The first priest was Father Eirenaios Tsourounakes.

The parish's subsequent history was shaped profoundly by the urban upheavals that transformed Chicago's Near West Side. In 1946 the Orthodox Youth Organization of Chicago was initiated at Saint Basil, a milestone in organized Greek Orthodox youth ministry. In 1947 the construction of the Eisenhower Expressway began displacing families from the area, and in the late 1960s and early 1970s the Greektown neighborhood stretching from Halsted to Racine and Harrison to Taylor was demolished to build the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, scattering countless Greek families. Urban renewal projects and the creation of the Illinois Medical District claimed still more of the surrounding community. Through each wave of displacement, Saint Basil's small but devoted congregation refused to abandon the church they had built. The parish's determination through multiple fires, urban renewal, and neighborhood transformation has made it a symbol of Orthodox resilience in Chicago.

A fire in recent years devastated the sanctuary, but a capital campaign led to a complete renovation, including a newly plated dome, restored and replaced icons, rebuilt pews, and intricate gold leaf applied to the balcony and ceiling, crowned by a new icon of Christ the Pantocrator in the dome. The restored Saint Basil now stands as a welcoming beacon in the thriving communities of the Medical District, University Village, and the South and West Loop.

Saint Basil Greek Orthodox Church at 733 South Ashland Avenue in Chicago serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Near West Side as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.