Last of the red, white, and green: Henry Grasso, Co. Inc., Larimer Ave.
There’s a scene early on in Striking Distance where police captain Nick Detillo (Dennis Farina in full cop mustache and salt-and-pepper wave) downplays his career aspirations. Asked by Bruce Willis’ Detective Tom Hardy if he’s bucking for advancement in the force, Detillo responds humbly, “Not me kid. I’m just a Larimer Avenue dago.” [Please pardon the ethnic slur. We’re quoting–and it’s important to the story.]
Writer, director, and Pittsburgh native Rowdy Herrington peppered the movie’s dialog and mise en scène with local references, so it’s no surprise the Italian-American Detillo clan gets fleshed-out with a nod to the old neighborhood. But why not choose one of the more obvious Little Italys–say, Bloomfield, Panther Hollow, or South Oakland?
Who’s the best cop? Dennis Farina as Capt. Nick Detillo in “Striking Distance”
In record geek terms, it’s a deep cut–one that Rowdy Herrington gets much respect for including.
Dennis Farina was born in Chicago in 1944. Like every other member of the Striking Distance cast, he made no attempt to replicate a Pittsburgh accent for the movie–but the dates line up. From the early part of the 20th Century until some time in the 1960s, Larimer was the Little Italy for Pittsburgh. A neighborhood with any random block holding a majority of Italian surnames; the location where The Italian Sons and Daughters of America was formed; an enclave hosting the Pittsburgh Italian Hospital. [Yes: that was thing–it’s now a vacant lot at the corner of Paulson and Maxwell.] It is entirely likely that the fictional Detillo family could have all grown up in Larimer.
The amateur anthropologists and wanna-be archeologists of Pittsburgh Orbit like any challenge that invites bicycle-based poking down alleys and remorseless nebbing into empty retail windows. We set out with the loose goal of seeing what–if any–traces of Detillo-era, Italian-American Larimer we could still find today.
Larimer, 1924. Map detail of two blocks between Larimer Ave. and Ashley St., Mayflower and Meadow. [source: G.M. Hopkins Company Maps]
By our count, there are exactly two extant businesses in the neighborhood that date from the old days. Henry Grasso’s Italian foods shop on Larimer Ave. (see photo, top) is still, as the sign says, original manufacturers of the Italian sausage and capicollo. Dressed for the part in the red, white, and green colors of the Italian flag, Grasso’s is the picture of an old American neighborhood butcher/grocer you’ll see few other places.
On the other side of the neighborhood, Stagno’s Bakery no longer staffs their retail storefront, and the corner of Auburn and Lowell suffers for it. But they’re very much still baking up Italian bread in their two big cinderblock buildings. You’ll find the product on bakery shelves and restaurant bread baskets all over the city. [Side note: one of Stagno’s old blue delivery vans even gets a cameo in the Striking Distance chase scene. Coincidence?]
Still making bread…just not selling retail. Stagno’s Bakery, Auburn Street.
The former Our Lady Help of Christians still stands on the corner of Meadow and Turrett Streets. With its attached school building, the massive Roman-Catholic church basically takes up an entire city block and reaches four or five stories into the sky.
Built in 1897 (rebuilt 1905), Our Lady Help is a crumbling beauty. The multiple copper domes remain, gleaming in even the dappled sunlight of last weekend, but since the church closed in 1992, a crew has clearly gone through and stripped anything of value. The stained glass, statuary, and thick oak doors are all gone, replaced with temporary protective plywood. Ivy climbs the exterior walls and weeds have breached the joints in the stone front stairs. Perhaps inevitable, a blue condemned notice is stapled to the front door. Sigh.
(former) Our Lady Help of Christians Roman-Catholic Church, Meadow Street
The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh’s page on Our Lady Help details the deep Italian roots of the church:
Our Lady Help of Christians was established in 1898 as an Italian parish. The origin of the parish can be traced to the rise of immigrants from Italy in the late nineteenth century. In 1895 the Italian Franciscan Fathers were invited to come to Pittsburgh. They took charge of the Italian parish in the Hill District, St. Peter. In 1894, the Italian residents of the East Liberty area petitioned the bishop for permission to form their own parish. This petition was denied. To meet the needs of the East Liberty Italians, the pastor of St. Peter began visiting the area to celebrate Mass. The first Mass for Italians celebrated in East Liberty took place in February of 1895 in the school hall of Ss. Peter and Paul parish. From that point, a Mass was celebrated almost monthly for the Italians.
There are a lot of reasons why (local) Catholic churches are having a hard time. Overall, Pittsburgh has lost half its population and people just don’t attend mass like they did in the old days. And then there’s the whole, horrific priest sex abuse (and cover-up) business.
But when a entire congregation this large relocates to the suburbs of Penn Hills and Plum, Forest Hills and Churchill, the Latin scripture reads pretty clear on the old plaster walls.
Ghost sign for former Fiore’s Home Dressed Meats (now State Senator Ferlo’s local office), Larimer Ave.
Beyond this handful of obvious touchstones, we’re really left grasping at straws.
Vacant lots outnumber buildings on Larimer Avenue today, but there are may be a dozen surviving retail storefronts on the old main drag. One of these features a ghost sign for Fiore’s Home Dressed Meats, but that’s really the only clue to what any of the businesses in these pre-war two- and three-story brick buildings once were.
While there’s still plenty of open space in the neighborhood, Larimer’s housing has fared better overall than its commercial structures. There is a particular type of after-market tin-slatted porch and window awning you see all over Pittsburgh (and elsewhere)–we imagine some door-to-door salesman made a killing hawking these in the 1950s.
