Heritage

One of the leading automobile dealerships in Southern California today, Bozzani Motors debuted in 1911 as a modest bicycle shop located at 632 North Main Street, next door to the Italian Hall. An advance in capital allowed brothers Amerigo, Joe, …

The Main Street portion of the Italian Hall contained three commercial stores including an Italian tailor’s shop, a saloon, a hardware store and later, a billiard parlor and bicycle shop. In the early 1900s, the Italian Hall’s saloon, owned by …

Prohibition devastated the wine industry in California, a sector that Italian immigrants had played an integral role in developing. A handful of vintners, including Santo Cambianca, who had established a winery in Lincoln Heights in 1917, survived by manufacturing grape …

Los Angeles’ little Italy contained many businesses whose popularity stretched beyond the Italian community itself, such as Giacchino’s Bakery, which was located on North Broadway and was famous for their rum cakes, and Dario’s, a popular eatery where downtown businessmen rubbed …

During the late teens and into the 1920s, Italians began settling in Lincoln Heights, a neighborhood east of downtown and considered the oldest neighborhood in Los Angeles. Once home to the city’s wealthiest residents some of whose stately Victorian mansions …

Calvary Cemetery is the resting place for Angelinos of various ethnicities, including countless Italians.   The Roman Catholic cemetery, now located in East Los Angeles, was originally found on Calle Eternidad or Eternity Street, a name given to the road …

The foot races of the Garibaldina Mutual Benefit Society, often organized for charitable purposes, commenced in front of the Italian Hall, the Society’s headquarters, on North Main Street in little Italy. This particular race, which took place circa 1917, captures …

Il Circolo Operaio Italiano (Italian Worker’s Club) was one of the groups headquartered at the Italian Hall. The club’s exclusively male membership sponsored Saturday evening dances at the building and hosted charitable events, including footraces and May Day celebrations. While …

Born Domenico Gebbia in Palermo, Sicily in 1886, Domenic Jebbia immigrated to the United States at age six, and arrived in California in 1925. Jebbia established the West Coast Banana Distributing Company at the Los Angeles Produce Market, and because …

Born in New York City in 1905 to Domenico and Palmina LaBarba, Gold Medal Olympian Fidel LaBarba was raised in the heart of Los Angeles’ Little Italy where he sold newspapers for the Los Angeles Express and learned to fight …