Little Italy San Jose is a Non Profit Organization dedicated to the revival of the original Italian Settlement in San Jose dating back to the 1880’s. For the past 5 years, Little Italy has moved in authentic Italian businesses such as Paesano Ristorante, Bel Bacio Italian Café, and La Piccola Scuola nel Parco, honored 30 prominent Italian Americans on park banners, and created a Piazza Piccola Italia with engraved bricks from the community.
The past few months have been very busy and exciting for this project as several initiatives that have been several years in the making are breaking ground. The first is the Little Italy Arch that was originally started as a concept 4 years ago by Joshua DeVincenzi Melander, Executive Director of Little Italy San Jose and Davide Giannella, the In Kind Architect from Acadia-Architecture.
This project literally took the whole community, who either helped in the design, monetary donations through the brick program initiated by Assistant Director Debbie Caminiti or fundraisers, and through the large In Kind donations from Maggetti Construction, Pietra Fina Marble, J.A. Antuzzi concrete, S&S welding, Ruth & Going, Frank Cozzitorto P.E., Best Electric, Biggs & Cardosa, Valentina Designs, Kathy Causi (Canada Marble), Enter Designs, and Peninsula Building Materials.
The Arch is set to break ground in the next few weeks and has been a tedious process working through the City on erecting the Arch (Arco),that will rise 31 feet in the air and be visible from the nearby 87 Freeway at the gateway to Downtown San Jose. This is the first Arch built over the public right away in the City of San Jose since the San Pedro Square arch that was built in 1908. We feel that this Arch will officially make our project “Little Italy San Jose” and will serve as a monument to honor the countless Italian American contributions to Santa Clara County and the greater Bay Area.
Another Exciting project is the “Little Italy San Jose Cultural center & Museum project”. Our Non Profit was able to purchase property and two Historic homes in our Italian district for a permanent museum depicting the history of Italian Americans in Santa Clara County and be the gathering place for numerous Italian Cultural events.
We were able to raise funds from the Italian community through donations and want to thank the major donors that made this acquisition possible to further the cultural presence in Little Italy San Jose. Mille Grazie to John A. Sobrato, the DiNapoli/Mulcahy families, the Marchese/Owen families, The Trapani family and all those who helped make this a reality. We are finalizing our Architectural and engineering plans for this project and are excited on what lies ahead.
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