Hellenic Heritage of Museum logo | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Explore the Museum
The Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland has adapted space within the Theodore J. George Library of the Annunciation Orthodox Center of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation in Baltimore, Maryland. The Museum originated from a small committee in 2004 inspired by the late Father Constantine M. Monios with the intention of creating a repository of items that represented the history of our parents and grandparents that immigrated to this area of America. The exhibits are a small example of the vast diversity of objects and collections donated over the decades.
Hellenic Scroll Icon | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland

It has been a remarkable journey.

Black and white photo Greeks Sail to US | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland

Greek emigration to the United States

Greeks began mass emigration to the United States in the late 1800s, spurred by an economic crisis that drove many to seek salvation in the opportunities available in America. The first wave came largely from the region around Sparta in the Peloponnese. By 1920, a half million Greeks had come to the United States in a migration accelerated by the ravages of the Balkan wars, the displacement of Greeks from Asia Minor, and World War I.

black and white photo of three brothers | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
These immigrants initially settled in the cities of the East Coast, sending money home to their villages and encouraging male relatives to join them. They lived frugally, often clustering together, to save as much as possible to help their families and provide dowries for sisters and daughters. Many dreamed that they someday would return as men of means. Some pushed west, to Utah, California and Colorado in search of opportunity, and eventually dispersing to every state. By the 1920s wives and daughters – and brides – began to arrive.
black and white photo of three brothers | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
black and white photo of business men in hats | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland

They worked in factories and steel mills, mines and shipyards. They painted bridges and buildings. They peddled hot dogs on the street and washed dishes in restaurants. By 1910 a Greek middle class began to form. They started businesses – candy shops, florists, hat and drycleaning, shoe repair shops, stalls in markets and a host of other ventures. They became best known for their restaurants, from blue-plate specials to white-tablecloth enterprises, and the various businesses that supplied them.

black and white photo of teenagers in classroom | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
They built Greek Orthodox churches to preserve the faith and establish communities, with the Archdiocese founded in 1922. They educated their children, who found prosperity in business, science, the professions, entertainment, the arts and the politics, producing a presidential candidate, Michael Dukakis, and elected officials such as Maryland Sen. Paul Sarbanes. Their descendants continue to achieve in every sphere.
black and white photo of teenagers in classroom | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
black and white photo of candy makers | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland

Greek Arrival in Baltimore

Large numbers of Greeks began arriving in Baltimore in the 1890s. These men, overwhelmingly from villages in Laconia, clustered around Baltimore’s downtown markets, often working 16-hour days. Many embraced the confectionary business that grew out of early immigrant street peddlers. Brother taught brother, cousin taught cousin, and villager his fellow villager. Christos Sempeles and his brothers were operating a confectionary in 1891 while they were still teen-agers. The Konstant brothers opened their business in Lexington Market in 1895. The Prevas confectionary and soda fountain opened in 1899 in Broadway Market. One of the early non-Laconians to arrive was Anastasios Coroneos of Kythera in 1897, who created a small chain of confectionaries and opened the way for fellow islanders. The immigrants opened restaurants of every sort and expanded into supply. Some became major enterprises, like H&S Bakery. Greeks branched out into other areas such as drycleaning, flower shops and shoe repair. Greeks also were successful in other industries, such as industrial painting. Wives and prospective wives began arriving, and families took root.

Black and white photo of Greek church | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
Longing for their ancestral faith, the city’s first permanent Greek Orthodox place of worship opened in 1895 at Bond and Gough streets with the support of the Sempeles brothers. But the community was unable to sustain it. Itinerant priests performed sacraments in the city until a permanent church, Evangelismos, was established in 1906, with a full-time priest installed in 1907. In 1912 the first Greek school was started, and in 1923 AHEPA took hold in Baltimore.
Black and white photo of Greek church | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
Greek church interior | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church opened in 1952 as later waves of immigrants from the mainland and islands, especially Chios and Rhodes, settled in Highlandtown. A third church, St. Demetrios, was established in the 1970s to serve Greeks who had moved to the suburbs, with its doors opening in 1984. Since then other parishes have sprouted.
Sarbanes Portrait | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
The immigrant generation educated their children, who became doctors and lawyers, pharmacists and professors, artists and entrepreneurs. Lawyer Peter Angelos became the first elected official when he won a seat on Baltimore’s City Council in 1959. He became a hometown hero in 1993 when he bought the Baltimore Orioles in a bankruptcy auction, saving the team from out-of-town ownership. In 1976, Paul S. Sarbanes became the first Greek-American elected to the U.S. Senate. Others have followed, including Rep. John Sarbanes.
Sarbanes Portrait | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
Older Greek woman with young Greek girl | Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland
The legacy of these pioneers, who laid the foundations for the present flourishing Greek-American community, is one that deserves to be remembered and handed down. That is the mission of the Hellenic Heritage Museum of Maryland.
Scroll to Top