At 'This Place in History,' we're at the Italian American Club of Rutland with Executive Director of the Vermont Historical Society Steve Perkins. David Cioffi and Jack Kulig gave us a tour of the club and and a history lesson, too. "100 years ago in 2014. All the immigrants that came needed a place to go and the club at the time put them all together and all their Italian heritage and had a place to come and stay. They gave them a meal and they had things to do," introduced Kulig.
"The Church was a strong influence for a lot of the immigrants.; the Poles, the Italians, the Irish, they ended up living next door to each other for the most part. Besides the Church, they needed a place to gather and socialize and this ended up being it. There were both men and women in the very beginning and I think in terms of aid, they helped themselves out socially through the club and individually through the neighborhoods, which I think was very popular back then because they were immigrants," explained Cioffi.
