Mulberry Street

Italian neighborhood and street market, Mulberry Street

Mulberry Street served as the heart of "Little Italy," the largest Italian enclave in New York City. Over 35,000 people lived in the area - an average of 339 per acre - most of them jammed into five or six story tenements that towered over the streets. Rents were so high families often had to double-up, subletting one room in their tiny apartment to boarders or desperate relatives. Most immigrants found jobs in the neighborhood. Married women and children worked at home, sewing clothes for the garment trade, for instance, while men and unmarried women headed off to the many small factories or stores that dotted the area.

"For five months I trod the sidewalks of New York, unable to get work at my trade, or even as a dishwasher. Finally I fell into an agency on Mulberry Street, which looked for men to work with a pick and shovel. I offered myself and was accepted. I was conducted together with a herd of other ragged men to a barracks in the woods near Springfield, Massachusetts..." ~Bartolomeo Vanzetti