| D'Amico Heritage |
| D'Amico = Friend; A derivative of the spanish word 'amigo' Amigo = A person whom one knows well, likes, and trusts |
| The following personal account is an attempt to reveal the story of an Italian immigrant family that migrated to Westport before the turn of the century and eventually established permanent roots in the community. Its purpose is not solely a human interest story, but rather to shed light on an Italian community that emerged in Saugatuck around the turn of the century and its impact on local culture. |
| ITALIANS IN WESTPORT A PERSONAL ACCOUNT FOR AN ETHNOHISTORY OF THE WESTPORT-NORWALK AREA FROM 1900 TO TODAY |
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| CHARACTER OF WESTPORT |
| By Anthony J. D'Amico, writer/researcher Westport-Weston Arts Council, CETA Project Funded by the Connecticut Humanities Council, The State Committee of the National Endowment for the Humanities February, 1979 (footnotes are with the original document) |
| At the close of the 19th century Westport, like other Connecticut cities and towns, saw the emergence of a thriving Italian community. Just a decade earlier, in 1890, 5,000 Italian immigrants were reported living in the state. Italians first arrived in Westport in the 1880's and a steady influx continued for the next three decades. At this time Westport was a rural community with a population of about 4,000, most of whom were old stock Americans from northern Europe. Fifty years earlier the New York-New Haven Railroad between Westport and Norwalk had been completed (December 25, 1848), and no connecting road existed between Westport and Saugatuck. During this period, |
| What is now Riverside Avenue, stopped at about where the gate to Kemper's Factory is now located (more recently Nash's Warehouse). Here was a pair of bars which opened into a piece of woodland, and during the building of the railroad, a footpath was worn along through the trees near the river to the place where the west abutment of the railroad bridge was built. Shortly after the town opened a wagon path nearly where the present avenue is and then Saugatuck began to boom... |
| In the 1840's some Irish families settled in Saugatuck; they would, however, be engulfed by the large number of Italian immigrants who would come later. Farming was an important part of Connecticut economic life, and Westport shared in this lucrative business. In 1903 the local paper commented on the "...increasingly important industry of fruit growing, which has become one fo the most profitable branches of Connecticut farming". Although many of the new immigrants found employment on area vegetable and fruit farms, others turned to the railroad and local factories. Nationally there was a demand for unskilled labor, in both industry and farming, which immigrants could provide. Westport, in spite of it's size, had its needs; and for those who chose to go beyond the large urban centers, the town drew a sizable number of foreign-born, including a substantial number of Italians, as did its neighboring communities. |
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| This is my Grandma and Grandpa's house on Main Street in Westport,CT |