Originally a German neighborhood, this area was named Greektown for the Greeks who settled here in the early twentieth century. Greektown comprises a small enclave of Late Victorian, two-, three-, and four-story red brick commercial buildings with Victorian detail and containing stores on the street level and flats above, industrial structures, and churches that date from 1850 to 1910.
German migration to Detroit increased dramatically after 1830. The new arrivals settled on the lower east and northeast sides of Detroit, finding work as merchants, brewers, laborers, and tanners. By 1850 the area north of Jefferson Avenue and along Gratiot Avenue was widely known as Germantown. By 1870 Germans were Detroit's largest single ethnic group.
Writing Credits
If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.
SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.