A Fraser delta fisherman known as "Johnny the Greek" was one of the few Greeks to settle in Greater Vancouver before 1900. A small number of Greek pioneers also worked in the province's sawmills, mines and railroads. But perhaps the best known of Vancouver's first Greek immigrants was Peter Pantages. A member of the Royal Life Saving Society, Peter founded the Polar Bear Club in 1921 and started what has since become an annual event: the New Year's Day swim in English Bay. The Pantages name, however, was first introduced to Vancouver by Peter's uncle, Alexander. The owner of a Seattle-based chain of highly successful vaudeville houses, Alexander built a theatre on Hastings Street.
By the 1920s and 1930s Greek-owned businesses flourished in downtown Vancouver: restaurants, fruit and fish markets, bakeries, shoeshine parlors and even a few Greek "kafenia," or coffee-houses. From a community of about 2,000 in 1927, Greater Vancouver's Greek community has grown today to just over 6,500 members.
The Greeks of Vancouver formally established their community in 1927 by founding their own society: the St. George Orthodox Hellenic Community. In 1930, with the help of money raised by the Womens' Auxiliary founded in 1929, the community built St. George's Greek Orthodox Church at Seventh and Vine in Kitsilano. A Sunday School and a Greek language class were established at the same time.
The creation of the Vancouver or "Gladstone" chapter of AHEPA (Anglo-Hellenic Educational Progressive Association) in 1930 further consolidated the Greek community. AHEPA, the largest Greek Heritage organization in the world, supports a variety of charitable causes. In honor of Canada's centenary in 1967, the Gladstone chapter donated the statue of the Discus Thrower that stands in the courtyard of the Vancouver Museum. The Burnaby chapter of AHEPA was chartered in 1978. Nearly 30 other recreational and region-based Greek organizations in Vancouver are joined under the umbrella of the Hellenic Canadian Congress of B.C. established in 1986.
By the 1950s the Greek community had united around St. George's and transformed Kitsilano into Vancouver's main Greek area. With everything from Greek restaurants and travel agencies to bakeries and a Hellenic Senior Citizens' Drop-In Centre, West Broaduray and West Fourth Avenue are the main business areas of Greek Town. West Broadway between MacDonald and Waterloo was also the location for the Greek community's main secular festival, Greek Day. Begun in 1974 and discontinued after 1988, Greek Day has been replaced by two smaller events, a Greek Summer Festival at St. Nicholas Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church on Boundary Road in East Vancouver and a similar event at the Hellenic Community Center in Kerrisdale.
Three Greek language newspapers currently serve the Greek community. The oldest still publishing is Acropolis, a monthly newspaper established in 1974. Gnome (Opinion), published semi-monthly with a regular English section, was established in 1988. More recently a monthly newspaper in both Greek and English that originated in Toronto in 1990 appeared in Vancouver in 1993 as the Greek Canadian Voice.
The Greek community also has access to Greek radio programming. Established in the early 1970s, Greek Canadian Memories broadcasts Sundays on CJVB radio. Established in 1987, the pay radio station HRN (Hellenic Radio Network) offers Greek-language programs, including news direct from Athens, 24 hours a day. HRN has about 3,500 family subscribers province-wide. For the 14 years up to 1993, Vancouver's multicultural television channel broadcast a Greek show several times a week.
The number of Greek immigrants to Vancouver doubled through the 1960s. The new St. George's Greek Orthodox Church on Arbutus Street was completed in 1971 to accommodate the growing community. The adjoining Hellenic Cultural Community Centre opened in 1977. A second church, St. Nicholas-Demetrios, was built in 1984 on Boundary Road to serve the Greek Community in East Vancouver and Burnaby. Established in the mid-1970s, a Greek Christian Evangelical Church currently holds its services in East Vancouver's Culloden Mennonite Brethren Church.
Although Greek immigration to Vancouver has declined steadily since 1968, Vancouver's Greek presence remains strong. And Vancouver's Greek-Canadians have achieved national recognition, particularly in sports. Inducted to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1967, the well-known diver George Athans Sr., competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics and won silver and gold medals at the 1950 Empire Games. George Athans Jr. won the world crown for water-skiing in 1973 at Bogota and was inducted to the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame in 1976.
The reason Vancouver has appealed to Greek immigrants is easy to understand. As one woman said while looking out at Vancouver for the first time from the airplane, "What's this? It is so beautiful. It looks like Greece."
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