Greek Astoria

How a German riverside town became New York's Greek neighborhood, and what came next.

A German town, 1910

In 1910 Astoria was a small German and Irish town on the East River. Four in ten people mapped here were German.

The subway arrives, 1930

The elevated subway reached Astoria in 1917 and the neighborhood filled up. By 1930 about 100,000 people were mapped here, and the largest group was Italian, 24%.

Greek Astoria, 1980

After the 1965 immigration law, Greeks arrived in large numbers. By 1980 about 20,000 people of Greek origin lived here, one in five mapped, with their own churches, tavernas and societies.

Astoria today

Today about 8,700 people of Greek ancestry remain, 7% of those mapped, among Latin American, Asian and Irish neighbors. Citywide about 60,000 New Yorkers report Greek roots.

Where New York Came From: a map of NYC immigration and ancestry, 1910 to today

All stories

• Harlem and the Great Migration
• From Italian Harlem to El Barrio
• Brooklyn's Nordic waterfront
• Finns, Lithuanians and Estonians
• New York's three Chinatowns
• The Lower East Side
• Jewish New York
• Little Odessa
• Redlining's long shadow
• Italian New York
• Washington Heights and Dominican New York
• German New York
• South Asian Queens
• Greek Astoria
• A century in seven stops