My instincts are usually good. On a recent march down East 12th Street I snapped a photo of Father Mancini Corner at Avenue A. It turns out that this sign is a portal into a former Italian microcosm in the East Village, since it turns out that here used to be a former Italian enclave. As often happens, the restaurants are often the last to go and indeed, the East Village still has John’s Restaurant which I included on FNY’s 12th Street page as well as Russo Pasta Shop on East 11th and Lanza’s restaurant on 1st Avenue; sadly, the DeRobertis Caffe on 1st didn’t make it.
Had I walked East 12th before 2012, I would have passed Our Lady Help of Christians Roman Catholic Church at #482 East 12th, the center of Italian worship in these parts. The church was completed in 1917 and founded by the Salesians of St. John Bosco (who also made one heck of a glass of chocolate milk.) The basilica-like edifice was based on a real basilica of the same name in Turin.
Father Virginio Mancini was a longtime parish priest at Mary Help of Christians from 1949 to 1986 and was so revered that the sign went up before the church came down. Famed Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day worshiped at OLHOC and even Beat poet Alan Ginsburg mentioned it favorably in his work.
After 2007, dwindling congregations led to the parish’s demise and the church came down, and the somewhat nondescript condo building went up. When I walked East 12th, I didn’t give it a second glance…till I found out what it had replaced.
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2/15/22
7 comments
I was surprised recently to find out that Bosco is still around.My mother stopped buying
it because as kids we were always OD’ing on the stuff.
Cocoa Marsh eventually bit the dust though.
A Quik boy, me.
Never realized there was an Italian presence there. My Ukrainian family lived on 4th near Ave. A, and back in that time, it seemed that everything there was Ukrainian and
Polish—the restaurants (Odessa, Leshko’s, Ukrainian Home), the Ukkrainian Gift Shop (Surma) the local funeral home etc. etc. As you mention, the restaurants are the last to go–but two out of those three are gone.
This block has a very long Roman Catholic history.
On the site of Open Road Park there was a Catholic cemetery in the 19th century.
You can still purchase BOSco from the Vermont Country Store. It wasn’t the Bosco I remembereed from my childhood. Mid Century Advertising FB group
has posted several Bosco ads reminding us how it was supposed to be for growing children.
that’s how beneficial it was supposed to be for healthy growing children
And who can forget “Mama Mancinis’ meat balls’ giving Loe Jacvobi problems until he took some Alka-Seltzer.