History

At the turn of the twentieth century, Greek immigrants left family and the familiar behind and came to Keene, New Hampshire in search of new opportunities, finding work in the mills and factories of the Monadnock Region. The money they earned supported family back in Greece, and some were able to save enough to start small businesses or pursue careers. By the 1920s, Greeks scattered across southern New Hampshire and Vermont were longing for a place to practice their Orthodox faith and share their cultural traditions together.

On September 30, 1928, thirty-two Greek Orthodox families of Keene arranged to have Father John Michaelides from the Greek Orthodox Church in Fitchburg, Massachusetts travel to Keene to celebrate services once a month. Without a church building, the first liturgies were celebrated in various rented halls and borrowed spaces, with parishioners contributing fifty cents each month to pay the priest's salary and the hall rental. Services were held on Main Street at the Bon Ton Restaurant building and the St. John's Block building, as well as at the Episcopal Church on West Street.

On October 11, 1931, the first church constitution was adopted by fifty-three faithful and the Orthodox Community of Saint George was officially approved by the Greek Orthodox Diocese in Boston, giving the Keene Greek community its formal ecclesiastical standing. Ten years later, on July 16, 1941, the parish found its permanent home with the purchase of the Faulkner Mansion at 70 West Street, a gracious building that was transformed into a proper house of Orthodox worship through the addition of an iconostasis, colored glass windows, and a church office. The mansion that had sheltered a prominent Keene family became the spiritual home of a Greek Orthodox community for generations to come.

After years of planning and fundraising, the parish constructed a modern gathering space adjacent to the church, and the Hellenic Hall was dedicated on November 19, 2000, providing an attractive venue for the social, educational, and cultural life of both the Saint George community and the wider Keene community.

Saint George Greek Orthodox Church at 70 West Street in Keene serves the Orthodox Christian faithful of the Monadnock Region as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, a community of second, third, and fourth generation Greek-American Orthodox alongside Orthodox Christians of many other backgrounds and a growing number of converts, all gathered in the ancient faith that Greek mill workers brought to Keene nearly a century ago.