There’s no way to prove this, but anecdotal evidence points to the popularity of red-and-white (and to a lesser extent, green-and-white) color combos in certain locales. There are still a bunch of these Italian-colored tin awnings throughout Larimer. [Note: You don’t have to tell this blogger–you want us to cry over tin awnings? No: but it’s all I got.]
It’s a stretch, but the red-and-white awning with a green paint job look familiar. [Bonus points for the pair of old-school aerial antennas!]
I’m telling you, the Orbitmobile criss-crossed Larimer a dozen times, rolling down every street and just about every alleyway coming and going. In those rides, we spotted exactly one extant front yard Mary outside a unique frame house that appears to at one time have been a pair of separate, conjoined buildings.
Possibly the last front yard Mary in Larimer?
That home, on a short dead-end of the aptly named Orphan Street, is at a little horn-shaped peninsula forming the very northeast corner of Larimer. In front of the house, the steep drop-off down to Washington Blvd.; behind, dense greenery all the way over to Highland Park.
We don’t know who lives here–if they’re black or white, hard core Catholic or just enjoy a quirky lawn ornament–but this little icon living on the most precarious of properties feels very much like the last representative of a disappeared people.
Times and places change, people move on–these are unalterable truths. But it’s comforting to think that if Nick Detillo were to make it back to the old neighborhood today, he could still get a pound of capicollo from Henry Grosso and still say a prayer to Mary.
Pittsburgh Orbit 
Great write up,
If memory serves correctly (and I didn’t retain much), I believe I learned in 12 years of Catholic School (+Kindergarten) that when a diocese closes down a parish, there’s certain rites and policies that must be followed for decommissioning. Essentially preventing another sect from coming in and making use of Catholic iconography. While a lot of old churches get picked over by scrap thieves, I wouldn’t be surprised if the diocese went in and took all the proper things before closing down the parish in question.
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I expect you’re right. While vandals/thieves might take certain (literal) low-level things, it would take a major operation to remove giant stained glass windows and third-floor statuary.
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I remember the bocci ball court on Larimer and taking calligraphy lessons from the nuns at the church. I hung out across from McCabe funeral home and we bought fireworks to sell out of the basement of the house next to the bridge going over to highland park.
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this makes me so sad. When I think about growing up in Pittsburgh these are my memories!Daddy took his 5 children to mass at Help of Christians 12 o’clock mass every Sunday until we were married and moved on our own. When Father Kenneth and Father Gratian came to our church the became close family friends. Fr.FGratian would call and tell my mother,
“Send one of the blondes down to pick me up, I’m coming for dinner!” She would laugh and me or Vonnie would go get Father. He always had his latest record album or albums under his arm as he got in the car. Look and my new additions! He was so funny and the greatsest priest I have ever met. We could ask them anything and sometimes my mother would blush at our questons or conversations because we covered EVEYTHING! They answered us and asked their own questions and our opinions about various things (dating, what we thought were sins or not, and anyting else we wanted to talk about.) Nothing was excluded and I think we all learned a lot from each other. They were a rare breed and we loved them dearly.These are my veery fond memories of Our Lady of Help of Christian Church!
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Thank you for sharing, Jackie–those are wonderful memories!
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Do you remember when Father Frank Pezzulo came back to the parish?
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My wife thought “Family Priests” was a weird thing. To Protestants, it may seem weird, but to us, it was a sign of Pride.
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This house belongs to Angeline Iezzi.
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That last house is perfect for this article. If only the writer knew who lived there. An older Italian lady who lived there for years and refuses to leave!
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Yes that is Angeline Iezzi, our grandma house She is 91 years tough and not planning on moving anywhere soon. Her mind is great. She can tell you a lot of good old stories. She only has problems hearing. I am sure she would love to share them.
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Maybe someone needs to record all her stories and you could share them.I wish my mother was still alive so I could record her and her stories!
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I think my dad had a restaurant called The Meadow grill before I was born in Larimer .
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Is stag is bakery still there
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Stagno’s Bakery is still in the neighborhood, but they don’t sell retail anymore.
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We ate there in the early 70’s. I think it was called The New Meadow Grill back then.
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if they served tripe he did and i know the name Minutello , mine is Gus Ellis
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I just saw this and needed to respond. My Name is August (Gus) Ellis the 3rd. My grand father was Big Gus the chief of police and then police inspector of that area. My father was also August Gus Ellis jr. born at home on Meadow st. later to own The Embers Lounge in East Liberty. My mother use to take me for special occasions to the Meadow st grill for my favorite food Tripe. My farther played soft ball In the play ground on Larimer while catching a ground ball with out his glove then throwing it to home plate he tore his thumb off dis locating it from its joint. My grand father had a shot out on that street with robbers and if I’m not mistaken he got shot during it. I think the house with the red aluminum awning was my grand fathers. I am now 73 and this page brought back so many memories good and bad. thank you
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What a great article. My father’s family was from Larimer Avenue and my brother once had a private club called The Marvy Athletic Club at 711 Larimer Avenue. I remember going to the Meadow Grill, Moio’s Italian Pastry, Stagnos bakery, DeRosa Funeral home, Labriola Italian market and of course Our Lady Help of Christian Church. Great memories.
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Dilworth: 1954-56. OLHC: 1956-57. Sscred Heartz:1958-59. Stanton Ave. Across from Italian Victory Gardrns
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Help of Christians Church was beautiful in every which way. Just its prescience was like no other. I felt very sad when heard it was torn down but it will live forever in the hearts it touched.
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Does anyone know anything about the Larimar Ave Pharmacy? Or better yet, have a picture of it. Last time we drove through the area there was very little left of anything. Also does anyone have any info or a photo of the old Italian Belvedere Hospital on Paulson Ave ?
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