Back in the day Italian immigrants established enclaves in cities big and small across the U.S., and the Keystone State was no exception. Smaller cities in Western Pennsylvania, like Jeanette and New Castle, were heavily populated by Italian families. I grew up in New Castle in the 1950s and ‘60s where about half the city’s residents were of Italian descent.

In 1895, my father’s family settled in a borough just south of New Castle known as Mahoningtown, which was established in 1836 and later annexed by New Castle in 1898, making it the city’s seventh ward. Mahoningtown is located on the banks of the Mahoning River, and the Pennsylvania railroad ran directly through the area.