History

Saint Demetrios Cathedral of Astoria, New York stands at the heart of one of the largest Greek communities in the Western world, its century-long history mirroring the story of Greek immigrant ambition, determination, and faith in America.

The community's origins trace to December 18, 1923, when the first organized meeting of Greeks from Astoria and neighboring Corona was held at the Archdiocese building on 30th Drive, then the location of the Archdiocesan chapel of Saint Athanasios. From that first meeting, a Greek School was established and plans for a permanent church began to take shape. On November 7, 1927, with only $306.00 in their treasury, a community of furriers, tailors, bakers, and laborers incorporated the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Astoria, Saint Demetrios, Inc. with the State of New York. Twenty days later a cornerstone was laid at the present site, the land having been purchased for $3,500. An architect was engaged for a $25,000 structure designed to serve as a basement for a larger building to be completed later. By April 1, 1928, the basement was consecrated as the community's first house of worship, with Metropolitan Germanos Polzoidis serving as pastor.

For nine years the faithful worshipped in that semi-basement church, pitching a tent on the grounds during holidays to accommodate the overflowing congregation. The Great Depression delayed their plans, and it was not until 1936 that construction resumed on the main church structure. Six years of sustained effort followed, and in 1942 the Saint Demetrios Church as the community knows it today finally opened its doors. Five more years were needed to decorate the interior. In 1956 a Community Center was completed and consecrated, and that September Saint Demetrios opened its first Day School with 267 students in grades kindergarten through eighth, a milestone that the community regarded as carrying the entire future of Greek-American life in Astoria through its doors. The Saint Demetrios Preparatory School has grown from those 267 students into one of the premier Greek-American educational institutions in the country. On May 9, 1982, the ceremonial ribbon-cutting for Saint Demetrios High School took place with Archbishop Iakovos presiding before more than a thousand people, under the motto that had come to define the community: We believe, therefore we build.

On October 20, 1985, Saint Demetrios Church was elevated to the rank of Cathedral for Queens and Long Island, a recognition of its standing as the spiritual center of the largest Greek Orthodox community in the Americas. The Cathedral serves alongside its sister church, Saints Catherine and George, which together form the Hellenic Orthodox Community of Astoria, one of the most complete Greek Orthodox institutional communities in the world, encompassing a cathedral, a second church, a full Day School, a High School, and a rich array of ministries and programs.

Saint Demetrios Cathedral at 30-11 30th Drive in Astoria serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of Queens and the greater New York area as a parish of the Direct Archdiocesan District of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a beacon of Orthodoxy and Hellenic life in the borough of Queens for nearly a century.