South Mildred Street, Philadelphia

A typical narrow alley street in Philadelphia's Little Italy circa 1900

South Milred Street, Philadelphia today

 

According to the US Census, in 1900, South Mildred Street was crowded with immigrants from southern Italy.   The census also showed that one house in particular was crowded with Ambruso’s.  Francesco (Frank) Ambruso and his wife Giovanna (Jannie); Francesco’s son Michael and his wife Caterina (Kate) and their 3 month old baby, Frank, named after his grandfather; and Francesco’s second son, Leonardo with his new wife Mary, all lived in the tiny house at 712 South Mildred Street.   Just a few years later, Michael and his growing family moved next door to 710 S. Mildred.  Leonardo and Mary also moved next door, but in the other direction, to 714 S. Mildred.  And in 1912, a widow by the name of Angelina Ambruso (possibly Frank’s sister) was living at 713 S. Mildred Street.

South Mildred Street was designed before the automobile.  It was only wide enough for one cart to pass, with a small sidewalk on each side.  Today it is not wide enough to drive a vehicle through without having one wheel up on the pavement (see photo above).  It is called a street, but it is little more than an alley.  The houses haven’t changed much the last 130 years.  They are all constructed of brick, three stories with a basement, and are very narrow (only 18 to 20 feet wide) with a common wall between them.  It turns out South Mildred Street was typical of side streets in that section of Philadelphia in the late 1800’s.  Several other streets in the vicinity such as Schell St., Kenilworth, Kater and Bradford Alley all had, and still have a similar appearance.  The historic photo above could be any one of these streets.  They were all home to southern Italians who converged on Philadelphia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

During the Ellis Island years, when passengers boarded the ship for their journey to America, they had to give the name and address of the person they were going to in the United States.  Giuseppe Ambruso and his two sons listed Francesco at 712 Mildred Street Philadelphia.  Nephews such as Michele Ambruso, who eventually settled in Hartford, CT and Domenico Daria, Ana Maria’s son, and probably several others, yet to be identified nephews, also used their Uncle Francesco’s address in Philadelphia as their official destination in America.  Tiny street…tiny house…important destination.

Around 1914, Michael and Kate bought the building at the corner of South Mildred and Bainbridge, about 100 feet up the street, and opened a grocery store.  After Michael died, Kate moved back to 712 S. Mildred St. after she had it renovated.  After Kate died, her daughter’s family moved in.  They lived there until 1996.  There were Ambruso’s living at 712 South Mildred Street in Philadelphia for 100 years.



Philadelphia...Finally!

In presenting the history of the Ambruso Family on this blog, I started with my own branch, the descendants of Rocco Vincenzo Ambruso who settled in the northern New Jersey-New York City area.  Old Rocco had 10 children, so it took a long time for me to get through the family.  It is now time to move on to the Philadelphia Ambruso’s.  As I said previously, two of the sons of Michelarcangelo Ambruso settled in Philadelphia.  Both branches have rich histories and interesting stories, all of which contributed to the wonderful Italian culture of South Philly that exists today. 

Francesco Domenico Ambruso was the oldest son of Michelarcangelo Ambruso and Maria Giuseppa Iula.  He was born in Salandra in 1845.  He was the first Salandra Ambruso to come to America.  He came in the early 1880’s.  It is believed that his wife and three children followed in the mid 1880's.  They came through New York City, but settled in Philadelphia. 

Francesco was one of over 100,000 Italians who made their way to Philadelphia between 1980 and 1930.  During that short period of time, the Italian population of the city grew from under 25,000 to well over 150,000.  A report by the Italian Commission on Emigration says that over 75% of the Italians who were living in Philadelphia in 1901 were from four regions in southern Italy:  Abruzzi, Calabria, Campania and Basilicata.  Ward 4, just south of South Street was the center of Italian immigration from about 1885 to 1910.  Eventually, Italian immigrants spread further south and west to the familiar South Philly Italian neighborhoods we know today.  But in period betwee 1890 and 1900, the Italian immigrant population of Philadelphia was centered in the neighborhood between 6^th and 10^th Streets on the east and west; and Bainbridge and Washington Streets on the north and south.  This is where Francesco lived. 

