Preservation of American Hellenic History
Preservation of American Hellenic History
by Jason C. Mavrovitis
St. Paul had few Greek immigrants in 1912, perhaps one to two hundred souls. They attended the Greek Orthodox Church in Minneapolis; St. Mary's on East Lake Street (the parish is now located on Irving Street South).
Eleni worked as a pig butcher until she and Christos saved enough to leave for Chicago. Evangelia remembered solitary days in a "log cabin" during long, cold and snowy winter days, and her loneliness while her mother worked. She seemed terrified even in her forties when telling how neighbors saved her when she accidentally started a fire in her home.
In 2001, their 1912-1913 address in St. Paul was a construction site that had obliterated the past. Surrounding the area are brick buildings of two and three stories, likely built in the early twentieth century.
By the summer of 1913 Eleni, Christos and Evangelia had moved to Chicago, which then and for years after held the largest Greek population in America. They probably lived in Chicago's 19th Ward, a section of tenements on the old West side. Italians, Greeks and Bulgarians had large colonies bordering Halsted Street. The shops lining the area's crowded sidewalks displayed signs in the languages of their immigrant customers. Chicago's first Greek Orthodox Church, Holy Trinity, was at Halsted and Harrison Streets, in the neighborhood still called "Greek Town."
A few blocks to the south on Halsted was the Maxwell Street Market where vendors sold potatoes, pots, pans, shoes, onions and fresh fish. On their day free from work, the immigrants flocked to the market to participate in the Sunday trade.
The railroad seasonally employed many Greek men. Others earned their way as street peddlers. Christos probably worked in one of the factories, or at the Union Stockyards, or at a meatpacking plant on the South side. Working conditions were horrific. There was little regard for accident prevention, worker fatigue, or ill health. Men frequently were mangled and maimed at their worksites and suffered with tuberculosis and malnutrition.
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