Little Italy, &c. & the Mayor of where-ever

[George Thompson]

I recently took the notion to wonder when neighborhoods primarily occupied by some particular ethnic group were first called "Little Italy" and so forth.  That lead to wondering about the practice of calling a person who is particularly popular or influential in a neighborhood or on a block "the Mayor" of that place: "the Mayor of Little Italy" or "the Mayor of Bleecker street" or the like.

But first, a digression on "Chinatown".  Readex's Early American newspapers had a regrettable penchant for mistaking "Charlestown" for "Chinatown" -- they both begin with a Ch and end with a "town", and as Mr. Readex likes to say, that's close enough for jazz.  There were far fewer false matches in Gale's 19th Century American Newspapers.  But in the end, I couldn't beat the OED's 1857.

1857:   . . . he found that it had mysteriously disappeared, and forthwith accused all Chinatown of the larceny. . . .
        Daily Globe (San Francisco), April 17, 1857,

1861:   Fossil Remains near Chinatown, N. T.  [Nevada Territory; footprints resembling those of a moose, in sandstone; made more than a thousand years ago]
        Daily Evening Bulletin, (San Francisco, CA) Wednesday, November 13, 1861

1886:   Chinatown, that small section embraced by Chatham square, Mott, Pell and Park streets; Little Italy, in Mott, Mulberry and Crosby streets; the Polish Jew quarter, in the region of Ridge and Eldridge streets, east of the Bowery; and, not the least interesting, the negro quarter in the classic shades of Thompson street, and extending round about into Bleecker, Mercer, South Fifth avenue and Greene.
        The Washington Post, August 15, 1886. p. 6, cols. ?-?

I found "the Mayor of Chinatown" from the late 1870s, but it seems that he really was elected to his position, which evidently was as spokesman for the community.  Probably Chuck Connor was the first "Mayor of Chinatown" in the sense I have in mind -- from the mid or late 1890s.

1913:   “CHUCK” CONNORS DIES ON BOWERY; Pneumonia Ends Career of the Famous Chinatown Guide and Inventor of Slang.  WAS SIXTY-FIVE YEARS OLD.  Known as Mayor of Chinatown -- Chinese Merchants Will Give Him a Big Funeral
        New York Times, May 11, 1913, p. 3

Others:
Little Africa:

1885:   The French colony, which is very small compared to that of the Germans, is situated below Washington Square, in and about Bleecker street and very near to "Little Africa," where the colored people reside.
        Dallas Morning News, November 25, 1885, page 6, app. copying an article by George [illegible] Lathrop, published by the St. Louis Republican.

1886:   The Black and Tan is the “toughest,” taking all in all, dive in Little Africa.
        The Washington Post, August 15, 1886. p. 6, cols. ?-?

1886:   Chinatown, that small section embraced by Chatham square, Mott, Pell and Park streets; Little Italy, in Mott, Mulberry and Crosby streets; the Polish Jew quarter, in the region of Ridge and Eldridge streets, east of the Bowery; and, not the least interesting, the negro quarter in the classic shades of Thompson street, and extending round about into Bleecker, Mercer, South Fifth avenue and Greene.
        The Washington Post, August 15, 1886. p. 6, cols. ?-?

Little Italy, of course:

1887:     "Little Italy" The Grave Dangers Threatening New York.  Horrors of the Italian Quarters -- The Cignarale Case Typical -- Cheap Sentimentality.  From a Special Correspondent. Allan Forman.
        Boston Daily Advertiser, July 11, 1887; pg. 8, col. C

1887:   About "Little Italy."  "Mulberry Bend," as Seen by Daylight and Gaslight.  How the Lowest Italian Manage to Eke Out a Microscopic Livelihood -- Places where the Stiletto is often Used.  Filth and Squalor on Every Hand.  [by William E. S. Fales]
        Albuquerque Morning Democrat, July 14 1887, p. 3, cols. 3-4

1890:   ***  Immigration Inspectors Visit "Little Italy."  ***
        The World, April 24, 1890, p. 5, col. 5

There was a French population in NYC from the middle of the 19th C -- it doesn't seem that the French refugees from the troubles of the 1790s formed a community, or neighborhood, nor the French and German refuges from the troubles of the 1830s -- I fished about for a "Little France" or "Little Paris" but didn't find one.
The German enclave was generally named in German: Kleine Deutschland.

"the Mayor of ...." doesn't lend itself to a search of the digitized newspapers and magazines, except by someone with a great deal more patience with those things than I have.  If I stumble on any in reading the newspapers, I'll pass it on.  I am at the moment wallowing in the 1840s, though, which I think is too early.

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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