Get down to Detroit Greektown Heritage Festival today

Greektown Heritage Festival has returned this year to Detroit, with an exciting cultural fiesta celebrating all things Greek with everyone today!

The annual Greektown Heritage Festival celebrates the rich, ethnic Greek heritage of the neighborhood. The highlight of the festival is the street-side lamb roast with several spits rotating this celebratory Greek dish. Monroe Street is filled with live Greek music, traditional Greek dancers, and an array of Greek food and drink. Saturday, July 30, 2022 from noon until 9 p.m. Fun for the whole family!

Enjoy live Greek entertainment including Aegean Roots, the Hellenic Society of Performing Arts Dancers, Enigma, Cretan Pseloretes of Detroit, and DJ Nico Blu!

Presented by Greektown Neighborhood Partnership, Hollywood Casino at Greektown, Bedrock, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Fabiano Brothers, the Downtown Detroit Partnership, and Gold Star Products.

Greektown Detroit is a celebrated entertainment and cultural district, serving both Detroiters and visitors from around the world all year round. The traditional centre of Detroit’s Greek community, the Greektown neighborhood is one of the last surviving Victorian-era commercial streetscapes in downtown Detroit. Lively Monroe Street is the heartbeat of historic Greektown, and the district is bounded by Gratiot, Randolph, Lafayette, and I-375.

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RESOURCE | ABOUT GREEK TOWN

The area that today is known as Greektown was first developed by German immigrants in the 1830s. Narrow two to four-story Victorian storefronts were originally developed as neighborhood businesses, uniquely fashioned to emphasize service for the bustling retail district. The original cornerstone of Old St. Mary’s Church, the third oldest Roman Catholic parish in Detroit, was laid in 1841.  This was later replaced in 1885 by a grand church built in the Pisan Romanesque and Venetian Renaissance style. Today it remains one of the most architecturally significant buildings in the City of Detroit.

While the neighborhood was primarily German during this period, other ethnic groups also called the area home. African Americans settled in the area known as Black Bottom, where the Chrysler Freeway and Lafayette Park is today. The Second Baptist Church was established in 1857, and is the oldest African American parish in all the Midwestern United States. It played a pivotal role in the operation of the Underground Railroad. The first Jewish synagogue was also established in the area during the same period.

Vestiges of industry in pre-automobile Detroit can also be seen in Greektown today. The enormous Traugott Schmidt and Ferry Seed Warehouse complexes on the south side of Monroe Street in the district harken to Detroit’s fur trading and industrial history. Several building additions from the growth of the Traugott Schmidt Company in the 1850s through the 1920s occurred and adaption of the behemoth in the 1980s transformed the complex into “Trappers Alley,” a highly successful commercial and retail adaptive reuse. Today the complex is the home of Greektown Casino-Hotel. A block down, the Ferry Seed Warehouse box factory annex is a reminder of Detroit’s nineteenth century seed industry for the D.M. Ferry Seed Company.  Built in 1891, it’s now the headquarters of Greektown Neighborhood Partnership, and houses many other businesses and dining options such as Fishbones Rhythm Kitchen Café.

By the early twentieth century the neighborhood had become increasingly multicultural. German immigrants began to move out of the neighborhood into areas further from downtown, and between 1905 and 1910 the ethnic makeup transitioned from Germans to Greeks seemingly overnight. Through the help of Theodore Gerasimos, the first documented Greek immigrant to Detroit in 1890, newly arrived Greek immigrants began moving into the neighborhood and established businesses. Greek-inspired flourishes and details were applied to the German-built commercial buildings, carrying on a tradition in the neighborhood of thoughtfully customizing facades to suit business needs and celebrate cultural history. This tradition carries on today. In the early years, Greektown was not only a business district, but a residential area as well. In fact, for many it represented a complete community where one could work, reside, shop, entertain, and pray. Coffee houses were abundant where many sipped strong Greek coffee, played Tavlie (backgammon), smoked the “nargileh” (a water pipe) and talked of home.

Changing land use patterns have also been an essential part of the evolution of the neighborhood. By the 1920s, Greektown was becoming primarily commercial – most of the Greek immigrants moved out of the area, but restaurants, coffee houses, boutiques, and small groceries remained. Detroit Police Headquarters was also in the district for 90 years, housed in the 1923 Albert-Kahn designed building at 1300 Beaubien. Over the next three decades, Polish, Italian, Lebanese, Mexican, African Americans, and some Greeks occupied what little residential spaces were left in the neighborhood. During the 1950s and 1960s, much of the neighborhood was razed, including the Greek Orthodox Church, to provide sites for downtown parking and institutional buildings.

Realizing that Greektown’s heritage was in danger, the city's Greek community banded together to hold the first ethnic festival in 1965. Business owners realized that what made their block of restaurants and shops significant was that it was distinctly Greek. As sports and convention facilities opened downtown over the next several decades, the area transformed to support the eating, drinking, and parking needs of event goers.

[Source: Greektown Neighborhood Partnership (greektowndetroit.org)]