Retired Montclair Police Chief Tom Russo remembers when the roads around Pine Street in the Fourth Ward were filled with the sounds of people speaking Italian. “Everybody used to hang out on their front stoops and greet each other,” said Russo, who grew up in the area in the 1950s. He and his friends used to play in the streets until the streetlights came on; that was when it was time to go home.

Last week, the Township Council passed a resolution to declare October Italian-American Heritage Month. Deputy Mayor/First Ward Councilman William Hurlock, whose mother’s family came from Italy to Plainfield and Sterling in 1901, says that Italian-Americans in Montclair were instrumental in building the town.