Greektown, Baltimore

Last updated
Greektown
Greektown sign 08.JPG
Sign for Greektown, December 2014.
Baltimore osm-mapnik location map.png
Red pog.svg
Greektown
Coordinates: 39°17′07″N76°33′07″W / 39.285194°N 76.552056°W / 39.285194; -76.552056
Country United States
State Maryland
City Baltimore
Named for Greek-American ethnic heritage

Greektown is a neighborhood located in Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

Contents

The neighborhood is bounded by Lombard Street to the north, O'Donnell Street to the south, South Haven to the west, and I-895 to the east. A long stretch of Eastern Avenue runs through the neighborhood.

Demographics

In 2014 Greektown was home to around 600 families. During the neighborhood's peak there were around 1,000 families. [1]

History

Greektown has been home to a thriving Greek American community since the 1930s. Once known simply as The Hill, during the 1980s its residents petitioned the Baltimore City Council to change the name of the neighborhood to Greektown.

A bridge shot in the Barry Levinson film Diner (at the 21:51 mark) was filmed at Fleet Street and South Newkirk Street, with the Crown Cork and Seal building appearing in the background.

Greektown underwent a revitalization effort beginning in 2001. [2]

Today

Ikaros Authentic Greek Restaurant, December 2014 Ikaros Restaurant 05.JPG
Ikaros Authentic Greek Restaurant, December 2014

As of 2010, Greektown is about 50.9% white, 22% Hispanic, 17.8% African American, 6.3% Asian, and about 3% all other. A thriving self-contained residential and business community consisting of single family town houses, Greektown is noted for its many restaurants, authentic Greek coffee houses, bakeries and small businesses of many types. It is a diverse community of largely blue-collar people of numerous ethnic derivations. Greektown is mostly Greek and other European descendants, but also includes large numbers of people of Native American, Asian, African-American and Hispanic (particularly Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Dominicans, and smaller numbers of Guatemalans and Salvadorans) ancestry living in a low crime environment. The Greektown Community Development Corporation was formed to revitalize Greek town by The St Nicholas Church. The 1000 member church parish council unanimously voted to appoint Col John E Gavrilis as its first Executive Director. Under his leadership a strategic plan to revitalize the community was published. The plan was near completed to include the revitalization of the Pemco property.

The neighborhood is home to many Greek restaurants and to the Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church. It is home to the annual Baltimore Greek Festival and Parade.

Continuing the consecutive-alphabet scheme that originates in Highlandtown to the west, the north–south streets in this area are: Lehigh, Macon, Newkirk, Oldham, Ponca, Quail, Rappolla, Savage, Tolna, and Umbra.

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, April 2013 St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church.JPG
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, April 2013

The neighborhood is served by Dr. John Ruhrah Elementary Middle School, a city-designated landmark building, built in 1930. [3]

Notable residents

See also

Related Research Articles

Greektown is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Greeks or people of Greek ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hampden, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Hampden is a neighborhood located in northern Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Roughly triangular in shape, it is bounded to the east by the neighborhood Wyman Park, to the north by Roland Park at 40th and 41st Street, to the west by the Jones Falls Expressway, and to the south by the neighborhood Remington. The Homewood campus of the Johns Hopkins University is a short distance to the east.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Vernon, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Mount Vernon is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, located immediately north of the city's downtown district. Designated a city Cultural District, it is one of the oldest neighborhoods originally home to the city's wealthiest and most fashionable families. The name derives from Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, given the original Washington Monument, a massive pillar commenced in 1815 to commemorate the first president of the United States, is the defining feature of the neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Village, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Charles Village is a neighborhood located in the north-central area of Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It is a diverse, eclectic, international, largely middle-class area with many single-family homes that is in proximity to many of Baltimore's cultural amenities. Nearby are the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Homewood campus of The Johns Hopkins University, Olmstead's Wyman Park, and the weekly Waverly Farmers Market, and the arts district, Station North. Homes are exemplary Baltimore brick and stone row houses, many dating from the 1890s. Running from downtown north is the historic boulevard, Charles Street, where Baltimore's Easter Promenade once took place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greektown, Chicago</span> Neighborhood in Chicago

