4. The Birth and Rebirth of a Community Center     

In 1908, a community center was constructed in the heart of the enclave with the words “Italian Hall” emblazoned in gold lettering on its yellow brick façade. Listed today on the National Register of Historic Places, the Italian Hall served as the community’s focal point, hosting countless social and cultural events, such as the vendemmia, or fall wine harvest. It held fundraisers for victims of natural disasters and charitable causes. Over the years, the Italian Hall lauched careers in entertainment and welcomed dignitaries, celebrities and historic figures, from early 20th century social and political activists Emma Goldman and the Flores Magon brothers, to Italian flying ace Francesco de Pinedo. The Italian Hall also played an integral role in the city’s free speech and labor movements and survived pivotal events in Italian American history, including the registration, relocation and arrests of so-called Italian “enemy aliens” during World War II. It witnessed the creation of Simon Rodia’s artistic masterpiece, the Watts Towers, the publishing of John Fante’s novels and the creation of Gaetano Uddo’s canned food Uddo-Taormina Company (which became Progresso).

While remaining connected to their ethnic identity during the post-War years, neither nostalgia nor tradition bound Italians to the neighborhoods they first settled. In the 1950s, the community, numbering 30,000, ceased to use the Italian Hall and it fell into disrepair. Little by little, the city’s Italian enclaves became masked by subsequent ethnic settlements or were erased entirely as a result of redevelopment.

In the late 1980s, a commercial development threatened to erase the Italian Hall’s historic significance. The community then created a group, later known as the Historic Italian Hall Foundation, to restore the Italian Hall and create a museum. More than $1.5 million was raised and work to address the building’s most critical deferred maintenance and historic preservation issues began. From pioneers to entrepreneurs, educators to civil rights leaders, artists, designers, restaurateurs and scientists, Italian Americans are an integral part of the Southern California’s complex social fabric. Should history prove as inextricably connected to memory as it is to place, the Italian American Museum promises to assist Italian Americans in their journey of self-discovery, and provide all visitors with a more meaningful understanding of the multi-layered history of Los Angeles and that of the nation.