Greeks in Chicago

In 1880 Chicago was home to several hundred immigrants , mostly Greeks. Most Greeks lived on the North side near Clark, Kinzie, and South Water Street. By 1910 15,000 Greeks lived in the city. The newer Greeks immigrants created a community that was know as Greek Town or Delta.In the late nineteenth century, Chicago's Greek population began to grow in the are surrounded by Halsted, Harrison, and Blue Island Streets, where the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago is now located. Greektown or also known as "The Delta" was the largest and best-known urban community of Greeks in the United States for mostly the early twentieth century.The Greek community was surrounded by Halsted, Harrison, Blue Island, and Polk Streets. A description of this community was suggested as tightly knit. But the Greeks made a big immediate impact on the city, their impact was made by taking jobs away from the Italians.Also in taking their jobs the Greeks also took the Italians housing too. Many people during this time would describe the Greeks as a very individualistic group of people.Making it hard to work with them.


Many Greeks turned to private business and especially to the fruit-peddling trade, with this happening it put them in great competition with the numerous Italians peddlers. The Greeks took that away from the Italians as well, due to their entrepreneurial spirit. Greek immigrants settled in the central city, in order to be close to their work.Greek immigrants moved quickly into mercantile activities or trade. By the late 1920s Greeks were among the restaurant owners, ice cream manufactures, florist, and fruit/vegetable merchants in Chicago initially Greek immigration to Chicago was a male phenomenon. Young men and boys came to escape extreme poverty or in the Turkish-occupied territory of Greece, to avoid being drafted in the Turkish army. The majority planned to return to their homeland with enough money to pay off family debts and provide marriage dowries for their daughters or sisters. Money, property, or material goods that a bride's family gives to the groom or his family at the time of the wedding. In many cultures the dowry not only helps cement the relationship between the bride and groom families but also serves to reinforce traditional family roles and gender roles.