Baltimore, Usa, 1998

Eastern Avenue is home to the Greek community of Baltimore Maryland. Today, the business district is home to many coffee houses, bars, restaurants and St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox church, where the annual Independence Day parade takes place. The history of the Greeks in Baltimore dates back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The first Greeks in Baltimore were nine young boys who arrived as refugees of the Chios Massacre, the slaughter of tens of thousands of Greeks on the island of Chios at the hands of the Ottomans during the Greek War of Independence. The Greek community in Baltimore numbered 16,764 as of 2000, making up 0.7 percent of Baltimore’s population. Photo courtesy of Eleftherios Kostans.