Since Historic Fort Steuben closed to the public last week, I have been fortunate to be able to work from home.

Although, as I have long suspected, my wife, who is a wonderful wife, mother to four and all-around rock star, has a much harder job than I do. Keeping up with our kiddos, keeping house and all that is involved there, is a full-time job and one that I will never take for granted again. I appreciate her and her hard work to make us a family and our house a home.

When we moved back to Weirton after 10 years away, we were blessed to be able to move into a home my parents own that has been in our family for generations. My great-grandfather Peter Zuros built the house back in the early 1950s. Since I have been spending much more time in this space, I have found myself reflecting on him and other immigrants like him who came to this country for a better life.

Peter was born in 1886 in Lithuania and immigrated to this country around 1911. First working in a copper mine, he eventually moved his family to the Ohio Valley, finally settling in Weirton. Before they came here, according to family tradition, my great-grandmother and some of their children died of the Spanish flu. That is something I am especially thinking about during this current pandemic. Living through two world wars, struggling to move to a new country, learning a new language and somehow building a life in a new land is nothing short of heroic.

Most of us in this valley have ancestors like this. The mills of Weirton and Steubenville attracted many immigrants to our area. Weirton historically had more than 50 ethnic groups all coming here to work. And most of them are still represented here, as evidenced by the many ethnic organizations, clubs and churches that are still very active around here. A sizable community of immigrants settled in and around North Weirton along the lettered avenues. As time went on and the city of Weirton built up, those folks who settled in North Weirton moved up on the hills, away from the dirt and grime of the mills to the more spacious neighborhoods of Weirton Heights, Marland Heights, Weircrest and others.

Eventually the mill would purchase much of the original town site in North Weirton and demolish most of the buildings there. The streets are all still there, but the once-thriving immigrant community is gone.

One street I see every day in North Weirton is the block of Avenue A between Third and Fourth streets. I have a panoramic photograph in my dining room of that block taken on July 7, 1934, on the dedication of Weirton’s Garibaldi Club. The Garibaldi Club, assembled in front of what was known as Columbia Hall, was in the middle of the block flanked by two buildings — the one on the left was the Chios Grocery and on the right was the Leader Market. Across Third Street from the Leader Market was Frank Kliers Garage, in which a large painted advertisement “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco” is depicted. Behind the photographer would have been the All Saints Greek Orthodox Church. Around that area on Avenue A stood up to 10 grocery stores and several coffee houses, most of them ethnic in nature to serve their specific community.

So many groups were represented there, such as the Italians, Greeks and Serbians among others. The Chios Grocery was a particularly long-lasting establishment, serving the community under the direction of the Karnoupakis brothers, Angelo and James, for 47 years. Natives of Chios, Greece, these immigrants arrived in America in 1916 and started the store in 1921 and served the community of North Weirton at its location at 126 Avenue A for decades. Specialties of the store were imported cheeses, olives, honey and olive oil from Greece.

According to the brothers, J.C. Williams, president of Weirton Steel between 1929 and 1936, was a frequent customer of the store where he would drink coffee and visit with steel workers. Today, that block is completely empty with nothing left but memories.

James, Angelo, and Peter lived the American dream. Not unlike my wife, who works so hard to make a happy home for our family, these men established a home in a new land and were successful. James summed it up nicely in 1968 when the brothers sold the store, “We came to this country with a dream, and we found it. Now that we depart from this building … we are proud.”

(Zuros is director of operations at Historic Fort Steuben and the Steubenville Visitors Center.)