History

The first Greek immigrant settled in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1893, and as others joined him through the following decades they brought family members over from Greece and Asia Minor, building a community that would leave a remarkable imprint on the commercial and civic life of the Seacoast. Between 1925 and 1945 it is estimated that fifty percent of the businesses in downtown Portsmouth were owned by Greek entrepreneurs, who operated barber shops, bakeries, cafeterias, luncheonettes, restaurants, confectioneries, variety stores, groceries, and hotels. Among the most distinguished members of the community was Andrew Harry Jarvis, who served as mayor of Portsmouth from 1958 to 1959 and was elected to the Executive Council of New Hampshire in 1961, and who is credited with helping to establish the Strawberry Banke Historical Society, which transformed a historic neighborhood into one of New England's most beloved living history museums.

Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was founded in 1931, and in 1933 the community purchased the vacant Cabot Street School and converted it into the first Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox church, giving Portsmouth's Greek community a permanent spiritual home at last. For nearly four decades the Cabot Street building served the parish faithfully. In 1971 a new church was completed at its present location on what is now called Andrew Jarvis Drive, named in honor of the community's most distinguished civic leader, honoring his memory in the address of the very parish his family helped to build.

Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at 40 Andrew Jarvis Drive in Portsmouth serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the New Hampshire Seacoast as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community that has been woven into the commercial and cultural fabric of Portsmouth for more than 130 years.