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Seventh Avenue is a North Ward neighborhood of Newark, New Jersey. It was famously the heart of the city's large Little Italy.
The center of Italian life in Seventh Avenue was St. Lucy's church, founded by Italian immigrants in 1891. The church still exists and has a large feast of St. Gerard every October.
Joe DiMaggio loved the restaurants of Seventh Avenue so much that he would take the Yankees to Newark to show them "real Italian food." Frank Sinatra had bread from Giordano's bakery sent to him every week until his death, no matter where in the world he was.
One of the nation's largest Italian newspapers, The Italian Tribue, was founded in Seventh Avenue. Seventh Avenue produced stars like Connie Francis, Joe Pesci, and Frankie Vale of the Four Seasons.
Seventh Avenue was notoriously devastated by urban renewal efforts of the 1950's. Eight Avenue, which was the greatest commercial street of the neighborhood, was literally obliterated. The Christopher Columbus homes were never in harmony with the neighborhood and were eventually abandoned and demolished. The construction of I-280 was also harmful.
Some of Seventh Avenue's Italians stayed in the neighborhood, others migrated to other Newark neighborhoods like Broadway, the Ironbound - the majority left Newark altogether. The dispersion of the neighborhood was inevitable, but it was surely accelerated by the misguided policies of the 1950s.
Today the neighborhood has people of all ethnic groups, with Puerto Ricans being prominent. There are, however, many signs of the old neighborhood. There are several Italian restaurants and bakeries - next to a vacant lot, Giordano's is still flourishing at 33 Seventh Avenue.
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