ARMENIANS
Armenians began arriving to Washington Heights from the 1890s to the 1920s. They immigrated to the United States in order to escape political persecution back home in Armenia. There was an influx of Armenian immigrants following the Hamidian Massacres, which took place from 1894 to 1896. Thousands of Armenians were massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Due to the great many deaths, at least 50,000 children were orphaned. It was imperative that the Armenians flee to a nation where they would not be killed. Thus, the Armenians found their place in the United States. Here in New York they settled and formed a major Armenian enclave in not only Washington Heights, but also in the east 20’s of Manhattan. This first wave of immigration lasted until the mid-1920s, when new immigration quotas limited the number of Armenians that were allowed to immigrate to the United States.
GREEKS
Greek immigration peaked around the same time that the Armenians started moving into Washington Heights. Greeks came to the United States in large numbers just before and after the fall
![Greece](https://files.eportfolios.macaulay.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/1863/2011/05/15180424/greece-map-300x300.gif)
The Greeks, however, did not start moving into Washington Heights until the 1920’s. So many Greeks moved into Washington Heights in the 1950’s and 1960’s that the community began being referred to as the “Astoria of Manhattan.”
While Astoria still has much of its Greek population, the Greek presence in Washington Heights has all but vanished, leaving only a few Greek Orthodox churches behind. The few Greeks left in Washington Heights still recall the glory days of Greek-American Washington Heights such as George Psihogios, a caretaker of St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church, who was interviewed by the New York Times. At the pinnacle of the Greek community in the 1960’s, an estimated 15,000 people of Greek descent lived in Washington Heights alone. These numbers, however, have changed drastically with the 2000 Census only counting fewer than a thousand Greek-Americans in all of Upper Manhattan.
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SOURCES/ADDITIONAL READINGS:
http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/histo/salzman/gallery/Francoeur_S.html
http://www.armeniapedia.org/index.php?title=Hayots_Badeevuh
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/pdf/lucds/mn12profile.pdf
http://harlemworldblog.wordpress.com/2010/10/10/washington-heights-harlem-ny/
http://www.bcnychurchplanting.org/uploaded_files/Greek%20Profile.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_American#Armenian_pioneers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamidian_Massacres
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/nyregion/thecity/25gree.html
http://www.saintspyridon.net/about_us/