Mapping Greek Astoria, Retrieving Memories and History
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Several years ago, we were lucky enough to get permission from The National Herald to repost articles that are of interest to our group.
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A few weeks ago this
column suggested there
was a need for a GreekAmerican Museum in
Manhattan. This elicited
a response from Mr.
George L. Stamatiades,
a founding member of
the Athens Square Committee which created
the only Hellenic
themed public space in
North America over
thirty years ago. He
made a strong and detailed case about the
significance of the
Greek-American presence of Astoria. I was grateful he took the time to
write even though he quoted my words selectively
at one point.
I spent my first two years in the United States
in the mid-1980s living a block away from the
Ditmars Boulevard subway stop in Astoria. Every
time I return to New York I take the N train to
Ditmars and embark on my own nostalgia tour of
the neighborhood. I have been doing this every
year, and sometimes twice a year and therefore I
have become painfully aware of the changes Astoria has experienced, what some observers have
described as its de-hellenization.
Back in the 1980s Astoria was more Greek
than it is today. I was able to do all my errands
and shopping speaking only in Greek. I gave my
laundry to be done at a Greek-owned launderette
on 23rd Avenue, the greengrocer on 31st street
was Greek, and so was the newsagent, where I
could pick up not only the Ethnikos Kirix and the
Proini but also the day’s newspapers that had
been flown in from Athens. There was even a
Greek-speaking teller at the bank and the option
of using Greek at the ATM. And what a joy it was to have a coffee and a tyropita at Lefkos Pyrgos’
older and bigger version when it was still on the
corner of 31st street and 23rd Avenue.
The only exceptions to the Greek language
monopoly of the day was when I was buying manicotti at Casinelli’s on 23rd Avenue (recently
closed), fresh mozzarella at Rosario’s right under
the subway station (thankfully still going strong)
and groceries at Key Foods.
While the term ‘de-Hellenization’ is an exaggeration, the Greek-American presence has been
receding even though it remains significant. But
it is looking much less Greek-American to me
now than it did in the 1980s. And I am aware
that there was an even greater Greek-American
presence in the 1970s which included a cinema
and nightclubs. It is hard to predict how the future
unfolds and what it holds for the Greek-American
presence.
In any case, Mr. Stamatiades might be pleased
to know I have thought hard about how the
Greek-American Astoria of the 1970s and 1980s
can be documented and preserved. I think it
should entail a special type of museum that would
record the residential and commercial presence
of the Greek Americans in the area as well as the
memories of the residents themselves. In other
words a museum that aside from artifacts and
photographs would display in map form GreekAmerican owned households, businesses and
stores, association and club premises, churches,
and schools.
Such a project has been undertaken successfully for the Greek presence in Montreal. Entitled
Immigrec, the project, funded by the Niarchos
Foundation, has produced a digital interactive
map that tracks the timeline of Greek settlement
in Montreal neighborhoods between 1950 and
1975. This was compiled with the help of a directory that lists the total number of Greek households with a telephone landline in two Montreal
neighborhoods as well as the evolution year after
year. A similar version of such a project is underway in Athens, a city experiencing rapid transformation. Monumenta, an urban non-profit organization for the protection of the natural and
architectural heritage of Greece and Cyprus, is
compiling a register of the older buildings in
Athens and Piraeus, and trying to locate persons
who live or lived in them, so they can record their
memories on tape. When I spoke to Irene Gratsia,
an archaeologist who is Monumenta’s coordinator,
we discussed the possibility of having GreekAmericans record their memories of the last house
they lived in before emigrating.
In Monumenta’s case the research is conducted
literally door to door. The Immigrec project made
use of a telephone directory. I am sure there are
ways to document Greek-American occupied
buildings in Astoria. I still have in my possession
a Nynex Yellow Pages directory of Astoria. By locating such address guides published over time
one could not only pinpoint the Greek-American
presence but also record its ebb and flow over
time. What a wonderful tribute to the Astoria
Greeks and America’s biggest Greektown would
be the compilation of a map of the neighborhood’s
streets with little blue circles indicating where
they lived and worked. All it would need to be
done is the work of several people who share Mr.
Stamatiades’ deep passion and love for Astoria.
Alexander Kitroeff is Professor Emeritus of
History, Haverford College.
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