The Italians of the South Village

Like many immigrants to New York City, Italians originally coalesced into well-defined communities in Lower Manhattan. The South Village, along with what is now known as Little Italy, was the most prominent of these. While few of these immigrant neighborhoods from the last great wave of immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries remain intact today, perhaps unique among them the South Village has managed to maintain a clear - and some would argue organic - connection to its past, including its immigrant and ethnic past. This report was written by Mary E. Brown, Ph.D. as part of Village Preservation's efforts to extend landmark protections to the area, which we successfully accomplished in 2016 following a ten-year effort.