Francesco’s two sons Michele and Leonardo came to Philadelphia around 1885 with their mother and sister.  In 1898, Michele (Michael) married Caterina DiBiase in Philadelphia.  The next year, his brother Leonardo married Maria Isabella Gentile.  All three families lived on a narrow alley named South Mildred Street.  Like Harrison Avenue in Garfield, NJ, “Uncle Frank’s house” on Mildred Street was to become the destination for all the Salandra Ambruso’s coming to Philadelphia and elsewhere in America.

In October of 1900, Francesco’s brother Giuseppe Maria Ambruso came to the United Stated from Salandra with his two grown sons, Michele and Eugenio.  They stated on the ship’s manifest that they were going to Uncle Francesco’s house on Mildred St. in Philadelphia.  Giuseppe and his family started the second branch of the Ambruso clan from Salandra to settle in America.

In subsequent postings, I will present all the information I have on both Philadelphia branches of the Ambruso Family. I will start with posts on Francesco’s branch, and then move to Giuseppe’s branch.  This is an invitation for all descendants of both Philadelphia branches to send me any facts and stories you have on your Ambruso ancestors.  Now is the time to speak up.  All of us will appreciate your stories and family memories.

Marriages & Families - Diana and Vincent Angiulli

The tenth and final child of Rocco Ambruso and Pasquarosa Corrado was born in Salandra in 1908.  She was officially named Decima Ascencione Maria Ambruso.  It was always said that they ran out of names so the eighth child was named Ottavia and the tenth was named Decima.  According to the microfilm of the original Salandra birth notice from the Mormon archives, this turns out to be true.  She never used the name Decima, but chose to use Diana instead.  We always knew of her as Aunt Tina, pronounced: “Antyna”.  She was my godmother.

Diana Ambruso remained single until she was 36 years old.  She was a talented seamstress and on the 1940 census declared an income that was pretty impressive for a woman at that time.  She made fancy women’s dresses and wedding gowns.  She married Vincent Angiulli in Long Island City, Queens New York in June of 1944.  Vince came to America from Gravina in Puglia, a commune in the province of Bari, right on the border of Basilicata, just north of Salandra.  He worked for an ice and coal delivery company.  They had one child, John, born in 1945, named after Vincent's father.

Marriages & Families - Ottavia and Nicholas Sassano

Lucia Ottavia Francesca Ambruso was born in Salandra in 1903.  She came to America with her brother, sisters and mother in 1923 and went to the Bonelli house in Garfield, NJ.  She married Nicola (Nicholas) Sassano at Our Lady of Mount Virgin Church in Garfield in July of 1925.  The church record mentions that they were also married in a civil ceremony about a month earlier.  Nicholas was born in Salandra in 1904, and came to the USA in 1920.  He must have known Ottavia from Salandra.  Nicholas was living in Queens, New York at the time, so they moved there after the wedding.  He worked as a cabinetmaker.  They never had any children.



Marriages & Families - Anthony and Justina Graziadei

Justina Ambruso was born in Salandra in 1901.  Her birth record (Atti de Nascita) shown above, lists her official given name was Giustina Clorinda Ambruso.  The name Clorinda is very rare.  I haven't run into any other person with that name in my Salandra research. I have no idea of its origin or why she was given this middle name. 

This document also lists a few other interesting bits of information.  The occupation, or position, of her father, Rocco, is given as “possidente”, or landowner, not the common “contadina”, or peasant farmer that is seen on most Salandra birth records.  This shows that Rocco must have owned some land and had some wealth.

