Looking at Boston's North End neighborhood today, one can see signs mainly of its most recent group of immigrants-the Italians. From its "spaghetti-inspired city planning" to its myriad Italian restaurants. As one writer states, "The North End is Boston's oldest residential neighborhood now home to many Italian immigrants, but formerly the home of nearly every population at some time since being established in the 1630s" (Olson n.d.). Another writer declares, "If Boston is the most European of American cities, then the North End is undoubtedly Boston's most Italian of neighborhoods" (Gaffin 2008). Adam Gaffin describes the Italianate essence of the neighborhood today:
Walk along its narrow, curving streets and catch quick glances of hidden courtyards and flower-bedecked fire escapes. Listen to the animated Italian conversations of the retired gentlemen sitting outside the Caffe dello Sport. Breathe in the scent of the nearby sea - when you're not taking in the scent of garlic or olive oil from the seemingly inexhaustible supply of restaurants.
The North End has undergone an evolution through many years and many ethnic groups, however, culminating in the Italian-Americans. This paper will trace the history of the North End's immigrant population from 1877 through 1960, ending with the now-ubiquitous Italian-American influence in the neighborhood.
The character of Boston's North End may be definitively Italian now, but it has "welcomed wave after wave of immigrants" through the centuries since its inception, including the "English, then African-Americans, Irish, Polish and Russian Jews, and finally Italians," who have "fashioned the neighbourhood and given it layers of character" (Boston 2007). In 1877, the neighborhood was just past a 30-year influx of Irish during which more than 1 million Irish immigrants arrived in America, with Boston being "a major destination" and the North End neighborhood "...