Tarpon Springs

Since 1906, people have gathered at Spring Bayou in Tarpon Springs each January 6th to watch young men compete to find a submerged wooden cross. Today, thousands attend the ceremony. The unique Epiphany celebration is one example of the Greek culture that is still prevalent in Tarpon Springs.

In the city of Tarpon Springs you can listen to Greek music played on a bouzouki, try the pastry baklava, have a meal of lamb stew or a Greek seafood dish, sip the licorice flavored alcoholic beverage ouzo, and enjoy many other aspects of traditional Greek culture.

You can see the Neo-Byzantine style architecture of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, and watch the sponge divers unload their catch on the city dock downtown.

Tarpon Springs has the largest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the United States.

“Even today, after people have been here four or five generations, there is still a big segment of the population that speaks Greek,” says Tina Bucuvalas, curator of arts and history for the City of Tarpon Springs.

When the first Greeks came to Tarpon Springs in 1905, a thriving town was already in place.

When Hamilton Disston bought 4 million acres of land for 25 cents per acre in 1881, it included the land that would become Tarpon Springs. To stimulate development, Disston brought businessman Anton Safford to Tarpon Springs.

The Victorian home that Safford lived in can be visited today. The Safford House Museum features period furniture and original family artifacts that present the home as it was in 1883.

The Orange Belt Railway came to town in 1887. The train depot is now a museum.

“The building we’re in was built in 1909 because the original railroad station burned down in 1908. This was restored in 2005,” says Sharon Sawyer of the Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society.

“The railroad was brought here by Peter Demens. He brought the railroad from Sanford to Tarpon Springs and then on down to St. Petersburg. Before the railroad came, everybody had to get here by boat or wagon, so the railroad in 1887 made a big difference here in town.”

It was the sponge industry that really put Tarpon Springs on the map.

By the mid-1800s, there was a thriving sponge industry in the Florida Keys, but by the early 1900s, Tarpon Springs was the largest sponge port in the United States.

While sponges in the Keys were harvested with long poles, in Tarpon Springs, Greek sponge divers donned canvas suits with round metal helmets.

“John Cocoris realized that the way that sponges were harvested in Greece would produce far more than the hooking methods they were using in Florida,” says Tina Bucuvalas.

“They brought over Greeks. At first 500 came in 1905, and then within a couple of years there were 1,500, and there were a lot of boats. It very quickly made Tarpon Springs the Sponge Capital of the World. Tarpon Springs was a big, important town at a time when St. Petersburg was a wide spot in the road.”

With the large influx of Greek sponge divers and their families to Tarpon Springs, businesses and institutions to serve them were established, including restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and coffee houses.

Today, Tarpon Springs retains a distinctive European flavor.

“They get up in the morning and have Greek food, and sweep out their courtyards which have various plants you might see in Greece,” says Bucuvalas. “They’ll have their coffee outside. The old ladies in their head scarves will be going over to St. Michael’s Chapel or St. Nicholas, or down to the bakery.”

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was constructed in 1907 and expanded in 1943 with marble imported from Greece.

The unique Epiphany celebration held each January 6th attracts people from around the world. Following a ceremony at the church, the congregation walks to the dock at Spring Bayou, where a wooden cross is thrown into the water. The young man who retrieves the cross is believed to bring special blessings to his family for the year.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, the Greek Orthodox equivalent of Catholicism’s Pope, came to Tarpon Springs in 2006 for the 100^th anniversary of the town’s Epiphany ceremony.

Since 1906, people have gathered at Spring Bayou in Tarpon Springs each January 6th to watch young men compete to find a submerged wooden cross. Today, thousands attend the ceremony. The unique Epiphany celebration is one example of the Greek culture that is still prevalent in Tarpon Springs.

In the city of Tarpon Springs you can listen to Greek music played on a bouzouki, try the pastry baklava, have a meal of lamb stew or a Greek seafood dish, sip the licorice flavored alcoholic beverage ouzo, and enjoy many other aspects of traditional Greek culture.

You can see the Neo-Byzantine style architecture of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, and watch the sponge divers unload their catch on the city dock downtown.

Tarpon Springs has the largest percentage of Greek Americans of any city in the United States.

“Even today, after people have been here four or five generations, there is still a big segment of the population that speaks Greek,” says Tina Bucuvalas, curator of arts and history for the City of Tarpon Springs.

When the first Greeks came to Tarpon Springs in 1905, a thriving town was already in place.

When Hamilton Disston bought 4 million acres of land for 25 cents per acre in 1881, it included the land that would become Tarpon Springs. To stimulate development, Disston brought businessman Anton Safford to Tarpon Springs.

The Victorian home that Safford lived in can be visited today. The Safford House Museum features period furniture and original family artifacts that present the home as it was in 1883.

The Orange Belt Railway came to town in 1887. The train depot is now a museum.

“The building we’re in was built in 1909 because the original railroad station burned down in 1908. This was restored in 2005,” says Sharon Sawyer of the Tarpon Springs Area Historical Society.

“The railroad was brought here by Peter Demens. He brought the railroad from Sanford to Tarpon Springs and then on down to St. Petersburg. Before the railroad came, everybody had to get here by boat or wagon, so the railroad in 1887 made a big difference here in town.”

