The West Side of Stamford, Connecticut, also known as Richmond Hill, is one of the oldest sections in the state of Connecticut. It is located north of the Waterside neighborhood, west of Downtown and east of Greenwich, Connecticut. The different sections of the West Side including Vidal Court, Fairfield Court (recently demolished), Spruce Street(The Renaissance building, the Trinity, & MLK Building), Connecticut Avenue, Friendship Building and Southwood Square (formally known as Southfield Village).
The West Side of Stamford is generally the area immediately west of Downtown Stamford, covering the area north of Interstate 95 between the Greenwich town line and the Rippowam River. The northern boundary is commonly taken as West Broad Street and Palmers Hill Road. Another version of the boundaries of the West Side has it located between Stillwater Avenue, Broad Street, West Main Street and West Avenue up to Exit 6 Interstate 95.[1] The West Side of Stamford, along with the South End, are considered the city's more dangerous and crime-filled neighborhoods. The West Side has been a center for drug and gang-related violence for many years. However, in recent years an effort from the city and the police department has lowered the crime rate of the West Side and has made it a much safer place to live and work.
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"Stamford had ranked as one of the country's safest cities three years running. Breaking-and-entering rates were low, and violent stats were negligible, except for the West Side, which had always been a sinkhole as far as O'Shea was concerned. That's where the gangs went at each other over drug turf. Semiautomatics floated around those parts. You saw a few drive-bys. But as long as they were killing only each other, the city's feathers didn't get ruffled. The department knew the precise coordinates of where that mess began and ended. Stillwater, Main, West Broad, and West Avenue. The rectangle of refuse and at the center was Vidal Court. They kept it contained. Officers got calls to go in there, they kept their hands on their holsters and knew they might see blood."
The West Side has a large Italian American population, but much less than in the past. After World War II and the emergence of Italian-Americans from the working class, African Americans became a larger presence, and more recently Haitian Americans and non-white Hispanics have moved to the neighborhood. The Roman Catholic Sacred Heart Church on Schuyler Avenue in the neighborhood was built for Italian-Americans in the early twentieth century at a time when Roman Catholic Churches were organized for groups by national origin.
Many Italian-Americans in the neighborhood in the Twentieth century immigrated from Minturno, Italy and communities near it. The Minturnese Social Club, founded in 1939 and only made up of members whose families hailed from Minturno, had 120 members in 2007. A Minturnese tradition, the Festa de la Regna ("Festival of Wheat") celebration of harvest day and honoring the Madonna delle Grazie, is still honored with an annual procession. On July 8, 2007 the procession was held on Stephen Street after a Mass said in Italian at the Sacred Heart Church. The procession included women in traditional black and white dresses, a float with miniature palm treas, a stuffed rooster, sheaves of wheat and an Italian flag, a marching band, a woman in red, white and green traditional dress with a sheaf of wheat and men carrying a yellow throne with a portrait of the Maddona delle Grazie.[2]
Another group of Italians in Stamford, came here from Settefrati, Italy. They also have a Social Club located on 23 Virgil Street, in Stamford, CT. The Settefratese tradition in Stamford is to have a Mass for their Patron Saint, La Madonna di Canneto, followed by Sagne e Fagioli at the Club.
Stamford Hospital with a campus of more than 10 acres (40,000 m2), is the largest institution in the neighborhood[3], the Yerwood Community Center is located in West Stamford, as is Lione Park, and the Westover Elementary School. The public E. Gaynor Brennan Golf Course is to the north
The New Covenant House soup kitchen, established in 1978, is in the neighborhood and is the only soup kitchen set up to help people in Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan and Darien. Run by Catholic Charities of Fairfield County, the soup kitchen provides daily hot meals and extreme nourishment to the homeless.[4]
Pellicci's Italian restaurant has been located at the same address on Stillwater Avenue since 1947. The family-owned restaurant is known for unpretentious, old-fashioned Italian cooking. Joe DiMaggio, Nancy Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Walter Cronkite have all dined there. The eatery sells more than 1,000 pounds of baked chicken a week.[5]
The Stamford Fire Rescue Department's Fire Station # 3 serves the neighborhood.
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