From the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library archives:
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The James Street area, or ‘Little Italy’, in the old west end, located adjacent to the Algoma Steel Plant, was a busy and thriving community in the early 1900s.
It was home to many of the immigrant families coming from Italy to work at the rapidly growing steel plant.
With 40 or more vendors, mostly family-owned and run, it became an example of typical life in Italy.
According to an Oral History interview with the retired Superior Court Justice Ray Stortini, “...the James Street area was a great place to be raised because you couldn’t do anything wrong because people would tell your parents. They knew you. They’d say ‘I’m going to tell your mother,’ if you didn’t behave. It was like a collective village that raised the children. Everybody I knew who lived through that era looks on it as an advantage. It was unusual and it was very fulfilling to be raised in that community.”
This neighbourhood was a self-contained community with schools, churches and businesses to cater to all of a family’s daily needs.
The proximity of the steel plant meant that they could walk to their jobs for their scheduled shifts and conduct all of their daily shopping without leaving the area.
According to the City Directory from 1910-11, popular businesses included: K. Diamond & Co Clothing, Hussey, Drury & Co Butchers and Palumbo & Paris General Store.
By 1919-1920, other businesses had opened including: Tarmontini Bros Butchers, Imperial Bank of Canada, International Exchange & Steamship Lines Agency, Grassi Drug Co, Algoma Dry Goods and West End Co-Operative Society General Store.
As automobiles became more popular in the Sault there was a need for garages and gas stations.
In 1919, the James Street Garage owned by Alex Greco was built at the corner of Cathcart and James Streets.
Throughout the years many businesses came and went with one mainstay, James Street Hardware which is now known as Spadoni’s Furniture.
According to the Spadoni’s Furniture website the original Spadoni’s dates back to 1918 when it’s founder Adolfo Spadoni (with then partner, Biocchi) opened a hardware store and later added a bicycle repair shop on the corner of Cathcart and James Streets.
Several years later Spadoni purchased the neighbouring building at 185 James Street and the James Hardware and Furniture Company continued to operate from this expanded site for approximately 80 years.
What happened to this thriving community?
West end businessmen blamed the removal, in 1958, of the Highline Bridge, which connected James Street and Bay View, for the demise of the James Street business district.
Urban renewal efforts in the 1960s and 1970s failed.
According to a Sault Star article from July 1970, a James Street Mall had been planned that would have included senior citizen units and a rejuvenated business area west of the CPR tracks to try and attract people back to the area but people were moving into other newly developing areas of the city by this point.
In more recent years, James Street continues to be home to the Soup Kitchen Community Centre and a few other businesses including Spadoni’s Furniture, operated by Adolfo Spadoni’s grandson.
In 2011, Stortini approached Algoma University with a study idea using the James Street area.
Students were expected to generate ideas about what they thought would make the area change for the better.
Sixty-five business and geography students did a preliminary study to revitalize James Street.
The students' redevelopment ideas were made public at a community forum held the following year but none of the ideas have been implemented at present.
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Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provides SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.
Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more Remember This? columns here.