For fifty years, St. Michael’s Cemetery permitted Italians to erect tremendously elaborate monuments to memorialize their dead. Many of these were carved by Italian craftsmen who emigrated to work in the quarries in Barre, Vermont. The monuments pictured in this article were all carved by hand and it would be almost impossible to duplicate them Read More…
Tag: Life on the Corner
Life on the Corner: St. Michael’s Cemetery [Part I]
Our story begins in Southern Italy from where almost all North Enders originated especially the hill towns surrounding Avellino and Sicily. The Italians who traveled to America were desperately poor and led an agrarian life which had changed little since the Middle Ages. The voyage itself was perilous and they all traveled in Third Class Read More…
Life on the Corner: La Morte di Ciccio Sessa
On March 14, 1891 an angry mob of several thousand people descended on the jail in New Orleans, Louisiana intent on administering rough justice on nine inmates who had just been acquitted of murdering the chief of police. Barred from the front door, they gained entrance through the back and immediately shot the nine men. Read More…
Life on the Corner: Hey, Wall-Yo’
Hey, Wall-Yo’. How many times did I hear that expression growing up in the North End? I would be walking down Salem Street and some old lady would yell that at me from a fourth floor window. If I stopped and looked up she would let down a basket on a rope of clothesline with Read More…
Life on the Corner: A Walk Down Hanover Street – Part III
Here is the final photo of Hanover Street in the 1940’s and it depicts the block between Parmenter and Prince Streets. The first thing to notice is that although the cars and trucks are different, double parking was an issue even back then. Some things never change and probably never will. There are three pastry Read More…
Life on the Corner: A Walk Down Hanover Street – Part II
It’s a misty day on Hanover Street during the late 1940’s. The street was still paved with cobblestones at that time and don’t those old cars look terrific? They give the scene a noir feel which seems right in character. This photo was taken from the corner of Cross Street looking North towards the Coast Read More…
Life on the Corner: A Walk Down Hanover Street – Part I
When tourists visit the North End today they almost always come for the food. Is there a tourist who leaves the North End without a pastry box from Mike’s, Modern or Maria’s? We have some of the best restaurants, coffee and pastry shops and bakeries in the city, but this tourist trade is a Read More…
Life on the Corner: Ghost of Old North Church
Here is another picture from the walls of Nick’s Tavern, my family’s bar on Lewis Street. The photo was taken during World War II when many North End boys were overseas serving their country. It appears to be a dinner honoring wounded and fallen servicemen. The woman in the middle is a Gold Star mother. Read More…
Life on the Corner: A North End Mystery
My grandfather, Nicola Dello Russo, owned a tavern at the corner of Lewis and Commercial Streets during the early to mid twentieth century. Like all taverns, the walls were covered with pictures of local celebrities and events and the picture I am sharing today was one of those. Unfortunately there were no annotations as to Read More…
Life on the Corner: Clotheslines and Coal Oil
A few weeks ago while attending a meeting in the Time Warner building in New York City, I decided to skip out of a boring afternoon lecture and visit the Tenement Museum on the Lower East Side. This was one of the things I always wanted to do because the Lower East Side was a Read More…
Life on the Corner: Lunch at the Ritz
If you walk down Hanover St. today the most noticeable characteristic would be the tremendous number of restaurants and coffee shops, many with long lines of tourists waiting to get in, a very different scene from the mid twentieth century. When I was young there were a half dozen or so upscale North End restaurants; Read More…
Life on the Corner: Shaw House
We live in an era, and in a country, where the government provides a wide range of social and educational services for its citizens. Newly arrived immigrants can obtain housing, food, a monthly stipend and even an education in their native language all paid for by the Federal and State governments. But imagine you were Read More…