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St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church

Early history

The building that came to house the church was built around 1832. It was originally a private dwelling which was later turned into a tavern.

In 1916, Greek American immigrants started the congregation of St Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. Before moving to Cedar Street, its parishioners worshiped in the dining room of a hotel on Morris Street run by Stamatis Kalamarides. In addition to the immigrant community, the church was also visited by Greek shipping magnates passing through New York.

In 1919, five families raised US$25,000 to buy the tavern, converted it into a church, and started to hold worship services in 1922. The church building was only 22 feet (6.7 m) wide, 56 feet (17 m) long, and 35 feet (11 m) tall. It was originally an old calendar church but during the 1980s had Wednesday services according to the new calendar.

Despite its small size and unusual location (all the adjacent buildings had been demolished, leaving the church surrounded on three sides by a parking lot), before the attacks the church had a dedicated congregation of about 70 families led by Father John Romas. On Wednesdays, the building was open to the public, and received visitors who were not all Greek Orthodox.

September 11, 2001

The building was completely buried by the collapse of the south tower of the World Trade Center. No one was inside when the church was destroyed; the church sexton and an electrician were able to escape only minutes before.

A report in a Greek-Orthodox newspaper said that before the south tower collapsed, part of the airplane's landing gear was seen resting atop the church. Additionally, human body parts were spotted on and around the church before the collapse of the tower, presumably the remains of either those who had jumped or fallen from the towers, or of the passengers of the hijacked planes.

Very little of the church's content was recovered. Among the church's most valuable physical possessions were some of the relics of St Nicholas, St Catherine, and St Sava, which had been donated to the church by Nicholas II, the last tsar of Russia. These relics were removed from their safe on holy days for veneration; they were never recovered after the attack. To Archbishop Demetrios, the notion that the saints' relics were intermingled in the dust with the remains of the attack victims only serves to sanctify the site further.

Among items eventually found were the damaged icons of St. Dionysios of Zakynthos and the Life-giving Spring (Zoodochos Pigi) and a handful of miscellaneous religious items.


If you are interested in what happened to the church after September 11th, have a look at the following Wikipedia page.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Nicholas_Greek_Orthodox_Church


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