History

Greek immigrants arrived in Atlantic City before 1900, and in the early years of the twentieth century they formed a tight-knit community centered around Belfield Avenue. Around 1910 they opened a coffee house at 35 South Kentucky Avenue, which served as the community's gathering place for years. The Greeks of Atlantic City were entrepreneurs from the start, and for a long period nearly every small restaurant in the area was either owned or managed by a Greek family.

On November 19, 1924, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese called a meeting at the Odd Fellows Hall and gave approval for the establishment of Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of Atlantic City. The State of New Jersey granted the charter, and the name Saint Nicholas was chosen in honor of the patron saint of sailors and the sea, a fitting dedication for a community on the Atlantic shore. Early services were conducted in rented space at the Church of Ascension on Kentucky and Pacific Avenues. In 1932 a house at 13 South Mount Vernon Avenue was purchased, torn down, and replaced with a proper church building whose cornerstone was laid in 1933. Through the decades that followed, neighboring buildings and lots on the block were acquired one by one, gradually expanding the parish footprint.

The community grew its organizational life alongside its physical presence. A Ladies Auxiliary known as "H Pistis" was organized to hold bake sales, card parties, and benefits for the church. The Atlantic City AHEPA Chapter 169 was established in 1929. Greek and Sunday schools, a choir, youth groups, and the Maids of Athens and Daughters of Penelope all took root through the middle decades of the twentieth century. In 1977 a progressive group of parishioners moved forward with building a community hall on the site of the former Olympic Hotel, and the first dance in the new hall was held on April 18, 1978.

After many years of deliberation about the parish's future, the community made the decision to build a new Byzantine church on the corner of Mount Vernon and Atlantic Avenue. Following over a decade of negotiations with the City of Atlantic City and Green Acres of New Jersey, the corner lot was purchased. On December 6, 1999, the magnificent new church opened its doors. Iconographer Dimitrios Mourlas of Athens was commissioned to create the iconography, and the hand-carved furnishings were imported from Greece. The altar of the original 1933 church was preserved and installed as a chapel dedicated to Saints Raphael, Nicholas, Irene, and Ephraim, paying lasting homage to those who came before.

In 2009, on the parish's 85th anniversary, the City of Atlantic City honored the Greek-American community's century of contribution by renaming Mount Vernon Avenue as Saint Nicholas Way, with final approval by Mayor Lorenzo Langford and the City Council on March 27, 2009, and the street naming ceremony held on May 10, 2009.

Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at 13 Saint Nicholas Way in Atlantic City serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Jersey Shore as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey, a congregation whose doors were opened by Greek immigrants more than a century ago and which continues to welcome Orthodox Christians from Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Georgia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, and beyond.