William Chakeres* Louis Anast,
K. B. Pappanikolaou, D. Petrides,
Peter Brown, A. Chakeres*
The first wedding in the new church was that of
Mr. & Mrs George Petess on May 21, 1922. Six months later they donated a bell for the tower. This bell proved
to be too small so they purchased a larger bell in 1924
which is still in use.
Grateful to the late Mr. Bouzon for his generosity
the community declared that May 21, 1920, be known
as Historic Day, because of the bequest of Michael Bouzon
the community had been able to purchase lots 536 with two houses on them for
$16.000 .
At the time the ground-breaking ceremonies for the
new church were held , the church's treasury mounted to
$8,000 dollars was borrowed from Columbian Building and Loan, with all the members of the
Board signing personal notes, as the banks did not loan
money to churches at that time. In addition to the bank
loans two fund-raising campaigns were conducted , one
in Columbus, and one in neighboring central Ohio towns
which enabled the church to be completed. The chandeliers, icons, altar, holy lights. Bishop's Throne, church
bells, windows, etc" were all donated by the Greek people of the area.
Plans for the new church had been drawn up by an
architect from York - Mr- Katcharis - for the sum of $500.
In order to save money the Board of Trustees
decided to supervise the building program themselves and
a contractor was hired to oversee the work.
Of invaluable service to the community during this
construction period was the priest the Reverend Kitillos
Georgiades. He handled the financial affairs of the church
paying the laborers, purchasing materials and keeping
the books of the new building.
In addition to all
the Board of Trustees decided in July, 1920, to start a
community Greek School with Father Georgiades as the teacher. This was the beginning of what we now
know as Sunday school, since religion was one of the
main subjects of the Greek School program. The tuition
was from two to five dollars depending upon the number of children in a family attending classes. Father
Georgiades salary was $110 a month plus $40 for teaching
Greek school.
The dreams and plans of the early immigrants came
true on March 25, 1922, when the Greek Orthodox
Church, the Annunciation, was completed. The first service was held in the new
church on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1922, with Reverend
Georgiades chanting the Divine
The Officers and Board of Trustees during the construction of the church were:
President—Angel Freemas*
Vice President—Louis Anast
Treasurer—Emanuel Petropoulos*
Secretary—The Rev. Kyrillos Georgides*
Board Members—Peter Kallantzopoulos*
(Brown), Anthony Zanetos, Angelo,
Georgekokopoulos, Michael Naum*, Procopios Zaharopoulos.
In 1927, five years after the opening of the new
church, Reverend Kyrillos Georgiades organized the women of community into the organization EIpis for the purpose of
assisting the church in any way necessary and also
