This is the first church built by Russian overseas Chinese in Shanghai. It was designed by the famous Russian architect Ya Yi Yalong. The foundation stone laying ceremony was held on December 18, 1932. The ceremony was attended by Lieutenant General Glebov, Lieutenant General Ditterich, Major General Shcherbakov, Major General Bordzilovsky, Major General Gaffner, Colonel Yalong and other former generals of Tsarist Russia, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force in Shanghai, the commander of the US Navy in Shanghai, representatives of various consulates in Shanghai, public concessions and French concessions also attended the groundbreaking ceremony.
On March 31, 1934, the church was inaugurated and consecrated. The church is a Byzantine-style building. The front of the church faces west, with a centralized square plane and a dome in the shape of a large or four small onion flowers, which is a typical Russian classical style. The lobby is richly decorated, inlaid with a marble tablet engraved with the name of the church in Russian, English and French, with 9 golden domes and crosses. The interior of the church is exquisite, the walls are made of colorful tiles, and the four walls and the vault are decorated with icons. The church can accommodate 400 to 500 believers to pray at the same time.
After the founding of the People's Republic of China in October 1949, the Soviet government successively evacuated overseas Chinese. With the departure of a large number of Russians from Shanghai, the Shanghai Orthodox Church continued to shrink and closed in August 1955. Since the early 1990s, the hall has been rented by the Shanghai Foreign Service Cooperation Company. The church was overhauled in 1994.
On March 18, 1994, the Gaolan Road Orthodox Church was announced by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government as a municipal building protection unit and is now a book shop with a small cafe.