The end is near for Brockton's Lithuanian Village

The Enterprise of Brockton, Mass.
www.enterprisenews.com
By Maria Papadopoulos
ENTERPRISE STAFF WRITER
BROCKTON — Nearly a century after she was born in Brockton's Lithuanian Village, Helen Savilonis Giovanello still remembers the aroma of Lithuanian bread baking at Kilkus Bakery.
She remembers the lush flower gardens grown by Lithuanian immigrants. She remembers her family's well-tended home at 18 Albert St. and her days at the neighborhood's Franklin Elementary School.
But most of all, she remembers the solidarity of the people who lived in that northeast section of Brockton.
"It was a cluster of Lithuanian people that were all friendly with the church," says Giovanello, now 98.
Those days are over. The Lithuanian Village is but a shadow of the once-vibrant enclave, and the expected closing later this month of the venerable St. Casimir Church may mark the end of the Lithuanian community in Brockton. It's a community that also drew Lithuanians from across Massachusetts and beyond.
On Labor Days past, for example, the Rev. Stephen P. Zukas would trek with his family from Norwood to Brockton to attend the annual Lithuanian picnic on Thatcher Street.

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