Browse Items (75 total)

This panoramic view of the convention of AHEPA (American Hellenic Educational and Progressive Association) includes both members as well as local residents in front of the Tarpon Springs City Hall in 1928. Many AHEPA members wear a fez with AHEPA and…

This 1947 aerial view shows the Anclote River winding to the Gulf, with Anclote Key in the background. It also reveals more limited activity on the Sponge Docks—with fewer boats and cars. In the lower left on Athens Street you can see the beginnings…

Uncle and godfather Theophilos Samarkos hands young Anna Tsoukalas Billiris to Father Constantinos Raptis for her immersion into the baptismal font at St. Nicholas in 1956. Baptism marks the entry of the child into the church, and usually occurs a…

Piles of all types of sponges fill the courtyard of the Sponge Exchange on an auction day in 1921. Most of the men in the courtyard appear to be Greek, except for the African American man walking towards the camera. He was one of many who worked in…

L-R: Metropolitan Nikitas Lulias, Valantis Kouros, Father Vasilios Tsourlis, Taso Karistinos.

1932. The 1910 census reveals that six Greek ship carpenters resided in Tarpon Springs. The Greeks learned their skills as apprentices to master ship builders. In Tarpon Springs they probably worked full-time in the construction and repair of diving…

Back in port, the crew finishes cleaning and sorting sponges for auction on October 10, 1969. Cleaning the animals entails allowing their skins to decompose, rinsing them with water and squeezing them to eliminate internal matter and bits of skin,…

A crew member finishes the grueling job of cleaning sponges on February 11, 1975. Sponges, which are simple animal organisms, must be cleaned of their skin, internal matter, and any stones or sand that have adhered to them. Crew members repeatedly…