The Greek thread: families and restaurants, a parish across the river

1926 – PRESENT · STATED AT TRUE SIZE

The valley's Greek parish is South Bend's, and Mishawaka's Greeks are a families-and-businesses record: St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church was founded by forty-five Greek immigrant families who had settled in South Bend, its first Divine Liturgy held 12 September 1926 at 418 West Jefferson Boulevard; its present church on Ironwood Road, opened in December 1983, was designed by LeRoy Troyer and Associates — of Mishawaka, the thread's neatest crossing. No Greek parish, society or enclave street seated in Mishawaka stands in the record reached. What Mishawaka's record carries is the restaurant trade's Greek line, at family size: the Kladis family, whose father immigrated from Greece in the 1970s and began as a dishwasher, opened the American Pancake House at 1008 West McKinley Avenue in 2001, and in February 2026 the Tribune marked its twenty-five years in Mishawaka with Zoi Kladis moving through her dining room in English, Spanish and her first language, Greek. One smaller thread belongs to the religion record and is pointed to here only: the Tribune's 2005 account of a tiny Orthodox church — the Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, some eighteen by forty feet, standing in a Mishawaka backyard since 1959, built by an Orthodox priest — a one-congregation survival, not a community's institution. The Greek entry stands at this size, and does not borrow South Bend's forty-five families.

Sources

1. St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church, parish history (saintandrewgoc.org) — the forty-five founding families of South Bend, the first liturgy of 12 September 1926, the Ironwood Road church of 1983 and its Mishawaka architects.
2. "American Pancake House and Restaurant celebrates 25 years in Mishawaka," South Bend Tribune, 16 February 2026 — the Kladis family's immigration in the 1970s, the 2001 opening at 1008 West McKinley Avenue, and the family's Greek at work in Mishawaka.
3. South Bend Tribune, 2005, via the ProQuest newspaper record — the backyard Orthodox church of the Assumption in Mishawaka since 1959; pointed to the religion record.