Italians

By the early 1900s, the river flats of Upper Landing gradually passed to the Italian immigrants from the region of Molise in south-central Italy. “Little Italy” was a thriving, almost self-contained community on the Upper Levee, below the High Bridge, from the early 1900s to the 1950s. Serious flooding over many years finally led the city, in the mid-1950s, to begin condemnation and acquisition of houses on the levee. Several well known Italian family businesses (Bonfe’s, Cossetta’s, DeGidio’s, DiSanto’s, and Mancini’s), continue operations on West 7th Street today.