Tom Vartabedian
Armenia Avenue Doesn’t Live Up to Its Billing
“If you’re troubled and can’t relax
Close your eyes and think of this
Armenia, city in the sky
Armenia, city in the sky.
Just take off, there’s no risk
If you ever want to disappear
Just take off and think of this
Armenia, city in the sky
Armenia, city in the sky.”
(Written by John Keene and performed by The Who)
TAMPA, Fla.—You’d be hard-pressed to find an Armenian residing on Armenia Avenue, unless one moved here between the time this article w
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Nice information.
I’ve been to Armenia Avenue in Tampa, and I have to agree with my friend Tom. I didn’t think it was worth writing about, but Tom did. Somewhere I think I heard it was named so because of the 1895 massacres.
Just to add to the list of cities named Armenia, there is a town called Armenia in Belize, I’ve been there.
“Most of the people living in Little Armenia are Asians.” That’s totally not true. I happen to live in this particular neighborhood, 6 months out of the year. There certainly are Asians who live in the neighborhood of Little Armenia; however, the number of Armenian residents in this neighborhood happen to be so much more. There are also an equal number of Latinos who live in Little Armenia. Therefore, the two biggest groups in this neighborhood happen to be Armenians and Latinos. As a matter of fact, if a person were to take a leisurely walk in the neighborhood of Little Armenia, he or she will notice the enormous number (hundreds) of Armenian shops and businesses along Hollywood, Sunset, and Santa Monica boulevards. You can find just about anything Armenian in this neighborhood. It’s for this particular reason that the name of this East Hollywood neighborhood became Little Armenia, back in October of 2000.
Armenians should be happy to see the name Armenia is spreading all over the world. In this case the name Armenia is associated with people building new life. Now compare that to Turkey which has left a trail of death and destruction throughout history.
Years ago while in Prague, I saw “Armenia Street” on a city map. My curiosity got the better of me, so I took a couple of buses to get there, only to find a Polish church (with four kids playing baseball!). Nothing Armenian looking in the neighborhood, but still, it was fun to find it.
When I was in law school, there was a case in our Professional Responsibility class regarding this street. An Armenian merchant/ship owner was given the task of naming the street that ran from his dock through Tampa. Naturally, he named it after his homeland.
I recently moved to nearby St. Petersburg, Florida, and this street did pique my curiosity. There is a small Armenian community in the Tampa Bay region though, also to my surprise, even a church in Pinellas Park. Still not directly related to the street name though.
In Providence, RI, the back street of Sts.Vartanantz Armenian Church has been renamed to Armenia Street. Many of the organizations who use Sts.Vartanantz Church facilites, list 7 Armenia Street as their address.
Just to add another armenia, there is a town in Italy near Turin,called Armeno,
that means Armenian in Italian language.