Little Italy is a neighborhood located in southeastern

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The neighborhood is known for its strong

Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, w ...

heritage and identity. The neighborhood is still mostly populated by the descendants of Italian-American immigrants and remains a closely knit

ethnic enclave In sociology, an ethnic enclave is a geographic area with high ethnic concentration, characteristic cultural identity, and economic activity. The term is usually used to refer to either a residential area or a workspace with a high concentration ...

. Due to its close proximity to desirable neighborhoods such as

Fell's Point Fell's Point is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland. It was established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. The area has many antique, musi ...

Upper Fell's Point Upper Fells Point, also known as "Fells Prospect," is a neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Col ...

and

Harbor East Inner Harbor East, now more recently referred to more commonly as simply as Harbor East, is a relatively new mixed-use development project in Baltimore, Maryland, United States along the northern shoreline of the Northwest Branch of the Pataps ...

, real estate values in Little Italy have become high in recent years. Another cause for the neighborhood's competitive real estate market is the lack of properties entering the market due to the longstanding neighborhood tradition of keeping houses within the family. Each summer, the Little Italy community hosts an outdoor

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

where

outdoor movies An outdoor cinema consists of a digital or analog movie projector, scaffolded construction or inflatable movie screen, and sound system. History Outdoor cinemas first began at around 1916 in Berlin, Germany. During the 1920s, many "rooftop theatr ...

are projected onto a wall at the intersection of High and Stiles Streets.

History

Located just east of the

Inner Harbor The Inner Harbor is a historic seaport, tourist attraction, and landmark of the city of Baltimore, Maryland. It was described by the Urban Land Institute in 2009 as "the model for post-industrial waterfront redevelopment around the world". The ...

, Little Italy was given its name due to the large number of

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

immigrant families that moved into the area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When Italian immigrants first moved into the what is now Little Italy, the neighborhood was home to a diverse community of Irish, German, and Jewish immigrants. By the start of the 20th century, the neighborhood had become almost exclusively Italian-American, eventually earning it the name, Little Italy. Little Italy is home to St. Leo the Great Roman Catholic Church, established in 1881 (cornerstone laid 1880), and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The church has traditionally been the centerpiece of the largely Catholic neighborhood and is still frequented by local residents along with Italian-Americans from elsewhere in Baltimore with family roots to the neighborhood.

Notable natives and residents

*Speaker of the United States House of Representatives

Nancy Pelosi Nancy Patricia Pelosi (; ; born March 26, 1940) is an American politician who has served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives since 2019 and previously from 2007 to 2011. She has represented in the United States House of ...

grew up in Baltimore's Little Italy. Her father,

Thomas D'Alesandro Jr. Thomas Ludwig John D'Alesandro Jr. (August 1, 1903 – August 23, 1987) was an American politician who served as the 39th mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented in the United States H ...

, was mayor of the city. *

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

Hall of Famer

Jim Palmer James Alvin Palmer (born October 15, 1945) is an American former professional baseball pitcher who played 19 years in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Baltimore Orioles (1965–1967, 1969–1984). Palmer was the winningest MLB pitcher in the ...

owns a penthouse condominium in Little Italy, which he acquired in 2006, and uses when he's in Baltimore doing broadcasting work.

Literary and dramatic references

*In '' Homicide: Life on the Street'', fictional detective

Al Giardello Alphonse Michael 'Gee' Giardello Sr. is a fictional character from the television drama '' Homicide: Life on the Street''. The character was played by Yaphet Kotto. He is based on Baltimore Police Department Shift Lieutenant Gary D'Addario, a memb ...

was raised in Little Italy, as it was the neighborhood inhabited by his father's side of the family. Giardello's mother's side of the family was from a neighboring

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

housing project called the Perkins Homes. * Nora Roberts' book ''Blue Smoke'' was set in Baltimore's Little Italy, as is the

film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dial ...

Transportation

Little Italy is located three blocks south of the Shot Tower/Market Place Baltimore Metro Subway station. The southern terminus of the

Jones Falls Expressway Interstate 83 (I-83) is an Interstate Highway in the Eastern United States. Its southern terminus is at a signalized intersection with Fayette Street in Baltimore, Maryland; its northern terminus is at I-81 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Most ...

( I-83) is just north of the neighborhood.

References

External links

Little Italy Community Association (Baltimore)

Little Italy, MD
{{Authority control Ethnic enclaves in Maryland Neighborhoods in Baltimore Italian-American culture in Baltimore