Like her sisters, Mary, Angelina and Ottavia, Justina married a man from her hometown of Salandra.  Anthony (Antonio Vincente) Graziadei was born in Salandra in 1894.  He and Justina were married in Brooklyn, NY in 1929.  They settled in Queens and Anthony worked at the legendary Palter DeLiso shoe company on Broadway in Manhattan.  They had two daughters: Isabella, born in 1931; and Rose, born in 1933.  My guess is that both of Tony's daughters always wore very fashionable shoes.

Marriages & Families - John and Angelina Iula

 

Angelina Ambruso was born in Salandra in 1900.  She came to the United States with her brother Nick, three sisters and her mother in 1922.  She married John Iula at Our Lady of Mount Virgin Church in Garfield in September of 1925.  John was also from Salandra.  He was born there in 1897.  It is reasonable to believe that he knew Angelina in Salandra, since the village was so small.  John came to the United States in 1920, returned to Italy and then came back to the USA in 1924.  John was a tailor and was residing in Camden, NJ.  The Iula’s moved to Camden after they got married.  In 1926 they had a son named Frank after John’s father.  Then a daughter was born in 1928 who was named Angela after John’s mother.  In 1931, Angelina and John had a third child they named Esther after Angelina’s mother. 

Angelina died young in 1934.  John, now a widower, returned to Salandra and married a woman named Elena Pira.  She came to the United States in 1937, and had a child with John that they named Theresa. 

Astoria Stories

Just after Uncle Nick married Aunt Mary, he bought one half of a brick duplex at 33-48 29^th Street in Astoria, Queens, New York.  The house had four separate apartments, one large one and 3 smaller ones.  Nick’s sister’s Helen and Diana, and his mother, Pasquarosa, also moved in to the house with him.  Since "Nonna" Pasquarosa lived there, it was the natural gathering place for all the members of the Ambruso clan.  However, it also remained the focal point of family gatherings for years after her death.  Astoria is the source of many memories.  Everyone in the family has their own remembrances of the place.

My personal memories are from when I was a young boy, so they are a bit fuzzy.  I do remember the echoes in the cold hallway with a marble floor.  I remember skinny Aunt Helen crushing me with her hug, even though I outweighed her.   I remember the smell of spaghetti dinners served on saw horse tables in the basement; with the food sent down from the kitchen by a dumb waiter.   I remember the atmosphere being very, very Italian, quite different from my own home with a fully Americanized mother and a Dutch-English father. 

All of us have memories of Astoria.  Here’s one sent by Millie Saraco Osuna:

“When my cousins and I were little we used to spend our vacations at Uncle Nick´s place in Astoria. He owned the building, so we had use of the whole place. On sunny summer days we played to our heart´s content in the long driveway and small back yard.  Grandma Esther (Nonna) was sent out with all her mending and to keep an eye on us. Aunt Helen, that angel fallen from Heaven, was very careful to keep us well fed and well nourished. At midmorning (10 am) she would blow her little whistle and we all would run to the kitchen window where she would lower a basket with a rope containing six glasses of “juice of the day” and a snack.  Aunt Helen provided a different juice each day. We loved it. Then we could play for the rest of the morning.  At noon she would blow her whistle again and we all ran into the house, washed our hands and sat down to a succulent lunch.  In the afternoon a snack basket lowering, similar to the morning ritual, took place at exactly four o’ clock.  This time we had a glass of milk and another snack.   Some of Aunt Helen’s healthy food rituals were not as much fun.  After supper we all had to line up for a large tablespoon of cod liver oil.  Aunt Helen would hold our nose, pour the oil down our throat and Uncle Nick was standing right behind with a slice of orange.  Esther Iula was the worse one.  Uncle Nick had to chase her all over the house and bring her to the kitchen where Aunt Helen was patiently waiting with the spoon.”

I encourage you to use the comments section following this post to tell about your own experiences of Astoria.  Or just send me an e-mail and I’ll write it up on the blog.