Greek community set to celebrate 100 years in Los Angeles
The city's Toy District was once a concentration of immigrant shops known as Greek Town. Those stores are now scattered across L.A., but Greek Americans' culture and pride remain.
Long before merchants from India, El Salvador, Hong Kong and elsewhere hawked their wares in the Toy District of downtown Los Angeles, the neighborhood was filled with the colorful sights and fragrant smells of old Greece.
There were Mediterranean delicacies at the city's first Greek restaurant, Marathon Cafe on 4th Street, and fine olive oil from the Kalamata Importing Co. a few doors down. A block away, Dan Stathatos Sr. started Broadway Florist, an enterprise that flourishes today as Stats Floral Supply.
There were sweet shops and produce firms, peanut factories and barber shops -- 65 businesses all told, clustered in what became known as Greek Town, according to Greek American researcher Ted Pastras.
Today, all but two of those original buildings have been razed and reconstructed by successive waves of immigrants. Although their physical footprint downtown has faded, Greek Americans are thriving throughout Southern California -- and are scheduled to be recognized Friday by the Los Angeles City Council for their century-old presence in Los Angeles.
A tour of old Greek Town led by Pastras is set for Sunday, and a gala dinner and liturgy are scheduled for the following weekend.
"We're celebrating a perpetual resurrection," said Father John S. Bakas of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in the Pico-Union area of Los Angeles, which is spearheading the upcoming centennial celebration. "We've passed over the early immigrant days to the present success and growth of the community."
The Greek American community's continued vibrancy was evident over Memorial Day weekend, when an estimated 50,000 people flocked to the 35th annual Valley Greek Festival at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Northridge. The festival featured the savory smells of Greek cuisine -- sizzling sausage, lamb chops, honeyed filo dough pastries. Patrons linked hands in lively dancing to traditional tunes featuring the bouzouki, a pear-shaped stringed instrument.
"We work hard, we play hard and we like to share our culture with everyone else," said Lou Skoby, a 47-year-old Encino jewelry firm owner.
St. Nicholas is one of 20 Greek Orthodox churches in Southern California; their proliferation mirrors the growth and dispersal of the community. Among the 1.4 million Americans reporting Greek ancestry in a 2006 U.S. Census Bureau survey, some 150,000 live in California -- more than any other state except New York -- with about half of that number in Southern California.
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