LEE — When Lawrence Buffoni thinks about growing up in Lee’s Little Italy, he describes it as “one big family.”
Buffoni, 93, is one of the last original residents still living in Lee’s Little Italy. His home at 40 Lois St. sits in an area that includes all of Lois and Margerie streets and part of Old Pleasant Street. His memories of the area are joyful — he played with other children and found community, something that he says has faded over time.
“There’s nobody else,” Buffoni said. “They’re all gone. In fact, I don’t know who the hell the neighbors are anymore.”
Although Lawrence Buffoni noted the change in community and number of children on the street, he mostly reminisced about his childhood on the street, sledding, playing ball and having the entire community be his family.
NATE HARRINGTON — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Buffoni’s connection to Lee’s Little Italy began with his parents — Marco and Dianna — who were from Tuscany and immigrated first to Marble, Colo., before settling in Lee just after the turn of the century. They first bought a home in the neighborhood before the family purchased a lot across the street and built a home on it, Buffoni said.
The Buffonis were among roughly 40 families who helped establish and build Lee’s Little Italy. The Lee Historical Commission recently contracted Barrett Planning Group to produce a study on the area, revealing the dense history that turned an area with little to no development before 1904 into a vibrant immigrant community.
The study cost $16,000, funded by Community Preservation Act funding, a program that sets aside real estate excise tax for specific purposes like historical conservation.
Many immigrants in the neighborhood worked in Lee’s lime kilns and marble quarry, where marble was extracted for projects including the Washington Monument and headstones at Arlington National Cemetery.
All the plots within the blue line are considered to be part of Lee’s Little Italy, according to Jennifer Doherty, the preservation planner who produced the study. Of the 40 homes in the area, 30 were built between 1904 and 1920.
PROVIDED BY JENNIFER DOHERTY
About 75 percent of homes in the area were built before 1920, which is when Buffoni said his father built their family home. Buffoni was born in that house, becoming the youngest of nine siblings. His siblings were much older, leaving Buffoni as the only child still living at home — but that did not diminish his childhood, he said.
“One of my friends was like a brother to me,” he said. “I’d walk into his house, he’d walk into mine, no big deal.”
That friendship wasn’t shared just between Buffoni and the kids in the area.
The Buffoni family home at 40 Lois St. was home to Lawrence Buffoni. He said the area, which was mostly settled by Italian immigrants, was one big family.
NATE HARRINGTON — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
“My neighbors used to come up every morning and talk to my mother and have a coffee,” Buffoni said. “Every damn morning.”
It was a tight community, he said, where if a resident had a problem, another neighbor would be there to help.
“They didn’t ask any questions, it was automatic,” Buffoni added.
Buffoni’s father also made wine that he shared with the community. The wine press he used is still in the basement, Buffoni said.
But the residents who built that community — and gave Lee its Little Italy — have gradually died, including Buffoni’s parents. After they passed away, Buffoni bought his childhood home, where he still lives today, likely making him one of the last surviving resident of the neighborhood that once was.
Lois Street was one of two streets almost entirely settled by Italian immigrants in the early-20th century. It was the street Lawrence Buffoni’s parents would settle on as his father began working in local quarries and mills.
NATE HARRINGTON — THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE
Much has changed in the neighborhood since Buffoni was a child. The steep hill where he and other neighborhood children once went sledding is no longer safe, he said, with cars now speeding by “90 miles an hour.”
Still, Buffoni didn’t dwell on what had changed. More often than not, he smiled as he reminisced about the childhood he spent on the street.
“All those kids? That was something else. We’d be playing ball in the street, sledding down hills.” he said. “In those days, we were all kids. God, we had a lot of good times.”