History

The first Greek immigrants arrived in Hartford in 1898, but for more than two decades the community was too small to support its own church. Those early residents traveled by chartered trolley car on holidays to worship at Saint George Greek Orthodox Church in New Britain, established in 1916. As their numbers grew, the Hartford Greeks began to build their own community life. In the spring of 1921, an educational committee was formed to organize a Greek language school, and by summer twelve pupils were attending classes in a rented room on Main Street. Several societies followed in quick succession, including the Pan-Rhodian Society, the Greek Ladies' Benefit Society Athena, and the Nathan Hale Chapter of AHEPA.

Political turbulence in Greece divided the Hartford Greek community ecclesiastically in the 1920s, producing two separate factions that held services in different rented halls. That division was healed when Archbishop Athenagoras assumed his post on February 24, 1931, bringing an atmosphere of peace and unity to Greek Orthodox communities across America. On June 26, 1931 a single unified community emerged in Hartford under the name Eastern Hellenic Orthodox Ecclesia of St. George. Services began that July at the Baptist Church at 182 Jefferson Street, rented for $100 per month. Membership grew from forty-five to one hundred and seventy-seven in a single year. On February 28, 1933, the community adopted the name Greek Orthodox Church St. George, Inc., and in 1934 it purchased the Jefferson Street building outright for $22,000.

Hartford's Saint George parish holds a unique place in Orthodox history. In the span of just seven years, three of its priests went on to lead churches in the highest positions of their jurisdictions. The Reverend Iakovos Coucouzes, who served from 1940 to 1941, became Archbishop Iakovos, Primate of North and South America. The Reverend Izekiel Tsoukalas, who served from 1941 to 1943, became Archbishop of Australia. The Reverend Makarios Kykkotis, who served from 1946 to 1947, became Archbishop and President of the Republic of Cyprus. Also of note, the first official youth fellowship chapter in the United States was organized at Saint George in 1941, under the direction of the then Reverend Iakovos Coucouzes. Archbishop Athenagoras personally visited Hartford in 1933 to organize what he noted was one of the first Philoptochos chapters in the United States.

Through the 1950s and early 1960s the community built its financial strength and acquired the property at 433 Fairfield Avenue as the site of a new church complex. Groundbreaking was held on September 17, 1961. In a memorable moment in August 1965, at the 14th International GOYA Conference held in Hartford, Archbishop Iakovos celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Bushnell Park before an assembly of approximately four thousand faithful, with a five hundred-voice choir. In September 1966 the parish moved from Jefferson Street to the new Fairfield Avenue building, ending thirty-five years of life at that beloved address. The new church complex was formally consecrated on October 12 and 13, 1968.

Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral at 433 Fairfield Avenue in Hartford serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of greater Hartford as a parish of the Direct Archdiocesan District of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community whose history is woven into the larger story of Greek Orthodoxy in America at every level.