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    Italian Staten Island
    Italian Staten Island
    Italian Staten Island
    Ebook217 pages55 minutes

    Italian Staten Island

    By Andrew Paul Mele and James P. Molinaro

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    About this ebook

    The great wave of European immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries brought more than four million Italians to America. It was one of the greatest mass emigrations in world history, and many settled in Staten Island. Following the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964, the island experienced another great influx of Italian immigrants, this time from the other boroughs of New York City. This new wave was responsible for doubling the island population by the year 2000. Italian Americans are evident in every avocation and in each corner of Staten Island society, with achievers in education, business, government, medicine, and sports and entertainment. Italian Staten Island chronicles the traditions, culture, and heritage of Italian Americans through more than 200 photographs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439623565
    Italian Staten Island
    Author

    Andrew Paul Mele

    Andrew Paul Mele was born and raised in Brooklyn and arrived in Staten Island shortly after the opening of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. He is the author of two books of baseball history in Brooklyn, as well as several short stories. His articles appear in the Staten Island Advance and the Italian Tribune. The introduction was provided by James P. Molinaro, Staten Island borough president.

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      Book preview

      Italian Staten Island - Andrew Paul Mele

      volume.

      INTRODUCTION

      Staten Island is home to the largest percentage of Italian Americans in any congressional district in the country. As one of Staten Island’s many proud Italian Americans, it is my great pleasure to recognize the positive impact Italians have had upon our borough.

      The history of Staten Island is filled with influential Italians. The borough was discovered by Giovanni da Verrazano on April 17, 1524. Inventor Antonio Meucci made Staten Island his home in 1850. Italian freedom-fighter Giuseppe Garibaldi sought refuge here a few years later. Today the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum is maintained by the Order of the Sons of Italy and is dedicated to Italian American culture and heritage.

      We have forged close ties with our Italian Sister City, Crespina, located in the region of Tuscany. Snug Harbor Cultural Center boasts a beautiful Tuscan garden, modeled after the Villa Gamberaia in Florence, Italy. Each year, the people of Staten Island celebrate their Italian American heritage with the festive Columbus Day parade.

      Staten Islanders are immersed by Italian food, family, and culture. It is with great excitement that I see Staten Island’s Italian heritage memorialized in this book.

      —James P. Molinaro

      Staten Island Borough President

      James P. Molinaro was elected borough president of Staten Island in 2001. He was the first member of the Conservative Party to be elected to that position. Molinaro, the son of Italian immigrants, is a resident of Fort Wadsworth. He moved to Staten Island from Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1965. (Courtesy Office of the Borough President.)

      One

      ITALIANS MEET STATEN ISLAND

      The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is the gateway to Staten Island, linking this borough to the other four of New York City. It is named for Giovanni da Verrazzano, the Italian explorer who sailed for France and into New York Bay in 1524. Named in his honor, it was opened in 1964 and was the largest expansion bridge in the world at the time. At 4,260 feet with 12 lanes on 2 decks, its towers extend 680 feet into the sky. (Author’s collection.)

      The first four explorers to view the American mainland were all Italian navigators, but unlike Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and Amerigo Vespucci before him, Giovanni da Verrazzano recognized that it was not part of Asia but a great new continent that separated the Eastern (Pacific) and Western Oceans. He landed at Cape Fear, North Carolina, on March 1, 1524, and explored the coastline north to Maine. He then anchored at Newfoundland before sailing for France. In New York, Verrazzano and his crew of 50 encountered Native Americans, whom he described as beautiful, generous, and friendly. His descriptions of the harbor and the surrounding countryside were the first ones of America. (Courtesy Garibaldi-Meucci Museum.)

      Giuseppe Garibaldi was born in the city of Nizza, Italy, on July 4, 1807. He was a military and political figure and a great Italian patriot, lauded as the revolutionary leader who unified the country in the 1860s. He has been called the Hero of the Two Worlds for his military expeditions in both South America and Europe. Garibaldi’s Staten Island connection began upon his arrival on July 30, 1850. He stayed at the home of his friend, inventor Antonio Meucci, in the Clifton section of Staten Island. While exiled, Garibaldi worked as a candle maker in his Meucci’s plant. In their free time, the friends went hunting and fishing together on the island. Garibaldi stayed until April 1851. The cottage where he lived is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now is preserved as the Garibaldi Memorial. During his stay in Staten Island, Garibaldi made formal application for American citizenship. (Courtesy Garibaldi-Meucci Museum.)

      Upon his arrival in Staten Island aboard the English packet ship Waterloo, Giuseppe Garibaldi was detained, as all persons from abroad were, at the quarantine station in Rosebank. The red, white, and green flag of the Roman Republic was flown over the buildings in his honor. He lived in a second-floor bedroom in Antonio Meucci’s home. During his stay on Staten Island, Garibaldi took walks along St. Mary’s Avenue, shopped in the market in Stapleton, and went shooting in the woods on the Dongan Hills. (Author’s collection.)

      Meucci was busy inventing the telephone in the small house in Clifton when Alexander Graham Bell was just a child in Scotland. Meucci and his wife, Ester, left Italy amid 19th-century Italian uprisings and arrived in State Island in 1850. By 1852, Meucci had several telephone systems operating in his house and candle factory, as well as servicing the entire neighborhood. By 1862, he had developed more than 30 telephonic models but was never to get credit for a telephone patent, as fate stepped in and derailed his efforts. Bell registered his patent in 1876. (Courtesy Garibaldi-Meucci Museum.)

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