Despite the popular misconception, the figure that hangs under the arch as you ascend Atwells Avenue onto Federal Hill is not a pineapple, but a pinecone. A symbol for abundance and quality, the pinecone, or, La Pigna, is a nod to the rich Italian culture that has dominated “The Hill” since immigrants began to arrive there in the late 19th century.

Atwells Avenue is perhaps the best neighborhood to go to for a meal in the Renaissance City and it boasts 15 different Italian restaurants from which to choose. Reinforcing the Italian connection, running through the center of the neighborhood are green, white, and red traffic lines that follow Atwells Avenue, a thoroughfare named for the man who once owned the land now known as Federal Hill. That man, Amos Maine Atwell, was not Italian, but he was a prominent figure in the town during his time. Atwell was born in 1765 to Amos and Betty (Searle) Atwell. His father, a Providence blacksmith, merchant, and ship-owner, was known for building the first brick house in the town. In 1788, when the town existed almost completely on the east side of Providence River, Atwell began to parcel out his land on the west side and sell it for agricultural and residential use. The younger Atwell was known for his service as colonel in the American Revolution and his membership in the Rhode Island General Assembly in 1790-91. In 1789, Atwell was one of over 75 charter members of the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, a group created for “the purpose of promoting industry, and giving a just encouragement to ingenuity – that our own manufactures may be improved to the general advantage, not only of the manufacturers themselves, but of the state at large.” According to the Providence Association of Mechanics and Manufacturers, Atwell was regarded as one of the “brightest [stars] in the galaxy of Rhode Island Masonry” for his service to the Mt. Vernon Lodge No. 4. Because of his status as the first Master of the Lodge (1799) as well as Deputy Grand Master (1813-1814) he was buried with full Masonic honors after he passed away in 1815. At that time there were virtually no Italian immigrants in Providence, and in fact, it was the Irish community that occupied most of Federal Hill and Atwells Avenue. However, as the 19th century progressed, Italian immigrants made their way onto The Hill, and by the 1920s, the area was predominantly Italian.

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In 1885, there were fewer than 500 Italian-born in Providence; within a generation, over twenty-thousand. In Italy in 1889, Bishop Giovanni Battista Scalabrini’s society sent missionaries to Providence and formed the Holy Ghost parish to serve the spiritual and physical needs of this growing community. Plans for this Italian Romanesque church were made in 1901 and completed in 1909. Father Flaminio Parenti, the “Shepherd of Federal Hill,” led the flock here from 1922 to 1964 and continued the beautification of the church. The work of the Scalabrinian missionaries continues today as a lay organization, the Scalabrini Dukcevich Center, which provides support and services to all those in need. At Holy Ghost, there are masses in English, Italian and Spanish. Communities of Colombians and Guatemalans have joined the congregation, breathing new life into the old traditions. Holy Ghost remains the “Mother Church” of the Italian diaspora in Rhode Island and a beautiful testament to the faith and fortitude of the community.

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While some radicals fought against a system that they saw as rigged, other radical acts came from the world of privilege. Alida Sprague Whitmarsh was born into a wealthy family but devoted herself to helping the poor working women of Providence. In 1887, she and Harriet Richards formed the Mt. Pleasant Working Girls Club & Library, later Sprague House, to provide training and assistance to the young Irish women working in the mills. In 1910, recognizing the great need in the densely settled Italian neighborhood, they occupied a tenement in this house and relocated here entirely in 1914, becoming Federal Hill House. Settlement houses provided medical and food aid, language classes, and skills training to immigrants trying to navigate a new country. Early emphasis was on assimilation, but sensitivity to native cultures developed over time. Federal Hill House was known for its baby clinics and free milk, sewing, pottery and language classes, and social organizations for boys and girls. No longer Irish and Italian, today’s immigrants come from across the globe. Federal Hill House has a 130-year tradition of providing community and support to thousands of city residents, both newly arrived and native born. 

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If Garibaldi Park and the Gateway Arch are the welcoming arms of Federal Hill, DePasquale Square is its beating heart. The quatrefoil fountain and wide plaza were built as part of the Federal Hill revitalization effort. Back in the day, however, this was Arthur Avenue, a transverse artery of the “Italian Colony.” Tens of thousands of immigrant families packed into narrow streets and triple-deckers. The historic building rising four stories over the square is the Cappelli Block, completed in 1909 by Antonio Cappelli, who was among the earliest Italian arrivals on Federal Hill, when Irish immigrants dominated the avenue. An unregulated building boom resulted in tight streets and small flats without plumbing—the bathhouse in Garibaldi Park was a critical necessity. Along these streets, too, were the Hill’s famous pushcarts, which sold every variety of fruit and vegetable. Imagine the laborers of a hundred years ago who struggled to build a new life here, working in the mills, living in small tenements without water or light, and doing their daily shopping amid the vendors who stood along these storefronts.

