History

Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Chicago was founded in 1928 at its current location on Winona Street on the city's north side, in the Lincoln Square neighborhood that has long served as the heart of Chicago's Hellenic community. From its earliest days the parish was established alongside its Solon Greek School, reflecting the inseparable bond between Orthodox worship and Greek language instruction that defined community life for generations of immigrants and their descendants.

Initially constructed as a simple parish and parochial school, the church and school grew dramatically over the decades. Noted Chicago decorator John Mallin completed the church's interior in 1946 and 1948, enriching the sanctuary with iconography that included oil paintings of Christ from the Deesis Panel modeled on the great icon at the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and returned in 1958 and 1959 to decorate the Baptistry, the vestibule ceiling in ivory with gold leaf highlights, and the backgrounds of the church's four domes. In the early 1960s a Greek Cultural Center, the George P. Kokalis Library, a gymnasium, and an auditorium were established, creating a campus that served as a gateway for thousands of immigrants arriving from Greece and building the institutional life that made Saint Demetrios one of the leading Greek Orthodox churches in North America. A united parish history traces Saint Demetrios back to the early 1920s as part of the Annunciation Cathedral's broader community before its independent establishment on Winona Street, a lineage the Archdiocese has long recognized.

The annual Lincoln Square Greek Fest, one of Chicago's most beloved neighborhood summer festivals, is hosted by Saint Demetrios each year, bringing Hellenic music, food, and culture to the streets of Lincoln Square and drawing tens of thousands of visitors from across the metropolitan area.

Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church at 2727 West Winona Street in Chicago serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the north side of Chicago as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community of more than 500 steward families that has anchored Greek Orthodox life in Lincoln Square for nearly a century.