Little Italy

Beginning in the early 1900s, the area directly to the east housed numerous emigrants. Many moved here from Italy with hopes to build better lives. Some worked in the lumber mills and railroad yards that bordered the lake. In the process, they created a community of over 140 homes, lush gardens, thriving businesses, community social centers, and Catholic schools and churches. In the 1960s this area became the center of Vermont's largest urban renewal project. The final home was razed in 1968. Displaced families were scattered into the outskirts of Burlington. In place of this once vibrant family neighborhood stands a dynamic downtown district, internationally known as a social and economic center of Vermont.