Greektown is a social and dining district, located on the Near West Side of the United States' city of Chicago, Illinois. Today, Greektown consists mostly of restaurants and businesses, although a cultural museum and an annual parade and festival still remain in the neighborhood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greektown, Detroit</span> United States historic place

Greektown is a commercial and entertainment district in Detroit, Michigan, located just northeast of the heart of downtown, along Monroe Avenue between Brush and St. Antoine streets. It has a station by that name on the city's elevated downtown transit system known as the Detroit People Mover. Greektown is situated between the Renaissance Center, Comerica Park, and Ford Field.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoenix Hill, Louisville</span>

Phoenix Hill is a neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky just east of Downtown. Its boundaries are Market Street to the North, Preston Street to the West, Broadway to the South, and Baxter Avenue to the East. The Phoenix Hill neighborhood, settled before 1850 by German immigrants, is now a rich tapestry of people and a diverse mix of business, industry and residences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Washington Hill, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Washington Hill is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It is north of Fells Point, south of Johns Hopkins Hospital, east of Old Town and Jonestown and west of Butchers Hill. It is bounded by Fayette Street, Washington Street, Lombard Street, and Central Avenue. The neighborhood surrounds Broadway running north from Fells Point to terminate at East North Avenue and is named for the now-defunct Washington Medical College later known as the Church Home and Hospital on Broadway where famed writer/poet Edgar Allan Poe was taken to die in 1849 after being found comatose in a downtown Baltimore street. In the median strip of Broadway is a statue of seven-term mayor of Baltimore, Ferdinand Claiborne Latrobe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Highlandtown, Baltimore</span> Historic house in Maryland, United States

Highlandtown is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Westport, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Westport is a neighborhood in south Baltimore, Maryland. Westport is a majority African-American neighborhood that has struggled with crime, housing abandonment, and unemployment in the past decade. The neighborhood is bordered by the Middle Branch of the Patapsco River on the east, the city neighborhoods of Cherry Hill, Brooklyn and the southwestern Baltimore County community of Lansdowne to the southwest, Hollins Ferry Road and the Mount Winans and Lakeland neighborhoods to the west, and Interstate 95 to the north, along with the South Baltimore communities of Federal Hill and Otterbein. The Baltimore–Washington Parkway runs through the middle of Westport and intersects with Interstate 95, the main East Coast super-highway, north to south, Maine to Florida.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Middle East, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Middle East is a neighborhood in the heart of East Baltimore, Maryland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barclay, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Barclay is a neighborhood in the center of Baltimore City. Its boundaries, as defined by the City Planning Office, are marked by North Avenue, Greenmount Avenue, Saint Paul and 25th Streets. The neighborhood lies north of Greenmount West, south of Charles Village, west of East Baltimore Midway, and east of Charles North and Old Goucher. The boundary between the Northern and Eastern police districts runs through the community, cutting it roughly in half.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bayview, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood statistical area in Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Bayview, or Hopkins-Bayview, is a neighborhood located in the Southeast District of Baltimore between the Pulaski industrial area (East) and Greektown (West).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Lee, Baltimore</span> Neighborhood of Baltimore in Maryland, United States

Joseph Lee, the residential part of Bayview, is a neighborhood in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Part of the larger Bayview or Hopkins Bayview neighborhood, it borders the Greektown neighborhood. It is sometimes called the "A to K" or "ABC neighborhood" because its north-south streets are arranged in alphabetical order: Anglesea, Bonsal, Cornwall, Drew, Elrino, Folcroft, Gusryan, Hornel, Imla, Joplin, and Kane.

The Chicago 21 Plan was a comprehensive development plan released in 1973 intended to revitalize the areas surrounding the Chicago Loop, Chicago's central business district. The 125-page document, subtitled "A Plan for the Central Area Communities" was published by the Chicago 21 Corporation, which was made up of members of the Chicago Central Area Committee (CCAC), founded by some of Chicago's most influential business and civic leaders.

