Three Little Italy Neighborhoods
By Alec Pruchnicki
THE ITALIAN AMERICAN MUSEUM on Mulberry Street. Photos courtesy of Alex Pruchnicki.
What gives a neighborhood an ethnic identity? Is it the ethnicity of the people who live there, the history of the area, the ambience created by local businesses (restaurants, bars, souvenir shops, etc.), or something else? Here is my description of three neighborhoods frequently described as “Little Italy”… so you decide.
Those of us who grew up on Arthur Avenue always referred to it as “Arthur Avenue” and seldom “Belmont” or “Little Italy in the Bronx.” The population was almost entirely Italian and Italian American with many restaurants, bars, specialty Italian food stores, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, and an indoor city-run market. Like many communities around the country, immigrants came mostly from southern Italy around the time of World War I. It was a working-class area from the start. In The Sopranos, Carmela puts down an arrogant relative saying roughly, “Why is he so high and mighty, he came from Arthur Avenue.” The movie A Bronx Tale by Chazz Palminteri gives a pretty accurate description of growing up there.
But the neighborhood started to change in the 1970s. Italian Americans moved to other parts of the Bronx and Westchester. Albanians, Puerto Ricans, and later, Mexicans moved in. In 2020, the main census tract for Arthur Avenue (Tract 391) listed 7.8% of the population as non-Hispanic white. I can’t tell how much of this is Albanian or Italian residents but the other 92.2% is overwhelmingly Hispanic.
They say you can never go home again. When I visit, it looks more Italian now than when I was growing up, at least in the heart of the area around Arthur Avenue and 187th Street. Many of the same restaurants, bars, and specialty food stores are still there, along with new Italian gourmet cafes and restaurants. Those coming to the area, in addition to local residents, include people from the suburbs and other states, tourists from Manhattan, and folks just wanting good food.
But there have been changes. There are now a few Albanian restaurants and pizza shops, Mexican restaurants and diners, and even a small mosque for the local Albanian Muslims. Several apartment houses near Fordham Road have been taken over by nearby Fordham University and are now dormitories for the students. There are also a few sports bars. The Enrico Fermi Public Library offers literature in English, Italian, and Spanish. During the summer there are typical Italian street feasts, along with Ferragosto in September, which we never had years ago.
OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL CHURCH on 187th street in the Bronx.
How have these vestiges of my old neighborhood survived and expanded? Besides attracting visitors to the area, many of the businesses are family owned. One restaurant claims five generations in the same family. The largest bread store, Madonia, is run by Peter Madonia who is also the head of the local Business Improvement District and an advisor to several NYC mayors. A few years ago, I was having dinner in a local place when my friend told the maître d’ that I grew up on Arthur Avenue. He asked if I knew Artuso’s Pastry Shop and I mentioned that I went to elementary school with Anthony Artuso, the head of the family business. He pointed out Anthony sitting at the bar and I went over to speak with him. How many neighborhoods in NYC can you walk into a restaurant and bump into a childhood friend who you haven’t spoken to in 60 years?
My history with Little Italy in Manhattan is not as detailed. When I got my first car as a teenager, one of the first trips was to Little Italy on Mulberry Street. That was about 60 years ago and I have gone there every year since, except for the two years I lived in Los Angeles. The original neighborhood stretched from Houston Street to Canal Street and part of it overlapped with the Italian part of Greenwich Village. Like Arthur Avenue, the Italian population has diminished over the years. The census counts 34.5% of the population of Tract 41 as being non-Hispanic white with most of the rest being immigrants from adjacent Chinatown. The white population probably reflects students from nearby NYU along with gradual gentrification as indicated by the increase in condos over the decades.
The heart of the neighborhood is now a four-block stretch of Mulberry Street from Canal to Kenmare, at least as measured by the restaurants and souvenir shops. There are also street fairs, especially the Feast of San Gennaro, held every September since about 1926. I have attended this feast for most years it has been held and look forward to it as a major cultural and historical event. I do know that many of the long-time residents of the area have bemoaned the ethnic changes and the fact that this area that started extremely poor, became working class, then gentrified, and is now among the most expensive zip codes in the U.S.
But it is holding onto its heritage. The Italian ambience still exists on these four blocks, along with a few Italian restaurants north of Kenmare Street. Last year the Italian American Museum opened on the corner of Grand and Mulberry streets and traces the history of Italian Americans in NYC and across the country. Those of us who remember the area and return frequently, along with hordes of tourists, keep the atmosphere intact, at least for now.
I’ve only been to the North End of Boston a few times, but I felt right as if I were back in the Bronx. The area is large and filled with Italian-themed restaurants, pastry shops, food stores, and at least one souvenir store. Several restaurant staffers told me the area has changed considerably and just about all the Italians have moved out. Although the census describes the area as 84% white in Tract 304, locals described the newcomers as students from nearby colleges. The restaurants, as far as I can tell, range from the basic red sauce places serving the food I grew up on, to fancy gourmet type places. The historic Old North Church, that signaled Paul Revere to start his ride, is still there. The location, history and ambience have kept the area looking as ethnic as any other.
Not all Italian American neighborhoods have survived. East Harlem used to have the largest Italian population in the U.S. but as Italians moved out and Puerto Ricans moved in, the area became known as Spanish Harlem. These three neighborhoods have maintained their character only by a narrow definition. None of the three has an Italian or Italian American population. But all three have the ambience of being Italian with strong histories and deep involvement in the Italian community. I don’t know if these areas will stay the same or for how long. I only know that I will get to San Gennaro, Arthur Avenue, and maybe the North End for as long as I’m able.
Manhattan’s Little Italy is much larger than what this writer says. Nolita is part of Little Italy, not adjacent. Little Italy stretches from Centre/ Lafayette St to the Bowery and from Canal Street to Bleecker St/Houston St.