Building a Neighborhood

 Many Greek immigrants who become successful entrepreneurs are leaders and prominent figures in their Greek community. For Nick Sfondouris, his contributions have been in his own Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, Washington.

  Nick was born in 1930 in the town of Distomo in western Boeotia, Central Greece close to the famous monastery Hosios (Osios) Loukas. The extended Sfondouris family is well-known in Distomo. Part of the name (sfon) is from the Greek Dorian word meaning “stronger together.”  Nick can only speculate on the remaining portion of his surname. He is the oldest of five children of George and Angelica Sfondouris. His siblings, Timon, Georgia, Asimoula and Stamatia, followed. When the Nazis invaded the town in World War II, they met with considerable resistance. However, they retaliated on June 10, 1944, by killing over 233 men, women, and children. According to survivors, SS forces stabbed babies in their cribs, pregnant women and beheaded the village priest. However, Nick recalls an encounter with a Nazi soldier who starred at Nick, but turned away without harming him. Nick remembers his aunt urging hm to return to the safety of the home. The Nazis set fire to the family triplex, but Nick and his aunt were able to access a nearby well to extinguish the blaze. 

In 1951, after serving a year in the Greek Army, Nick was sponsored by his uncles, John, and Nick, to come to the United States. He joined them in Chicago, Illinois, where he lived until he was drafted into the United States Army in April of 1953. In Chicago, he worked for the National Tea Company   and was on the council of the Young Greek Americans organization. In the Army, he was based at Fort Lewis (now Joint Base Lewis-McChord) near Tacoma, Washington. There, he served as the “mailman” for a battalion of over 1000 men where he had his own office, handling paychecks and performing other administrative duties. At Fort Lewis he earned his GED (General Educational Development) certificate.

  Back in Chicago, his uncle John invited Nick to join him in his grocery business. But Nick did not like Chicago and, in 1955, returned to the Northwest to settle in Seattle. The fund he had saved in the Army was dwindling as he sent money to his sisters in Greece for their dowries. He worked for a brief period for the Boeing Company. Having benefited from the GI Bill (Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944), Nick was attending Edison Technical High School (now Seattle Central College). Nick also attended classes at the University of Washington and Seattle University until his funds were exhausted. Nick’s goal was to work as a chemist or in a chemical laboratory but securing employment at that time was difficult.  Instead, a counselor at Edison directed him to a job at the nearby Hillcrest Market (now City Market) on Seattle’s Capitol Hill where Nick worked for the next 17 years. He became a popular figure at the market and became night manager, but his time there was not without incident and even included being tied up during a robbery. 

In 1959 a beautiful, dark-haired woman came into the market. Nick thought he had known her previously and asked if she was Greek. It turned out that Ada Soldotov was Russian and worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission handling stocks and bonds. Nick describes Ada as a kind, hospitable person with a beautiful smile and nice voice. They married and spent the next 52 years together until she died in 2013. Unfortunately, Ada had barely recovered from a serious accident which prohibited the couple from having children. They lived in an apartment on Capitol Hill until 1979 when she retired, and then moved to the Phinney Ridge area where they began their property acquisition and development.

Nick invested in the stock market for a while but decided that his career would be in real estate. He began purchasing properties in 1967, dedicated his time to those properties, and generously assisting and supporting his family in Greece. He has been able to accumulate over 23, residential and commercial properties without any outside management. A friend describes him as a “very bright person who created a significant legacy in a modest manner.” 

 Nick acknowledges that “I am not a young guy anymore” after working “like a beaver” managing his properties by himself for many years. As late as 2020 he was observed on the roof of one building. With proceeds from the properties, he has continued to send money to Greece even for property acquisition there. While he has returned to Greece a few times his obligations in Seattle kept him busy and he wishes he could have gone more often. Similarly, he has spent little time with the Greek community as his responsibilities in Phinney Ridge occupied all of his time.

Upon arriving in Phinney Ridge, Nick joined the Phinney Ridge Community Council. The Phinney Neighborhood Association  (PNA) history tells of a steering committee which began addressing the concerns of its residents. A formal, non-profit entity was established in 1980, and a board of directors was recruited. Nick was one of the original thirteen members, and served as a board member for 14 years. His priorities on the board were successfully opposing downsize zoning to single family on all of Phinney Ridge to ensure neighborhood businesses and purchasing a surplused school building that was converted to the Phinney Ridge Community Center.

Nick is a self-educated historian and a voracious reader who prefers the “old fashioned way” of learning rather than the digital age. He has been a contributor to the Hellenic Studies Program at the University of Washington. He also keeps close watch on the financial markets and claims to have predicted the market fall in 2008. For him, investments in basic commodities (minerals, oil, and precious metals) in addition to property are the best choice. 

 Nick believes dealing with the public is his forte. He has always been healthy, happy and optimistic about the future and does not dwell on the past. The worst time for him was when his beloved Ada passed away. As a young boy in Greece, the custom was to put a piece of bread under one’s pillow and they would dream about who they would marry. In Nick’s dream, he was in Seattle and could see the University Bridge, Wallingford, Queen Anne and Capitol Hill with white houses and surrounding water. He had never been there but knows it must have been because that was Ada’s home.

In 2016 Nick opened ADA'S Restaurant & Bar, a longstanding feature of the neighborhood and just two blocks from his home, to honor his beloved wife. Now under new ownership, it serves Turkish, American, and European dishes with an “artistic flare.”

Nick describes himself as having a “low ego” and letting his actions speak louder than his words. He wants to be remembered for his successful marriage and business acuity, for his community involvement and for helping people. For young people, his advice is to learn and practice good manners, educate themselves, work hard and think logically. He believes God has given us the gift of preserving and improving life and building for the future, not just for ourselves. 

By John and Joann Nicon, November 2023

VIDEO SEGMENTS

PHOTOS

1 Nick in his home, 2022

2 Family in Distomo: George, Angelica, neighbor, Tim, Georgia, Stamatina, Asimoula, Cousin

3 Sfondouris siblings (l-r) Stamatia, George, Tim, Asimoula, Georgia.

4 Young Greeks in Chicago

5 Nick in the army, 1950s

6 Edison tech class

7 Hillcrest Market rendition

8 Hillcrest robbery

9 Toasting with Ada, 1966

10 Young Nick and Ada, circa 1960s

11 Nick and Ada, circa 1980s

12 Nick and Ada, 1995

13 Nick with Mike McGinn, 2010

14 Ada’s Restaurant and Bar, 2022

Photos 1 and 14 by John Nicon, 7 from Google search, all others from Sfondouris family collection

SOURCES

Video interview with Nick Sfondouris on March 1, 2022 by John and Joann Nicon and John T. John,  Phinney Neighborhood Association web site.