The history of Greeks in Baltimore dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Baltimore is home to one of the largest Greek American communities in the United States. The community is centered in the Greektown and Highlandtown neighborhoods of East Baltimore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethnic groups in Baltimore</span>

There have been a variety of ethnic groups in Baltimore, Maryland and its surrounding area for 12,000 years. Prior to European colonization, various Native American nations have lived in the Baltimore area for nearly 3 millennia, with the earliest known Native inhabitants dating to the 10th millennium BCE. Following Baltimore's foundation as a subdivision of the Province of Maryland by British colonial authorities in 1661, the city became home to numerous European settlers and immigrants and their African slaves. Since the first English settlers arrived, substantial immigration from all over Europe, the presence of a deeply rooted community of free black people that was the largest in the pre-Civil War United States, out-migration of African-Americans from the Deep South, out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia, out-migration of Native Americans from the Southeast such as the Lumbee and the Cherokee, and new waves of more recent immigrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and Africa have added layers of complexity to the workforce and culture of Baltimore, as well as the religious and ethnic fabric of the city. Baltimore's culture has been described as "the blending of Southern culture and [African-American] migration, Northern industry, and the influx of European immigrants—first mixing at the port and its neighborhoods...Baltimore’s character, it’s uniqueness, the dialect, all of it, is a kind of amalgamation of these very different things coming together—with a little Appalachia thrown in...It’s all threaded through these neighborhoods", according to the American studies academic Mary Rizzo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Hispanics and Latinos in Baltimore</span>

The history of Hispanics and Latinos in Baltimore dates back to the mid-20th century. The Hispanic and Latino community of Baltimore is the fastest growing ethnic group in the city. There is a significant Hispanic/Latino presence in many Southeast Baltimore neighborhoods, particularly Highlandtown, Upper Fell's Point, and Greektown. Overall Baltimore has a small but growing Hispanic population, primarily in the Southeast portion of the area from Fells Point to Dundalk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of White Americans in Baltimore</span>

The history of White Americans in Baltimore dates back to the 17th century when the first white European colonists came to what is now Maryland and established the Province of Maryland on what was then Native American land. White Americans in Baltimore are Baltimoreans "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East or North Africa." Majority white for most of its history, Baltimore no longer had a white majority by the 1970s. As of the 2010 census, white Americans are a minority population of Baltimore at 29.6% of the population. White Americans have played a substantial impact on the culture, dialect, ethnic heritage, history, politics, and music of the city. Since the earliest English settlers arrived on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, Baltimore's white population has been sustained by substantial immigration from all over Europe, particularly Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe, as well as a large out-migration of White Southerners from Appalachia. Numerous white immigrants from Europe and the European diaspora have immigrated to Baltimore from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Russia, Ukraine, Spain, France, Canada, and other countries, particularly during the late 19th century and early 20th century. Smaller numbers of white people have immigrated from Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, North Africa, and other non-European regions. Baltimore also has a prominent population of white Jews of European descent, mostly with roots in Central and Eastern Europe. There is a smaller population of white Middle Easterners and white North Africans, most of whom are Arab, Persian, Israeli, or Turkish. The distribution of White Americans in Central and Southeast Baltimore is sometimes called "The White L", while the distribution of African Americans in East and West Baltimore is called "The Black Butterfly."

The city of Baltimore, Maryland includes a large and growing Caribbean-American population. The Caribbean-American community is centered in West Baltimore. The largest non-Hispanic Caribbean populations in Baltimore are Jamaicans, Trinidadians and Tobagonians, and Haitians. Baltimore also has significant Hispanic populations from the Spanish West Indies, particularly Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Cubans. Northwest Baltimore is the center of the West Indian population of Baltimore, while Caribbean Hispanics in the city tend to live among other Latinos in neighborhoods such as Greektown, Upper Fell's Point, and Highlandtown. Jamaicans and Trinidadians are the first and second largest West Indian groups in the city, respectively. The neighborhoods of Park Heights and Pimlico in northwest Baltimore are home to large West Indian populations, particularly Jamaican-Americans.

References

  1. "Exploring Baltimore's neighborhoods: Greektown". The Baltimore Sun . Retrieved 2014-11-19.
  2. "Baltimore's Greektown Undergoing A Revival". CBS Baltimore . Retrieved 2012-07-04.
  3. Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (2016-09-13). "Landmark Designation Report" (PDF). Retrieved 2021-03-03.

Further reading