By GinaMarie Gabrielle Piane

It was 1980; Granma, Mom and Dad, Karen and Rich were at my condo near DePaul University in Chicago playing Trivial Pursuit, the question was “Which president was assassinated in 1901?” Karen is one of my older sisters and Rich is her husband. Granma said, “McKinley, I remember, le Signore told me when it happened.” She was referring to Jane Addams coming into her kindergarten room to tell the children that the president had been assassinated. At this point, I decided that I needed to learn more about this woman who held my face in both her hands and gave me squeaky kisses. Read more…

What is the ethnic history of Chicago’s Taylor Street?

Answer: Jane Addams labeled the community as “The Hull House Neighborhood.” One of the first newspaper articles ever written about Hull House (Chicago Tribune, May 1890) acknowledges the following invitation sent to the residents of the “Hull House Neighborhood.” It begins with the following salutation: “Mio Carissimo Amici”…and is signed, Le Signorine, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr. Read more…

I’m confused. Why would anyone remove a brief section on the composition of the emigrants that constituted the Hull House Neighborhood. If, as you say, this is an article solely about Jane Addams and not Hull House, then why do you have a subtitle, “Hull House?” Jane Addams and Hull House are bonded forever with the social laboratory that constituted the Hull House Neighborhood. I’m going to put back those 3 sentences and let a higher power decide. –Vromano (talk) 13:25, 29 March 2009 (UTC). Read more…

The most important criticism is the failure to reference the symbiotic relationship that existed between Hull House and the residents of “The Hull House Neighborhood.” Quoting the Taylor Street Archives: UIC: Flawed Hustory, Taylor Street’s Little Italy was the laboratory upon which the Hull House elite had tested their theories and formulated their challenges to the establishment. Read more…

By Vince Romano

September 2006

By Matt Piechalak:  UIC Chicago Flame

September 25, 2006

Slicing through the heart of UIC ‘s east campus is Taylor Street. Yet, few remaining residents still refer to this heart as the place once proudly called ‘Little Italy. ‘ Today, an effort is underway to preserve the memories of this once Italian-American neighborhood with the introduction of the Taylor Street Archives. Read more…

By Vince Romano

August 28, 2007

On August 28, 2007, Florence Scala, Chicago’s legendary Taylor Street activist, died. Upon the passing of Florence Scala, Derrick Blakely of TVs CBS 2 News, reported:

“She was fearless!  She spoke for a neighborhood that she believed didn’t have to die. She spoke for the people! Who she was most hurt by were what she called the good people, the board of directors of Hull House, the Hull House mob, which encouraged Daley to go ahead and destroy the neighborhood. She thought they were the ones that really betrayed the people of the neighborhood.”

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There was more than one dimension to Bobby Garippo. Let me quickly recall some of them and get on with that dimension many among us knew best. Like so many of his friends here today, Bobby Garippo’s identity was forged by the neighborhood in which he grew up…its people, bonded by a common heritage,…the streets that became our litmus test… and the institutions that served the Legendary Taylor Street. Those institutions included Dante School, Holy Guardian Angel Church and School, the CYO, Sheridan Park and the Jane Addams’ Hull House.

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