From Civil War to Social Distancing
With a small college to the north, and a few streets named after past presidents, Little Italy was simply ‘Belmont’ on post- Civil War surveyor’s maps. But with the addition of a Zoological Park, a Botanical Garden and a hospital at its borders, Belmont was an enclave waiting to happen.
As the century turned, Italian immigrants poured into the area. Arriving through Ellis Island or from East Harlem via the Third Avenue El, Belmont would soon become Little Italy in The Bronx. Food products were needed to remind residents of their Italian heritage, so merchants began to pop up throughout the area. Consisting largely of Roman Catholics, Belmont would eventually need its own Church. Our Lady of Mt. Carmel – which began as just a simple storefront – would soon arrive in 1906.
As each decade passed, a new Belmont story emerged. The 1910s saw the first generation of our legendary merchants arrive. The roaring twenties turned into the breadlines and soup kitchens of the Great Depression. The animosity towards Italians during World War II came and faded. In 1955, Marty - a movie about a Little Italy butcher - won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Doowop music hit the streets, and a crooner named Dion exploded onto the scene with a string of hits and a number one song in the early 1960s. Little Italy was at an all time high – until the Dark Ages of the Bronx came in the late 60s and early 70s. We had our Yankees, but we also had Viet Nam, racial tensions, a shrinking Italian population and Son of Sam.
The eighties found Little Italy as an area much smaller in size, but with a stronger will to survive. Merchant and resident symbiosis bonded people together. Loyal friends who moved away, now returned weekly to shop and eat.
When the 1990s finally arrived, Little Italy was rebounding in a big way. A restaurant manager that we lost to Hollywood in 1980 – went on to win the Academy Award in 1990. Little Italy’s epic story went global when A Bronx Tale hit the big screen in 1993. One dreamer’s crazy idea for a local playhouse eventually caught on, and would spawn a street fair that would bring 20,000 people back home to Little Italy each year.
As the clock turned on the new millennium, Mt. Carmel Church, as well as five different merchants, were all turning 100 years old. 9/11, CoVid-19 and social distancing took its toll on the area, but they couldn’t knock us out. Once again, Little Italy pulled together, and is now starting down a new road toward its bi-centennial.
