In 1924, the Venetian Social Club was founded at 8030 Germantown Ave. by artisans – stonemasons, bricklayers, carpenters – who had been brought to Chestnut Hill from the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of northern Italy to work on homes built by entrepreneurial developers Henry Houston and George Woodward. Many of the Italian workers who spoke little or no English lived in small homes on Willow Grove Avenue and constructed large homes several blocks away.

The Venetian Club, so-called because the workers’ home town was not far from Venice, was a refuge for these strangers in a strange land who had to learn the culture, language and mores of their new country. The club was a bridge between the Old World and the New World, a place where members could be themselves, speak the Friuliano dialect, celebrate the music and culture of Friuli, and support one another emotionally.