The smell of sausage, peppers, pizza and other Italian food staples wafted down Pleasant Street as people made their way down blocked roads hoisting lawn chairs and pushing baby strollers on their way to the neighborhood's annual three-day celebration: Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church's Festa.

The annual summer party, which always falls across a weekend in July, has been a part of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel's history since the church first opened on Schenectady Street in 1922. The parish's current location, on Pleasant Street between 9th Avenue and Hodgson Street, opened in 1962.