The 1890s saw the first Greek family come to the Grand Rapids area. Peter Smirlis was the bootblack who began the influx of Greeks into the Grand Rapids, by having new immigrants sent to this Michigan community straight from Ellis Island for his employ. The community grew slowly, and in 1925 they felt established enough to begin the process of creating a local Greek Orthodox Church. The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church then became the center of their community and remains so today. Dinners, worship and name day celebrations kept the Greek community close and centered around the Church.

Throughout the years different Greek organizations were created to preserve the Greek culture from total Americanization. One such group, Hellenic Horizons, was created in 1979. The purpose of this group was to give Greeks cultural events to attend and to enlighten non-Greeks to the rich culture that the Greeks have. In 1982 Hellenic Horizons, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, created an exhibit called “Greek-American Family: Continuity through Change” for the Grand Rapids Public Museum. This exhibit was a collection of the heritage of the Greek community in Grand Rapids. The exhibit ran at the Grand Rapids museum from September 19, 1982 – January 7, 1983, and then traveled to other venues around the nation.