St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church and Baptistry

St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church was founded in 1927 on Winona Street on the North side of Chicago. It was initially constructed as a simple Parish and Greek Parochial School. It is now one of the leading Greek Orthodox Churches in North America.

According to his bank records, John Mallin decorated the church in 1946-1948. In 1958-1959, he also decorated the Baptistry, which is inside the church. According to a 1959 letter to the church, he also did additional work. This work included the vestibule ceiling, to be done in ivory shade and highlighted with 23 Caret genuine Gold Leaf. He also decorated the background of the four domes, which included oil paintings of “Christ from Deesis Panel,” a copy from Santa Sofia, Constantinople in the large dome. The smaller dome included 3 paintings, of “St Peter,” “St. Paul”, and the “Prophet Elias.” The work also included cleaning the two shrines in the vestibule, which would be finished in ivory and highlighted with 23 Caret genuine gold leaf and a marble effect.

The baptistry decorations are relatively intact, except for the background behind the sanctuary which has been painted over in a red burgundy color. The murals and other decorations still remain. One of the vestibule dome paintings appears to have been redone. In the church, since there are no known photos of the interior after the decorations were done by Mallin, it is not known how much of the original decorations exist. However, the murals and stencils appear to be Mallin decorations based on their design. The murals and stencils were restored in 2021 by Historic Surfaces, LLC. The photos of the church were taken by Noah Vaughn after the restoration.

References

About our parish.  St Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church. http://stdemetrioschicago.org/about_us/

Letter from John A. Mallin to St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, January 31, 1959.

Baptistry Photos