The first wooden Elijah church was built before 1705. In the same year, priest Antoniy Slovynskyi was appointed to the church, who became the archpriest of the Sumy cathedral in 1721. According to the 1732 census, two priests served at the Elijah church, and a school operated there.

In 1791, the church in Sumy burned down as a result of a fire. In 1792, a new wooden church was built on the site of the burned one, which also burned down in August 1839. In July 1836, a stone church was laid down with the blessing of Archbishop Meletiy. However, construction stopped due to the devastation of the city and the parishioners by the fire, and there was no hope for its completion, as the parish mainly consisted of poor state peasants. In 1844, merchant Stepan Ihnatevich Tikhonov became the guardian of the church and diligently began to complete its construction. In 1845, the altar of St. Mitrophan was consecrated, and in 1851, the main church. Tikhonov invested up to 1500 rubles in silver into the construction. From the previous church, it was possible to save the Gospel in a silver cover and four local icons: the Savior, the Mother of God, John the Baptist, and the Prophet Elijah, in silver vestments weighing 39 pounds, donated in 1786 by secretary Ivan Emelyanovych Streltchenko.

According to data from 1904, the church had no estate, arable, or haymaking land, but had 13 desyatinas and 595 sazhens of brushwood forest. There were 3403 male and 3499 female parishioners. A church-parish school and a zemstvo school were in operation. The Gaik and Kosovshchyna hamlets were located 4 versts away, Kono­nenkovo and Bulbovshchyna were 5 versts away, and Rossokhovaty was 7 versts away. The church staff was supposed to consist of two priests, a deacon, and two psalmists.

The Elijah church is designed in the classical style. It is a brick, plastered temple of rectangular shape with cut-off northeast and southeast corners and an attached bell tower on the western side. The wall paintings are represented by four trapezoidal compositions depicting the Evangelists on the sails.