An Era Ends, But Its Legacy Lives On

San Diego’s India Street, in Little Italy, houses at least 4 houses that are listed in the National Registry, and although the hay day of their era ended long ago, the Italian legacy that they spawned lives on.

Little Italy became densely populated in the early 1900s as a result of the  many Italian fisherman and their families who relocated to San Diego when a devastating earthquake left many in San Francisco homeless.

The San Diego harbor made it a perfect area for these fishermen and their families to start a new life. For over 70 years, San Diego’s tuna industry thrived and the area remained a hub of the city’s Italian culture.

A mural depicting those early times is dedicated to the fishermen and families who founded Little Italy at the beginning of the 1900s. It bears the street names of State, Columbia and India, as well as the Sapphire Neptune Seafood Company. In back of the 1804 India Street residence, strewn over a chain link fence, the remains of the actual fishing nets that those early fishermen used can still be seen, and are displayed for tourists to the area.

“I love living in Little Italy,” said Carla Najar, a native of Peru who has lived in the 1804 India Street residence with her boyfriend for approximately two years. “It’s a lovely place,” said the marketing researcher.

She lives on the second floor of the house, which was the original structure. According to Frank Russo the tenant on the first floor, his residence was the addition. This is the house that Jack Zoletti built, according to Russo, who also mentioned that the owner dotes on the building and keeps it in great shape. According to Russo the upper, original structure was raised and the lower structure built under it. Supposedly, they didn’t want to move the furniture.”

“I’ve lived here for four years” said Russo, who is originally from New York. “When I saw that this place was for rent, I went for it. I got lucky because people who move in, never move out.” Russo related that a series of women occupied the building for “20 years” before he saw his chance to move in. “It’s a lovely place to live in; unique not like anywhere else in the city,” added the ex-New Yorker.

Across the street and north east of the Zoletti house is Nelson Photo Supplies. For a little over 60 years, Nelson Photo Supplies has supplied the San Diego photography market. On the corner of this building is a plaque dedicated to Rose and Salvatore Cresci who met in Our Lady of the Rosary church, which will be celebrating its hundredth birth soon. They met in 1939 and married in 1942. The Cresci’s moved into their family’s property, right above the Bay City Drug Store which is now the site of Nelson Photo. The plaque also commemorates their 65th wedding anniversary in 2007.

One street over, closer to the harbor, is the celebrated Waterfront Tavern, touted as the 1933 institution that “outlasted the waterfront, but stills draws crowds.” This tavern is both part of the early San Diego era, as well as part of the legacy that still lives on.

The tavern is filled with photographs and memorabilia from the San Diego’s early past and the exploits of its legendary fishermen. Chaffee Grant and Clair Blakley opened the Waterfront Tavern, shortly after the prohibition was repealed catering to the local fishermen, oil company employees, and workers from surrounding businesses. It is rumored that Wyatt Earp was an early customer.

Perhaps one of the most recent additions to the ever-growing Little Italy scene, and continuing the Italian legacy, is Landini’s Pizza which recently opened in the heart of San Diego’s historic Little Italy.  “We are the first and only ‘New York style pizza by the slice’ in the neighborhood since 1999,” according to its owners, the Landini family. Warm Panini with imported meats and cheeses, Florentine inspired pastas, and an adequate selection of beers and wines are also on offer.