Site #4: Little Italy, 1979-1980
Dates
- 1979-1980
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Historical Note
Begun in the early 1800s, the influx of Italian immigrants to the United States increased dramatically during the Gold Rush of the 1850s. Little Italy is a byproduct of that era. Founded in 1849 (LBHC), Italian immigrants, attracted to its proximity to the harbor and its departing ships, came to this area as a stop over before heading West to Sutter’s Mill (Sandler, 57). A railroad station was built at President and Fleet Street in response to this need. Other evidence of this intention by Italian immigrants to only stay in Baltimore temporarily is illustrated by the early residences consisting of temporary housing, namely hostelries.
The early immigrants were from Genoa. They were joined by others from central Italy, mainly Naples, at approximately the same time that some of the temporary residents decided to make this area their permanent home. They took jobs as cooks and laborers in the hostelries and the growing number of restaurants in town (Sander, 57). The most significant signal of this new permanence was the building of St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church and school in 1880 on the corner of Exeter and Stiles streets (Churches).
Local lore has it that the Great Fire of 1904 spared the community when its residents prayed to St. Anthony. Every year since, the neighborhood holds the Festival of St. Anthony to commemorate its deliverance (LBHC).
At the time of the BNHP, Little Italy consisted of twelve square blocks of row houses, small shops, and several restaurants. All were owned by members of this proud all-Italian-American community.
Sources:
Gilbert Sandler, “Little Italy” in Livelier Baltimore Committee of the Citizens Planning & Housing Association Beyond the White Marble Steps: A Look at Baltimore
Neighborhoods (J.W. Boarman Co., 1979) (PAM 10,988)
“Little Italy,” Live Baltimore Home Center, accessed on March 23, 2005,
http://www.livebaltimore.com/nb/list/pimlico.
“Churches,” Little Italy, Maryland, accessed on March 23, 2005, http://www.littleitalymd.com/.
Extent
29 Items : 29 oral histories
Language of Materials
From the Collection: English
Scope and Contents
The Baltimore Neighborhood Heritage Project Oral History Collection contains paper records and audiocassette recordings from 1978 through 1980. The paper records are composed of the files kept on each narrator (the person being interviewed) and the administrative needs of the project. Narrator records contain biography forms, interview notes, and tape indexes for approximately 212 narrators. The interview notes briefly describe the circumstance surrounding the interview(s) session. The tape index includes the name of the narrator, the name of interviewer, the number of tapes, the tape(s) length, and the primary subjects covered. Seventy-nine of the records include transcripts. Transcript length ranges from 8 to 65 pages. Some are single-spaced; others are doubled-spaced. The interviews range from twenty-five minutes to three hours in length. One file, #183, and its accompanying cassette(s) were removed from the collection.
Thirty-two interviewers participated in the project. Typically, the interviews were one-on-one sessions between interviewer and narrator; however, single interviewer and double-narrator situations occurred, as did three group “nostalgia” sessions. Most interviews were prefaced by unrecorded, pre-interview sessions that occurred days before the recorded interview.
Each narrator abstract includes the following information when available: the BNHP interview number; the name of the interviewer; the date of the interview; the place of the interview; the length of the interview; the number of tapes used; the length of the transcript; and the file contents, such as subject index, interview notes, and biography form. The abstracts follow the numerical order of the interview number. However, interview numbers are not consecutive, but site specific. That is to say, any omitted number within a site can be found in another site.
When controversial or outdated terms, especially those referring to race and ethnicity, are mentioned in the abstract, the politically-correct term is used and the term or terms used by the narrator has been placed in parenthetical (“ ”) quotation marks. Specific terms from the interviews and textual uncertainties are often placed in parentheses alone ( ). Maiden names of female narrators are placed in brackets [ ].
Repository Details
Part of the H. Furlong Baldwin Library Repository
H. Furlong Baldwin Library
Maryland Center for History and Culture
610 Park Avenue
Baltimore MD 21201 United States
4106853750
specialcollections@mdhistory.org