History

Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin was founded in 1922 by a small but determined band of Greek immigrants who were, as their own jubilee history records, lacking in material wealth but rich in spirituality. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated on March 25, 1922 in a small hall on Fourth and State Streets in downtown Milwaukee. The community soon moved to another rented hall on Poplar Street before taking its most significant early step in 1924, when a Jewish synagogue at 1432 North Fifth Street was purchased and converted into the parish's first permanent home.

The years that followed were hard ones. The stock market crash and the Great Depression tested the resolve of the immigrant congregation, but they persevered. On March 11, 1945, the parish celebrated the burning of the mortgage on the Fifth Street property, a milestone that marked the community's hard-won financial independence. From 1945 through 1957, the church was completely renovated, with new pews installed, the old pump organ replaced, and a sustained fundraising effort led largely by the Ladies Philoptochos Society, known within the parish as the Kassiani. In 1957, the parish's 35th Anniversary was commemorated at a gala dinner at the Crystal Ballroom of the Schroeder Hotel attended by Bishop Germanos, the Governor of Wisconsin, and the Mayor of Milwaukee. In 1961, the State of Wisconsin Legislature recognized Eastern Orthodoxy as the fourth major faith in the state.

By the early 1960s the congregation had outgrown Fifth Street entirely. In October 1962, the General Assembly voted to purchase the present site at 2160 Wauwatosa Avenue for $31,000. Work on a multi-purpose building began in January 1968, and it was dedicated in December of that year with services held in the lower level while Sunday School classes met in the Fellowship Hall above. Construction of the permanent church followed, a classical Byzantine design in the shape of a cross with curved wings, a large narthex, and seating for 400, completed at a cost of $335,000. The new church and Fellowship Hall were dedicated on September 22, 1974 by Bishop Timotheos. The church mortgage was burned on May 22, 1983. The church was formally consecrated on May 22, 1988 by Bishop Iakovos of Chicago in a two-day celebration, with John and Mary Demetropoulos chosen by lot as Godparents of the Church.

Today, Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church stands at 2160 Wauwatosa Avenue as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, home to the annual Tosa Greek Fest and a weekly Friday Fish Fry that has sustained the community for decades, carrying forward the traditions its immigrant founders planted more than a century ago.