Contact:

Leo J. Goodsell, Executive Director

Berrien County Historical Association

P.O. Box 261

Berrien Springs, MI 49103

Tele: (269) 471-1202

BCHA and Irish Heritage Center to present Irish and Greek Lectures

The Irish Heritage Center, in cooperation with the Berrien County Historical Association, is hosting two lectures regarding the Irish and Greeks who vacationed in southwestern Michigan on Sunday, February 23 at 2:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the Irish American Heritage Center, 4626 N. Knox Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. (773) 282-7035.

Tickets are $5 for seniors and members and $6 for non-members who are not seniors. A free reception will follow the lectures on both Sundays. Ample, and free parking is available.

Elaine Thomopoulos, Ph.D., project co-director of the Berrien County Historical Association's Project, "The Greeks of Berrien County," will speak on "Summer Memories: Chicago Greeks Vacationing in Southwestern Michigan." She will talk about the Greeks who vacationed or had second homes in Berrien County, Michigan beginning in the 1920s. The lecture is based on over 20 interviews conducted by Columbia College Chicago students as part of a Berrien County Historical Assoc. project, "The Greeks of Berrien County, Michigan." The project is co-sponsored by the Annunciation and St. Paraskevi Church, New Buffalo, and Columbia College Chicago, and funded, in part, by the Michigan Humanities Council, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Eileen Durkin will speak on "Irish Summer Visitors' Connections to Grand Beach." While hot summers drove many of Chicago's diverse ethnic groups to Michigan, the Irish gravitated to the Grand Beach area. Initially a family summer resort with public transportation available from the Michigan Central Railroad, quick development occurred when the villagers purchased twenty cottages from Sears Roebuck in 1907. Highlights of Grand Beach and its summer visitors will be featured in Ms. Durkin's lecture.