It was the sponge industry that really put Tarpon Springs on the map.

By the mid-1800s, there was a thriving sponge industry in the Florida Keys, but by the early 1900s, Tarpon Springs was the largest sponge port in the United States.

While sponges in the Keys were harvested with long poles, in Tarpon Springs, Greek sponge divers donned canvas suits with round metal helmets.

“John Cocoris realized that the way that sponges were harvested in Greece would produce far more than the hooking methods they were using in Florida,” says Tina Bucuvalas.

“They brought over Greeks. At first 500 came in 1905, and then within a couple of years there were 1,500, and there were a lot of boats. It very quickly made Tarpon Springs the Sponge Capital of the World. Tarpon Springs was a big, important town at a time when St. Petersburg was a wide spot in the road.”

With the large influx of Greek sponge divers and their families to Tarpon Springs, businesses and institutions to serve them were established, including restaurants, grocery stores, bakeries, and coffee houses.

Today, Tarpon Springs retains a distinctive European flavor.

“They get up in the morning and have Greek food, and sweep out their courtyards which have various plants you might see in Greece,” says Bucuvalas. “They’ll have their coffee outside. The old ladies in their head scarves will be going over to St. Michael’s Chapel or St. Nicholas, or down to the bakery.”

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was constructed in 1907 and expanded in 1943 with marble imported from Greece.

The unique Epiphany celebration held each January 6th attracts people from around the world. Following a ceremony at the church, the congregation walks to the dock at Spring Bayou, where a wooden cross is thrown into the water. The young man who retrieves the cross is believed to bring special blessings to his family for the year.

The Patriarch of Constantinople, the Greek Orthodox equivalent of Catholicism’s Pope, came to Tarpon Springs in 2006 for the 100^th anniversary of the town’s Epiphany ceremony.

Since 1906, the city of Tarpon Springs has held a unique Epiphany celebration every January 6. Thousands of people converge in Tarpon Springs each year to participate in this religious tradition of the Greek Orthodox Church.

Tarpon Springs has more Greek people per capita than any other American city. Hundreds of Greek sponge divers and their families were brought to the town in the early twentieth century. While tourism has replaced sponge diving as the primary economic driver, the sponge docks remain active and the town retains a distinctly Greek character.

“This is like a Greek village here in America,” says Father James Rousakis, dean of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Tarpon Springs. “The people are very much in tune to their culture and their heritage. Adults that came from Greece passed it on to other generations. Even the younger generations still appreciate that.”

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral has been an integral part of the Tarpon Springs community since Greeks first came to the area. The Neo-Byzantine style cathedral was expanded in 1943, to include colorful stained glass and marble from Greece in a domed basilica.

The Greek Orthodox Church can trace its roots back to the earliest church established during the Roman Empire. At its height, the empire encompassed the entire Mediterranean basin including what are now Europe, Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa. When the empire collapsed in 476, Christian centers in the East and West gradually began developing separate traditions.

“Up to the year 1054, there was only one church,” says Fr. Rousakis. “Finally, the church severed. The West became known as the Roman Catholic Church, and the East became known as the Eastern or Greek Orthodox Church.”

In the Greek Orthodox tradition, Epiphany is the commemoration of the baptism of Christ by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. In Tarpon Springs, the celebration begins with a morning of special services at St. Nicholas. A procession leaves the cathedral around noon, walking a block to the shores of Spring Bayou.

Thousands of spectators are already waiting for the procession to arrive. Ten small boats are tied in a semi-circle in front of a platform that extends out over the water. About 50 young men will dive from these boats, trying to retrieve a cross that will be thrown into the water.

“His Eminence the Archbishop will bless the young divers,” says Fr. Rousakis. “They are boys ages 16 through 18. The boys will make their way to the water and onto the small boats, the dinghies that are there. We will go onto the platform where his Eminence will do a short service and throw the cross into the bayou.”

As the cross leaves the archbishop’s hand, the boys dive from their boats into the water, trying to retrieve it. The young man who emerges from the water with the cross will receive a special blessing for the year.

“There’s a gold cross placed around his neck which he will wear until he leaves this earth,” says Fr. Rousakis. “It’s a wonderful time for that young man.”

At the 110th Epiphany celebration last week, Anderson Combs emerged from the 62 degree water with the cross raised high above his head. It was the second year that the 17 year-old high school senior attempted to retrieve the cross.

“I dove because my yiayiá (grandmother) always told me to dive, she was always into it,” says Combs. “Sadly in 2013, she passed, and I felt that in her honor, I should always dive for the cross.”

As a member of the swim team at his high school, a lifeguard, and a scuba diver, Combs was well prepared for his attempt this year.

“Being able to retrieve the cross today is such an honor, in her name and for my family,” Combs says. “It’s just a great feeling.”

Anderson’s grandmother worked at the sponge docks, and his mother Anna Combs instilled in him a love and respect for their Greek heritage.

“It’s the biggest blessing we could ever have in our family,” says Anna Combs. “Other than the day he was born, this is the most wonderful day of my life, and his.”