Mediterranean Imports 1300 BLOCK MARYLAND AVENUE NE
MARYLAND AVENUE IN THE 1930s was home to immigrants from around the Mediterranean. Evelyn Kogok Hier, who grew up at 1328 Maryland Avenue, remembered her next-door neighbor, Reverend Ayoub (Job) Salloom, hosting a er- church gatherings where men shared a hookah, the ancient water pipe. Rev. Salloom ministered to the neighborhood’s tight-knit “Little Lebanon” community. Many of the neighborhood’s Greek immigrants started up the economic ladder selling produce from huckster wagons, then renting stalls at the wholesale markets before opening their own, o en food-related, businesses. In the 1940s the Pappas and Callas families operated produce stands at Union Market on Florida Avenue . e Cokinos family had been running the nearby Goody Shop confectionery since around 1910. Greeks owned the Rendezvous Club and the Paramount, Kavakos, Chaconas, and Bacchus grills on H Street. Although African American families had long lived here, deeds originally restricted some blocks, including this one, to whites. African American educators James L. and Gustava Eubanks operated a music school at 12th and G before moving it to 1252 Maryland Avenue in 1947. Just across Maryland Avenue is Linden Court, where in 1897 more than 100 African American families lived in tiny , at-fronted rowhouses alongside stables and worksho ps. e houses on the north side of the alley were demolished in 1937 to make way for the Atla s eater, but enough remain to give th e avor of the old community. Noted African American architect Lewis Giles, Sr. (1893-1974) grew up nearby at 1200 Linden Place.
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