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The Federal Hill Riots of 1914, often called the “Macaroni Riots,” epitomize the struggle of immigrant communities in Rhode Island. As World War I was breaking out, food prices spiked. Laborers gathered on street corners to listen to “agitators” blame business owners. A mob formed that attacked wholesale grocer Frank P. Ventrone’s business block here. They smashed windows and hurled macaroni into the street. Police intervention quelled the disturbance, but the next day new confrontations sparked an even bloodier riot in which eighteen were injured, including 15-year-old Quinnio Oddi, shot by police. Over two weeks, there were five violent confrontations between Federal Hill residents and the police. The violence manifested the desperation of Providence’s immigrant working poor. Child labor was the norm; long hours earned little pay; laborers were easily replaced and had no assurance of work; they had no voice in government. In the midst of this poverty and social unrest, radicals like Luigi Nimini agitated for change. Nimini published his Italian-language newspaper Il Ragione Nuova from his shop at 206 Atwells and founded the Karl Marx Club at the corner of Atwells and Dean, the same corner where radical speakers riled up the crowd in August 1914.

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In the spring of 1975, women with sledgehammers marched on what was then called Franklin Park to attack a dilapidated bathhouse. Built in 1911 to serve the crowded Italian immigrant community, the bathhouse had outlived its usefulness. The women threatened to call the site “Mayor Cianci Park” after Providence’s first Italian-American mayor, Vincent “Buddy” Cianci. Federal Hill had been the epicenter of the Italian immigrant experience in Rhode Island. Tens of thousands of new arrivals in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries got their start in America on Federal Hill. Their children and grandchildren wanted their neighborhood revitalized. Buddy turned the PR disaster into a coup. The bathhouse was demolished. The park rehabilitated and renamed Giuseppe Garibaldi Park. “This is the gateway to Federal Hill,” the mayor said at the rededication ceremony the following October. Within a few years, the gateway arch decorated with “La Pigna,” a symbol of hospitality, welcomed visitors into the hometown of the Italian diaspora, a neighborhood dedicated to the celebration of Italian culture and contributions to Rhode Island.

Watch a video featuring Taylor Polites, Curator of the West Side of Providence Rhode Tour, sharing his inspiration and insights on the development of this tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hTkBitQ5sM.

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Entering Narragansett Bay in 1524, the explorer Giovanni de Verrazano was probably the first Italian visitor to Rhode Island, long before tomatoes made it to these parts. Rhode Island named the Jamestown Verrazano Bridge (in the southeastern part of the state) after him. It took more than three centuries before many other Italians settled in Rhode Island. Like many urban areas throughout the Eastern United States, Providence experienced several waves of immigration from Italy in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Providence’s India Point was a main port on the Fabre Line, which offered the only transatlantic route to southern New England. Almost eighty-four thousand immigrants came into the United States through Providence, and around eleven thousand of them stayed. These Italian immigrants settled in the area now known as Federal Hill, on the west side of Providence, where their descendants and many other Italian Americans still live today. Visitors to this unique enclave of Italian-American heritage pass under a large sculpture of a pine cone, called La Pigna, which hangs above Atwells Avenue. The symbol of welcome and abundance tells people that they have arrived at one of the best-known culinary and cultural districts in the state. DePasquale Square marks the cultural, if not geographic, center of this vibrant neighborhood. A large central fountain is surrounded by outdoor seating, colorfully-painted buildings, and seagulls galore, all of which help create the feeling of a Mediterranean piazza. Numerous restaurants, serving Italian-inspired cuisine from all regions of Italy, fill the streets surrounding the square. Diners have options ranging from upscale dining in candlelit establishments to busy late-night pizza parlors. Numerous specialty food stores like Antonelli Poultry, where savvy cooks can purchase chickens wholesale, stand alongside bakeries and cafes where diners enjoy both espressos and an Ocean State classic, pizza strips -- consisting only of pizza dough topped with spicy tomato sauce.

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